Coffs Harbour and Sawtell

I started writing this 3 weeks ago, and then we got busy with the caravan handover, so the content is a little old. Sorry folks!!

We joined the endless stream of holiday traffic heading north, and immediately knew we were in for a long day! By 10.30am we were in desperate need of coffee, and stopped at the only place you can stop between Sydney and Newcastle, the Wyong Truck stop. We joined the other 10,000 motorists who had the same idea, and queued for coffee at the McCafe. It was mass produced McOrdinary!! The McCupcake was OK. We rejoined the endless queue heading north.

At Hexham the traffic stopped, as three lanes of traffic tried to cope with the one lane  engineering marvel know as the Hexham Bridge. Traffic heading south was even worse, with the queue almost back to Raymond Terrace, some 15kms away. Can someone please send the O'Farrell Govt. to Victoria to see how our tax dollars should work on infrastructure!!

Next road block is Buladelah. The bypass commenced in the last millennium is due to open one day, but it still hasn't, so we crawl through town, which is raging and full of frustrated motorists. Having added another hour to the journey, we now fully understand why we don't usually travel during school holidays.

Main street of Sawtell.

It is now lunchtime. We stop at the relatively new centre near Taree. Another 10,000 people are already enjoying the facilities. It is 34 degrees Celsius and climbing. We step through the automatic doors and are knocked back by the noise of those 10,000 people ordering junk food, yelling, screaming, chewing. There are small people running everywhere. It is amazing, and the cleaners haven't turned up to work!!! Food waste is everywhere. What must these people's homes be like???? We ordered KFC, two cokes and 30mg of penicillin each, and found a relatively unscathed table near the toilet. Scared for life, we rejoined the endless queue heading north.

We passed Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Macksville, and Nambucca Heads, the finishing post is now in sight. Ten kilometres south of Coffs Harbour we see the turnoff to Sawtell, and sigh a huge sigh of relief and exhaustion. It is now 5.30pm as we check in. We get checked into the Sawtell Beach Holiday Park, which is lovely, but packed. It is huge, and every square inch of ground is covered in canvas. It is set among a forest of huge paper bark trees, and the promise of an open sight to accommodate our satellite dish is a hollow one, again! No TV at this park! Our site is number 44. It is right on the main road opposite the Sawtell Croquet Club, and we can't see the sky for the trees. It is happy hour, so the locals take up positions to watch the new arrivals park the big van into a tight site. Sorry to disappoint!! In first time, amidst cries of "he's done that before!!" Love it.

Set up at Sawtell.

The inlet behind the caravan park.

Quickly set up, we get out the recliners, crack a bottle and settle in to watch the passing parade. And what a parade it is. The road is a super highway, an endless stream of cars and kids on skateboards, scooters and bikes. How many people live here?? This is one busy caravan park, full of school holiday makers. Every child in the park has a new bike, scooter or skate board, and it is highly entertaining watching the children of all ages dice with death as they compete for road space with the never ending traffic. The location is excellent. A short walk through the bush takes you to the beautiful inlet, where the Bonville Creek runs into the sea. There is a huge sand bank and beautiful, crystal clear water that you can walk through at all tide levels, across to the surf beach. It is a lovely spot to spend some time on the hot days.

The main Beach at Sawtell.

We can walk into town in a couple of minutes. It is a lovely village full of shady fig trees. There are a lot of cafes, and nice shops. We quickly pick out a couple of favourites, Split, Treeo and Wholly Cow, were all well worth a visit. The pub is also a beauty, with the Fishtales Restaurant excellent, serving terrific local seafood. The Salt & Pepper Snapper was amazing, both in its presentation and taste.

The market near the Jetty.

Nearby, Coffs Harbour, has never been one of our favourite coastal spots, but on this visit we had a bit more time to spend looking around town. They are doing a bit of work around the Jetty precinct at the harbour, and we found an excellent market that operates on Sundays. There were some great produce suppliers, and this became our source for fresh fruit and veggies. The other highlight was the entertainment at the market. Each day we went, there was a quality act providing the background music.

The heavy tree artillery arrives.

At the Caravan Park, we were woken early by the constant stream of traffic and the croquet players. Boy were they an active club! Bright and early every day, were we would hear the "thwack" of mallet on ball. The evenings were also a constant flow of people, and one night we got some real activity, when a guy kept bragging about how he felt the earth move. His wife claimed she had nothing to do with it, which saw the guy immediately branded a wanker, but in all seriousness, the tree next to his caravan had become unstable and was lifting the ground around his site. The heavy artillery arrived around 8.00pm, and within minutes, his van was moved and the tree removed. A huge crowd gathered and cheered every branch that hit the ground.

First night at the Showground.

The caravan handover has been well and truly covered in a separate post, so I won't bore you with more details. On the Monday we moved camp from Sawtell to the Coffs Harbour Showground. We just couldn't get moved to a sight where we would be able to make sure the satellite was working.
At the Showground, we enjoyed some peace and quiet, and got to check out the caravan and satellite. We were also waiting the completion of the annexe for the caravan. The day we moved, it absolutely poured with rain, and it lasted for a couple of days. During this time we managed to catch up with some people that Carolyn hadn't seen for 40 years, and that I had never met! Lesley and Jimmy are good friends of Bev and Fred. They have just moved into a beautiful "over 55's" village in Coffs Harbour, and Bev had insisted we call in and see them. We know she just wanted us to update her on the new house!!  It is truly lovely, and we had a lovely time talking history, and our lives as we got to know each other. Within a couple of hours we were old friends, and will catch up again when we return to nearby Nambucca Heads in late January.

Moto Cross practice at the Showground.

Wednesday morning the annexe was ready, so we checked out of the Showground to go pick it up. Before we left we got a sneak preview of the big moto cross event that was happening over the weekend. They had been building the track all week, in fact the guys building the track had been our neighbours out at Sawtell! Around 9.00am, the peace was shattered as dozens of guys on motor cycles started tearing around the circuit. It was very exciting, and Carolyn was extremely happy that we were leaving and not getting the new caravan caked in dust.

Fitting the new Annexe.

Over to Coffs Canvass we headed, where Tony and the team had done a great job of making our annexe. We had chosen a light grey, with black trim, to complement the colours on the caravan. The end result was all we had hoped. We did a full walk through on the annexe and how it goes together, and were delighted at how well made, and how much lighter in weight it is, than our old one. Boy are we now set up!!

So there it is folks, our trip to Sawtell/Coffs Harbour is complete, and we now take to the road again in our luxury new home. First stop will be down on the farm, with Lindsay & Myrelle at their Gloucester dairy farm.