Sunday 30 September 2012

Day 34 - Coffs Harbour: Big B A N A N A S


Today was a bit of another nothing day; something I’m beginning to love in fact. It’s so relaxing knowing you don’t have to be anywhere, or do anything, or meet anyone, or poo. Well, you do have to poo, but only when you want to. You get the general idea.

Oh dear, it seems I’ve already turned today’s blog to smut. Shame... I shall continue on, nevertheless.

Thought I’d head back into Coffs Town Centre (after driving through it) and decided it’d be a good idea to do some good walking. I drove and parked up in a little beachside car park which was free then started the walk down into the town. I expected it to be quite a sea-side-y type town, perhaps like Skegness or Southend (without the tack and poo in the water) – there it is, poo again. Instead, the jetty was incredibly beautiful and the beach was white with small waves. The clue of why the town became about is in its name. It was discovered by John Coff, and the natural harbour lent itself perfectly to shield from the wild Pacific Ocean. The waters, whatever the weather outside the harbour walls, are always perfectly calm and flat.

I should point out that we’re in school holiday season at the minute and there are kids everywhere. This doesn’t bother me too much, but the upside of this is that the older kids, sort of 17 plus, are also off of school. The education doesn’t quite work the same as in England, and to be truthful, I don’t understand it myself. Google it, that’s probably easier. Anyway, the jetty sticks out through the centre of the harbour about 300 metres. The water at the end of it is about 10 metres deep and there’s about 20 metres from the jetty to the water and it’s a famous jumping spot.

Not for suicides.

There was around 30 teenagers, more girls than boys which surprised me, not really sure why, jumping off of the pier, then climbing back up and doing it again. They were doing somersaults and back flips (are they the same thing) and pikes and tucks and stuff (my Tom Daley fascination came in use, I knew it would. See Henry!) I was actually quite impressed with it all. I wondered back along the jetty and found that in fact there was no more “town” to be seen. Shocked, I jumped back in Matilda and headed for, what the guidebook described as “The Big Banana”.

It didn’t fail to amuse me. There it was, perched above the entrance to the banana plantation. It’s incredibly yellow (oddly enough) and is one of the best marketing tools I’ve seen in a while. Everyone was stopping to have their photo taken with it. While I’d have loved to have posed for a quick snap, the excitement didn’t ever really arrive. I think it was more of a kids type attraction.

Back to the camper and I cooked myself dinner and went to sleep. A nice relaxing day.

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