Surfing in Yamba, dolphins in Coffs Habour

On December 1st, after breakfast at Meldrun Park in Lennox Head (and once again a runaway dog named Billy), we headed towards Yamba. This small town was highly recommended by Kenny's tiler boss Nick. Our first stop was at Clarence Head Lighthouse with a great view of the northern and southern beaches. There, we were able to observe surfers and even 3 dolphins near the shore among the surfers - unfortunately, we were far away on a hill, which made it difficult to watch.

We spent the afternoon relaxing at Whiting Beach. The beach is located on a calm coastal inlet and is therefore popular with families. Here too, we were able to spot dolphins in the distance. At sunset, we took a walk along Pippi Beach, where Kenny performed his famous backflip, in which he skillfully catches himself with his face. :D We spent the night in the industrial area of Yamba. At first, we were only blasted with loud music, and in the middle of the night, we heard loud banging and cars speeding away. In the dark and in the middle of the night, we felt a bit uneasy, but we still spent the night there.

On Sunday morning, we started the day relaxed at Yamba Rotary Park, our breakfast spot for the next few days. Then we explored the really tiny downtown area of Yamba, and after a delicious portion of fish & chips for lunch, we checked out the options for renting a surfboard. We wanted to deepen the more or less learned skills from the surf course on our own.

We checked the weather as a precaution and found that sunshine was expected on this day and clouds and cooler temperatures on Monday. So we decided to rent a surfboard today. However, in the store, we saw that the surfboards could also be rented for 24 hours, and in our enthusiasm, we forgot that the weather would be worse the next day. We would regret that the next morning. But for now, we went happily to the beach. At first, both of us stood in the water, but in the end, due to the cold water and decreasing strength, we took turns being in the water without a wetsuit. After all, we only had one board. Since we had rented a fun board, which is a pretty short board for beginners, we had to find our balance again the first few times. But after a while, we managed quite well and spent the whole rest of the day at the beach.

The evening was short, and eventually we ended up in a residential area for wild camping. It was incredibly windy and almost stormy at night. The wind blew strongly through our open windows, and we woke up with every loud bang. It was precisely this night that we had the surfboard on the roof. Despite the tension belts, it was even moved by the wind, so Kenny had to climb around on the car in the dark, wearing only boxer shorts, to fix everything.

On Monday morning, we were incredibly exhausted due to the stormy night, and the weather was also pretty bad. Cool, super windy, and cloudy. After a long breakfast, we still went surfing at the beach. The sea was wild, and the waves further out were almost unmanageable for us beginners. Especially Kenny didn't have much fun because of the temperatures, but he had already had great success with surfing the day before when Krissi preferred sunbathing. On this morning, however, Krissi was motivated because she had spotted dolphins in the bay again.

After returning the surfboard, we continued to Angourie to the Blue & Green Pools. WikiCamps promised cliff jumping here. Just a few meters from the parking lot, we happily saw numerous children and their parents jumping into the water from about 3 and 6 meters. We quickly found our joy in it too. The water was incredibly deep, we never felt the bottom, it was relatively warm, and above all, fresh water. A great change from the usual salty seawater. Here, we met another German couple. The girl had her doubts about jumping, but eventually overcame them. On our way to the second pool, which promised jumps of about 10 meters, we met the couple again, but they hadn't jumped yet. A few minutes after we arrived at the 10-meter pool, the German boy came back and hoped for our jumping support. After some consideration, the two of them teamed up with two other boys and hiked up the cliff for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, Krissi stayed below and filmed everything. Luckily, Kenny wanted to jump again after his first jump, so Krissi also got to enjoy it. This time, however, we decided to take the shorter path by simply climbing up the rocks from the water.

We enjoyed the sunset on the nearby ocean on huge boulders. We also had dinner at the Spooky Beach by the ocean.

On December 4th, we left our beloved Yamba. With its beautiful and numerous beaches, both by the ocean and the coastal inlets, and without the crowds of tourists, it is truly recommendable and even quiet on weekends.

The first stop was a warm, free shower. A great change from many cold showers. Then we headed to Grafton. Kenny wanted to see the model trains here that he had read about on WikiCamps. We took a detour just to find out that there is now a café with a huge children's playground there. So we quickly moved on to Woolgoolga to a lookout over the ocean.

A brief stop in this town promised great paintings on a water tank. But again, WikiCamps had tricked us today. The tank was boring concrete gray.

After about 150 km, we arrived in Coffs Harbor. By 3:30 pm, we were already having lunch. Due to hunger, the mood was dangerously tipping. After two barbecue spots that were occupied and dirty, we just unpacked our gas cooker. After that, we were probably so tired from the day before and the "surf leg" that we slept on a blanket in the park for half an hour. After recharging our energy, we went to Muttonbird Island, right in front of Coffs Harbor, via the Northern Breakwater. Here, a calm harbor with boat docks and a bathing beach was created with two dams reaching to the island.

On the way back, we spotted a huge, strangely spotted fish with spines in the water. We had never seen such large iguanas in Australia before. Finally, we saw that the iguana was carved. Nevertheless, incredibly impressive. A hidden camera here would certainly be funny, filming people as they get scared, sneak around, and recognize it. We must have looked incredibly funny.

We returned to Foreshores Park by the ocean. We wanted to search for and find some of the numerous geocaches along the coast. On the jetty in the middle of the calm harbor, we immediately spotted a dolphin. We had never seen one so close before. We followed it and spotted a second one. One of them played with a fish like a cat. He caught it, threw it into the water in front of him, only to catch it again. :D There were also a few stingrays to see again.

Tomorrow, we will probably drive to Dorrigo National Park, which is located further south.