I’ve always wanted an Isuzu truck to tow the caravan, but not this one.
After leaving Coffs we went to Nambucca Heads. While driving through the main street, a warning light on the dashboard lit up. This drastically changed our plans. But more about the car later, let’s rewind first…
On our arrival in Coffs, we decided to first explore the areas to the west.
The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia is a World Heritage Area, and home to the Dorrigo National Park. The main access road from Coffs is called the Waterfall Way, and for a good reason. There are many listed and secret waterfalls to explore in this area.
We visited this park previously in May 2021, and completed the Wonga Walk Circuit and visited two of the main falls: Tristania and Crystal Falls. This walk measures 10123 steps with a steep descent and ascent, totalling 46 floors. This time we decided to focus on the walks we have not done before.
In 2021 we did not get to the third main fall, Danger Falls. Instead of taking the Waterfall Way, we opted to take a dirt road from Coffs through the mountains, straight to the Danger falls.
At these falls we had our first introduction to a labyrinth. People worldwide walk labyrinths to take their mind off their daily stress, calm anxieties, and enhance self-reflection. It is often done in groups, creating social networks.
On the way back to Coffs we visited the Dorigo Rainforest Centre and did the skywalk lookout.
We never get tired of these views…
Further down the range we spent time in Bellingen. This traditional farming community has transformed itself as many musos, artists, and writers moved in. It also became home to many music and cultural festivals. The main street is lined with older-style buildings.
The old Hammond and Wheatly building, established in 1900, still stands proud and offers quality hand crafted merchandise.
One of the local coffee shops offers the bread they have not used during the day free to any takers. Guess what we ate the next day…
After lunch at the Swiss Patisserie and Bakery we went to the Old Butter Factory. It was transformed into an outlet for jewellery, furnishings, and other crafts.
This display of fishermen on the wall of the Old Butter Factory seemed out of place. A local explained the 3D mural may have been inspired by periodic flooding of the factory or maybe a 3 meter bull shark caught and tagged in the Bellinger River, close to the Old Butter Factory.
Next we explored the central area of Coffs Harbour, starting with the Sealy Lookout Sky Pier. This pier is in the Orara East State Forest and provides a view over Coffs Harbour. There are a few other walks providing easy access to lower lookouts.
The view from the main pier.
Maybe a cliché, but we had to visit the The Big Banana, Coffs Harbour.
This is not just a banana, it is The Big Banana Fun Park. It features opal, candy, and banana-themed shops. Activities include a water park, giant slide, ice skating, laser tag, toboggan, 4D theatre, fun arcades, and reptile world, to name a few.
Candy made on site.
On the way back we stopped at the Clog Barn, also referred to as “Holland Down Under”. After Tom Hartsuyker retired from running his own building company in 1984, he settled in Coffs. He started the Clog Barn Caravan Park and built the barn with his two sons, John and Luke.
If you are in the market for clogs or clogees, this is your shop. They even have live demonstrations at the barn showcasing how clogs are made. The demonstration was done by Luke, Tom’s son. Luke demonstrated the manual and mechanical way of making clogs. The mechanical equipment was bought from a Dutch clog maker shop in Cooma – “The Clogs Maker”.
This barn specialises in merchandise and souvenirs from Holland. Big Oma’s Coffee House is also on site serving some Dutch favourites.
At the back of the store a small door takes you into a mini-town version of Holland. These miniatures of prominent buildings in Holland started as an extension of Tom’s post-retirement hobby. A small river runs around turning windmills with a motion-activated train close to the exit.
Many old castles were meticulously recreated, with information and detail on each building.
Even the king of the castle was in residence: an Australian water dragon.
Next we explored the beaches south of Coffs Harbour. We started with the 1 kilometer boardwalk at Uranga.
On the way back, we went to the beaches of Sawtell. Rainy to the north…
And sunny skies on the tidal pool and beach to the south. There were many dolphins chasing a bait ball in the shallows.
The visit to Sawtell was supposed to conclude our stay in Coffs and we packed up to move south the next morning.
This brings us back to where things started to go wrong, as alluded to at the start of the post…
After leaving Coffs Harbour, we headed south and left the M1 Pacific Highway for a quick stop at Nambucca Heads. On our return to the highway a dashboard light lit up, and we decided to get this checked out. I called RACQ, our roadside assistance provider. They immediately assigned a mobile patrol to diagnose our issue and get us back on the road. An hour later the patrol arrived, and as he was getting out of his vehicle he said: “I can smell your problem: transmission.” After running a few diagnostics he advised that it would be best to tow the car back to Toyota in Coffs Harbour. He informed RACQ to upgrade the roadside assistance to a roadside recovery.
I received a call confirming that our RACQ Ultimate Care option covered the cost to recover both the car and caravan. RACQ confirmed that a tow truck was on its way. While we waited, we started moving some of our belongings from the car to the van and unhitched the van.
