Day's 45 - 47 Coffs Harbour. 12-14th Jan
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
38
70
Trip End
Mar 27, 2008
Coffs Harbour,
Australia
Saturday, January 12, 2008
That evening Dean and I went down to the beach to have a campfire. Gathering wood here on the beach is no problem, there are plenty of sticks around. We gathered a big pile and sat there for hours, on our sarongs, chatting and drinking. The beach is totally deserted, dark and there are just bushes behind us, so at first I was a bit nervous because it was spooky. After a few beers, I relaxed and enjoyed the fire although it was really a bit too warm to have one. We stayed on the beach until late and got rained on at the end of the night. We headed back, Luke was just on his way out to go fishing and Dean was very jealous.
The followning day we went back down to the river and to the pet porpoise pool which is nearby. I loved it there and I got a seal kiss. I sat beside this huge seal and it put it's nose on my cheek and Dean took a photo. It was so cute, I've never touched a seal before and he was so lovely and friendly. I so enjoyed this experience that I queued up to get the dolphin kiss. The dolphin put's it's nose/beak (whatever you call it) to your cheek. The professional photo of this was so good that Dean paid $10 to have it e-mailed to me. There was a dolphin and seal show which was good and afterwards we were allowed to touch the dolphins. We learned that you should never touch a dolphin anywhere on it's head but they enjoy being touched on their throat and underside. They were swimming backwards in the pool so we could put our hands in and feel their underside as they glide along. Their skin is so smooth, like silk - it was amazing being able to touch them. They are beautiful creatures and we could feel how solid they are - just a big bulk of pure muscle. One of them, Bella is only a baby at two years old and she is very playful. There are four dolphins, two of them are Bella's mum and dad. They are both over 30 years old, the oldest being 36. I had no idea that dolphins lived that long, it was clear to see Bella's immaturity and fun to watch. When they were doing the dolphin show, Bella was trying to do the same as the older ones but couldn't do it, so she did her own thing and stole the show, she was so funny. They were so cute, we had a brilliant few hours.
Dean couldn't possibly resist a huge shop claiming to be the biggest fishing tackle shop in Australia. He was like a kid in a sweet shop in there and I was a bit bored to be honest. He ended up buying a telescopic (apparantly that means it's collapsible) beach fishing rod and reel. He is thrilled to bits with his new toy and spent hours messing about with it when we got back to the motel. It's the first telescopic rod he's ever owned (he has all kinds of fishing rods back home) and no doubt it will be in the backpack or suitcase wherever we go for years to come.
I have really bonded with Jess in the next door flat, we spent hours talking to her after she got home from work. Luke and Dean have fishing in common and are like brothers re-united messing about with their rods and reels and discussing fishing lines and bait etc. Jess and I have no idea what they are going on about half the time and we roll our eyes at them. I will miss Jess and it will be sad to say goodbye to her tomorrow. We have swapped e-mail adresses and she promised she would try to visit us one day in England. She would like to come to England one day to work, her mum has a British passport so she tells us it is easy for her to do this. Sounds as though she has already looked into it.
Jess and Luke gave us some stubbie holders as presents to remember them by. For those of you in England, a stubbie is a bottle of beer/lager and the holders are made out of foam, it keeps the beer cold and stops the bottle condensation dripping on you. They gave us two bundaberg rum holers which are made out of a material like suede and we love them. Bundaberg is rum and you buy it in cans, already mixed with coke. You can buy cans of vodka and coke, Bourban and coke amongst all other mixtures of shorts and mixers. I told Jess that in England, it you want to drink rum and coke from an off license, you have to buy a bottle of rum and a bottle of coke seperately and she thought this was really weird. It has been so lovely getting to know Jess and Luke, the people in general here are all very friendly and nice. I wish we could stay longer but we have a long way to travel yet.
