Coffs Harbour

Sat 25 July… More rain overnight and a rainy start to the day. We have spent the day exploring Coffs Harbour and have come to the conclusion that we only drove through it in 2003, we just remember taking a photo of the Big Banana which is on the outskirts of Coffs on the Pacific Highway.
Our first stop was Corambirra Point, a stone breakwater with a really good surfing bay to one side. There were a few boys surfing so we stood and watched for a while,3 boys tried to launch a canoe, but it kept tipping over in the surf. They did manage to paddle it eventually. While we were there we spotted a pod of dolphins, about 3, though they didn’t hang around. It was as if they were attracted to the surfers in their wet suits. We walked along the very rough breakwater to the end, and saw a turtle swimming very close to the rocks. Later we drove around to the Marina , then walked up a very steep headland called Muttonbird Island which is a good lookout point for whale watching. It was as we were walking back that we spotted what we think was a Humpback Whale. We watched it for ages as it kept leaping out of the sea. It was too far out for photos and mostly all we could see was it’s tail, even so we were all thrilled to see it. By lunch, which was late due to whale watching, the sun was out and quite warm so we sat on the beach to have our lunch. The boys thought that was brill having chips on the beach! We visited another beach which had enormous surf but the beach was shingle and hurt our feet. Stopped off on the way home to buy Tobi a pair of thongs from a shopping Mall, where they all snook off to leave Grandad to find his own way out of the Mall Maze!! Despite that act of skulduggery it was a very nice day.