After a surprisingly good night's sleep next to the trucks, we pay our $4 for a hot shower in the service station (much nicer than it sounds). Foxy orders a big breakfast to share - this is definitely truck driver fodder - two greasy fried eggs, bacon, sausage, some more meat masquerading as steak, and some actually very tasty chips. And toast. Plenty big enough to share!

Ready for the road, we head off down the highway towards Coffs Harbour. On the way, we spot signs for the Big Banana. We'd thought that we'd left all the big fruit in Queensland, so to discover that there are more in New South Wales is obviously a huge relief. PHEW.

This "Big Thing" is the most fully set up as a tourist attraction that we've come across. As it turns out this is the one which started the whole craze (so we know where the blame lies). The Big Banana site has become a mini theme park - water slides, toboggan, mini golf, and even ice skating. We settle for a stroll around the shop (the most banana themed objects ever seen in one place) and a taste test of their Big Banana milkshake, and a banana split (very tasty).

In to Coffs Harbour's CBD for coffee, then on to the Bunker Cartoon Gallery; the biggest collection of cartoons in the Southern Hemisphere, and housed in a WWII bunker. There was an interesting film about the bunker's history to begin (built in 1943 to house radio/communications for the nearby airport), then a wide ranging collection of cartoons from 1850ish to present day. It also included the popular cartoon "Dollar Bill" and jingle used when Australia's currency went metric, which was surprisingly catchy...

"In come the dollars and in come the cents
to replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence.
Be prepared folks when the coins begin to mix
on the 14th of February 1966."

Should you particularly wish to, you can also view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZTeWLA1LAs



After a humous snack, we drive down to the Coffs Harbour marina, and walked across the causeway to Muttonbird Island. This area all felt rather french to us. From the top of the island, Foxy spotted a tugboat on its way into harbour, and made a horn honking motion. The tugboat responded! Very entertaining.

Back to last nights stopover at Halfway Creek again tonight, the scenic route rather than back up the motorway. This was achingly beautiful countryside to drive in, and included entertaining and typically Australian signs at various villages, including "Please slow down. Children ahead. We love them all." We paused in the very Scottish sounding Glenreagh, rather excitedly thinking we'd spotted a 'Big Dingo'. This turned out in fact to be a big golden dog (close enough, I reckon).

Back to our stop, quieter tonight than yesterday, just in time to spot more kangaroos and make pasta pesto before the sun went down.

AB