April 5, 2001 - Thursday - (National Park north of Coffs Harbour)
There were far less mozzies around as I type my journal entry tonight. The moon is almost full and shines brightly at our tents. The fire nearby crackled and smoked, flames dancing in and out of the pit.
We got up a little late today - Joerg at 6 and me at 7:30. Matt finally rolled out at 8. We ate a small breakfast as the sun started to bake everything its ray touched. Matt and Joerg went for a swim and I went for a slow jog down the beach to the fishermen to see what they caught.
The elder fisherman didn't get anything but the younger one had two Breams jumping nearby. As I was talking to him, he got another hit and after reeling it in, it turned out to be a stingray. It was pretty gross when he cut the hook out of its mouth and just left it there gasping for water. I tried to push the ray back into the water but I don't think it will survive. There was blood oozing out of one of its gills.
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| Coffs Harbour Light House, New South Wales, Australia |
We left camp after that and after a short drive, we stopped by a park and had some lunch and rested for a while. It's been a hard day :). We headed off again and stopped by Coffs Harbour to get the car looked at because it was stalling when you first step on the gas. The mechanic finally looked at it and it cost us A$102 to get it fix.
We started off again and headed north, trying to find our next campsite. After driving to Red Rock, we couldn't find anything there so we turned back again and continued on the Princess highway before turning into a road for the (national park). There was a flight of some sort of black parrots but I couldn't identify it. After a long drive through a state forest, we finally came to the national park and the campgrounds.
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| Pelicans at another river crossing, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia |
There wasn't a way for us to go find our own campgrounds on the beach this time so we decided to stay and camp on the provided grounds. It wasn't too crowded so we were able to get a section of the campground for ourselves. Joerg and I set up tents and Matt went for a swim. I went to have a look at the beautiful beach at dusk and came back to find the dinner ready.
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| Dusk down at the beach, national park north of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia |
We ate our dinner and played cards afterward by candlelights. One good thing about this place is that there wasn't many mozzies around. I don't know if it's just because it's dry around here and there wasn't a large body of water or swampland around, but it was nice to be able to sit out without swatting mozzies for a change. We don't have a view or the sound of crashing waves nearby though. It's off to Byron Bay tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.
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