Myall Lakes to Byron Bay

Saturday 29th November to Tuesday 2nd December

Myall Lakes

On Saturday 29th we arrived in a little known part of Australia called Tea Gardens in the Myall Lakes national park. It was a picturesque little town situated on the banks of a tidal river and lake system frequented by bottle nose dolphins. The morning and afternoon were pretty miserable with the rain we did however find another wild koala in a nearby reserve. We were in the middle of a big storm for 3 hours of the day which of we spent in the van watching a DVD and sleeping whilst the thunder and lighting dominated the skies. Once it cleared up we went looking for dolphins which we spotted on there way down the river with the change in tide. We watched them splash and surface from a distance before disappearing on the lookout for fish, once again there were loads of pelicans about as well. As quickly as the storm had disappeared a new one had arrived and it was amazing to watch it out at sea the dark clouds and sheet lighting illuminating the night’s sky.

The huge storms much have cleared the air cause on Sunday 30th we woke to an amazingly sunny day. We booked onto a river cruise of which we were the only people to do so and spent 2 hours cruising the lakes and waterways. We spotted all kinds of water and sea birds the most spectacular being the white breasted sea eagles standing nearly a mt tall. There were xmas songs on the radio and we were served home made cake with tea and coffee. For we had lunch fish and chips from a local chip shop which wasn’t bad! (Although still looking forward to a portion of Runcorn chips) Before heading off into the national park. We stopped at various points the were more big sand dunes not as spectacular as the ones in New Zealand but still amazing to see, we then spotted 3 wild dingoes. We took the river ferry and a bit of a dirt / unsealed road before meeting back up with the high way. We stopped briefly at the seal rocks before driving a few hundred kms to Port Macquarie arriving not long after dark.

Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbor

The first day of December we spent at the Koala hospital after a look around town. There they take in injured koalas of all ages and rehabilitate them for re-release or give them a home for life if their injuries are to severe. We met a few of them some getting ready for the big wild work and some living the life of luxury due to either burnt hands and feet from bush fires or blindness due to accidents and old age. Next stop was Coffs Harbor and we booked into the same campsite we had stayed on in 2005!

On Tuesday 2nd December we went for walk around Coffs Harbor which was funny as we recognized some of the places we’d been on our previous visit some years before, we stopped at the harbor and got 2 BIG slices of blue eyed cod and 1 kg prawns for the equivalent of 15 quid ($30). We got some weekly supplies before heading to the big banana and having a banana split, we for a water pistol in the shape of a banana, some bananas and other banana memorabilia. After a nosy around the plantation we drove on up to Byron Bay passing the Big prawn on the way!