After the truck arrived it took about 45 minutes to load and secure everything before we commenced our 45km journey back to Coffs Harbour.
The first stop in Coffs was Reflections Holiday Park. Arriving at reception, everything was already organised and paid for by RACQ and the truck was able to take the van straight to the site. What an entrance… as the massive truck was crawling into the park.
Once the van was on its site, we went with the tow truck to Toyota to book in the car. The towie dropped us back at the caravan. We were knackered!
Even though RACQ had an option to get a rental car immediately, we opted to use the available funds for accommodation, and just like that, we were back on our feet. Luckily, all the major food and liquor stores were within walking distance.
We settled in and the wait started. We filled our days with walks, online games and even started The Namaqualand Online Treasure Hunt.
A few days in, we received a call from Toyota to inform us that the car had to go to Sydney and the contents inside the car had to be removed. Luckily we had a few blue tarps to cover and store the content under the caravan.
The upside was that after six days, we we got a courtesy RAV from Toyota.
By this time we had started to feel like locals and even had a few pets checking in every morning and afternoon.
The courtesy car allowed us to visit some of the local attractions. We spent a morning at the North Coast Regional Botanic garden.
The gardens host a variety of local and international vegetation from the grey to the colourful:
Almost one kilometer from the entrance is the Japanese Friendship Gardens.
On the way to the Japanese gardens we passed the sensory gardens, two hothouses, and many exotic trees blossoming.
We even passed another labyrinth. This was the second one in Coffs area, and the third on our travels. We learned that a labyrinth is unicursal, which differentiates it from a maze, and many are under the auspice of the Australian Labyrinth Network Inc. and even searchable on Google maps. Go figure…
We also spent a day at the Coffs Harbour Marine. We started with the steep walk up Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve. This reserve is home to thousands of muttonbirds that migrate from South East Asia in August annually, to breed in the same burrow and raise the chicks, before flying back in April.
In the marina was the Notorious Pirate Ship. This full size replica is based on the 15th century caravel. This replica is not only owned and captained by Graeme Wylie, but he also built it. Graeme and his wife Felicity have sailed more than 20,000 nautical miles in this caravel. This is the only operational caravel in the southern hemisphere.
The Coffs Harbour Historical Jetty was our final spot in the harbour visit. The jetty was completed in 1892 and described in the newspaper as “an outlet for our produce and an inlet for our necessities”. After being extended it measures 975m.
We did a daytrip to Grafton, a city on the Clarence River north-west of Coffs Harbour. Grafton is referred to as the Jacaranda City and is host to the annual Jacaranda festival at the end of October. When we visited the Jacarandas were in full bloom.
After crossing the Grafton Bridge we veered right to Figtree Avenue. The street is lined with 17 fig trees, each up to 30 meters high, and well deserving of being a listed site on the National Trust of Australia.
We made a quick stop at the Grafton Regional Art Galley, before we started heading south.
We stopped at the small town of Glenreagh, home of the big golden dog. There are a few different legends on the history of the Golden Dog. My favourite one is that a patron of the pub apparently picked up a dog-shaped gold nugget and exchanged it for beer at the pub.
We wanted to stop for a pint at the Golden Dog Hotel, but with a bushfire across the road we decided to push on. Around this time, there were 70 bushfires burning in New South Wales.
We visited the northern beaches of Coffs. We really enjoyed Shelly Beach at Emerald and took a stroll along Sapphire beach.
On Friday nights in Coffs cooking is optional, with the Twilight Food Markets at Parks Beach Reserve. There was a relaxed atmosphere with a great variety of reasonably priced food, a good vibe, and live music.
We also did a trip south. On our way back to Nambucca Heads we passed the Big Windmill.
This mill was the initiative of Franz De Kever and his wife in the early seventies. Franz had a fatal accident during the construction of the mill in 1974, while fixing the frames of the mill, resulting in a pause in the construction. After a change in ownership, and outsourcing the manufacturing of the blades to the Netherlands, the mill was officially opened in 1982.
We visited a few places of interest in Nambucca Heads we missed at our previous visit. The Rotary Lookout provided a great vantage point over the mouth of the Nambucca River.
Just up the road is the Captain Cook Lookout where we saw six pods of whales breaching below. A local we spoke to mentioned that 50 years ago you would have been lucky to spot any whales. Whaling was terminated in Australia in 1978.
The lookout was lined with painted rocks.
We received the call that we had been waiting for. Our car had arrived back in Coffs. We picked it up with no cost, as Toyota did the repair under warrantee. Our accommodation for almost four weeks in Coffs was fully covered by RACQ. We had one day to clean, pack, and finally get back on the road.
Early the next morning it was raining cats and dogs, but we headed off towards Port Macquarie after our relaxing time in the Coffs Harbour region.
