Comfort Inn Marco Polo Taree

April 6, 2009 Our first day on the road!  We started out in the rain at about 5.45am in the morning.  Our first stop was a few minutes later to get Steve a coffee from McDonalds!!  He sure needs his coffee to get going in the morning!  We then managed to navigate through the early morning Melbourne traffic and were safely on the Hume Highway an hour later.   We stopped in Holbrook in NSW for lunch and then passed ...

... 260m, when they run), and by the time we got to Point Lookout (where the views are supposed to be superb) and found it surrounded by mist, we were cursing the day we decided to travel this way. Our day was saved when we arrived to Ebor Falls (with very low expectations) and found these to be running, and stunning. The road between Ebor and Dorrigo, where we stopped for the night, was also really nice, surrounded by an amazing countryside. The next morning we visited the also ...

Accompanied by yet more wind and rain we set off south towards the alcoholic delights of the Hunter Valley. Passing through small sleepy towns and the infamous Big (although if honest disappointingly small) Banana at Coffs Harbour, we made it as far as the non-descript settlement of Taree, comfortably within morning striking distance of the Hunter.

... out to each of the headlands. So, after our visit to the lighthouse, we took the rented car for a spin along a gravel road and parked it near a group of kangaroos at Indian head. They were lying or bouncing around the grass and were clearly well used to people. We walked from there and did a loop to Diamond Head where there's sparkly bits in the rock. The sea has bored a tunnel through some big rocks to creat an arch. We said we'd take a path off ...

... ring) we were on our way & met John, Elsje & Joyce for lunch at Buladelah On to the farm, arriving late afternoon. After a tour of the house we settled down to a relaxing afternoon & evening, retiring later to the honeymoon suite (ex dairy!)

... snaked their way into our peripheral vision. They swam within a couple of feet of the four of us, almost swaggering underwater. This was my first ever shark encounter, and I could gush on using words like 'magnificent' and 'predator' but I won't (well I sort of did) but what I'll say is this: Smimming with sharks gives you a prickle of fear mixed with excitement, a potent little adrenalin cocktail, and one I suggest everybody trieds at least once. Next stop, the Great Barrier Reef.

... It was difficult just doing it on the sand!! We were then brought into the water and were able to have a go, it was just fun lying on the board and the waves taking you back to the beach. After about 2 hours in the water i managed to actually stand up and ride a wave for approx 10 secs, at least i can say i stood up. The rest of the time was me attemting to do it. Really good fun, i will probably have another go soon, after my whole body stops aching!!!

... started applying every couple of hours. Fingers crossed that this combined with the antihistamenes would do the trick. The tea tree plantation was actually a really interesting little stop as there was also a collection of sculptures in the grounds which were pretty unusual as well as a tea tree maze which we decided not to venture into as we didn't want to bump into the snakes they were warning visitors about! There was however one ...

... of this activity though is you have to climb up the sand hill to have another go. That's where the hard work is. It's fun going down but not that fun going up. Wish they have those sand lifts similar to the ones when you go skiing. Oh well, that put my physical tolerance to the test. After some practice on the lowest slope, our guide took us to the next level and then we'll go to the highest one he said. On this next one, I had a few not ...

... loosing... Ok now i'm going to sydney for my last week!!! VERSION FRANCAISE pppffff!!! j'avais mal lu le lonely planet..le musee du surf etait a 10 km de Coffs harbour!! Donc j'ai passe 2 jours a Coffs a rien faire...le backpack etait pas terrible, enfin sympa jusqu'a ce k'1 groupe d'etudiants debarquent et fassent paniquer le staff comme si ils arrivaient pu a gerer!! Enfin la seule bonne chose c ...