Yamba / Maclean - October 08

We arrived at Yamba on Monday 6th October for a week to check out the local area; we stayed at Yamba Waters Holiday Park based on information we received when in Coffs Harbour; the information was good and the park is excellent.

Yamba does have a small shopping centre with a Bi-Lo and small Target; there are eateries, cafes a pub and clubs so no shortage of supplies.

Yamba Waters Holiday Park is a Big 4; although this was the second week of the NSW school holidays, however the park had plenty of sites available as it is mainly Queenslander’s that pack the park out. With the discount the park cost $215 for the week, not bad given the time of year.

All the sites are large and have no shortage of room; as you can see by the below photo plenty of shade in the warmer months is of great benefit. The park has 3 amenities blocks (Kept spotless), 2 laundries, 2 pools (in separate areas), a good playground for the kids, games room, indoor camp kitchen and very well kept free barbecues. Linda and I were very pleased with the park; it is located approximately 2km west of the Yamba township so it is an easy walk or bike by very good bike tracks. We did have a look at the Calypso park in town; it is just about on the beach but the sites are a little cramped. There is another park called the Blue Dolphin Resort which is a similar distance from town as Yamba Waters but they wanted $420 for a powered site for the week; Linda & I decided we were not paying that unless it included 3 meals a day, 2 cartons of grog and tickets to the movies.

Met up with one big happy family enjoying the same week we were in the park; their setup had one huge tent, one camper trailer and a pop-top caravan. They are all Lismorians which is where we are heading next so we will be catching up whilst we are in town (thanks guys for all your friendship during our stay at Yamba).

Below is a shot of the Yamba lighthouse.

Within a couple of hundred meters of the town Yamba is fortunate to have 2 deferent types of beach areas; the first shot below shows the beach at the breakwater giving an opportunity for body boarding and the like.

The second photo shows the beach on the inlet side of the breakwater giving calm waters for smaller kids and those that want to relax in calm water. Yamba does have many more beaches on offer but these 2 shown are very close to all the amenities in town.

Whilst in Yamba we drove to the “Scottish town in Australia”; Maclean, which sits approximately 20km west of Yamba and sits right on the Clarence River. This place is very nice indeed and house prices here are very good; it is only a small town but has all you would need. The photo below was taken in the middle of town at a small boat ramp onto the Clarence river.

All Macleans telephone/light poles are painted in different Scottish clan tartans; the town also has a Scottish information centre run by volunteers. Should you be mad enough the local butcher's still make and sell haggis and lorne sausages (no meat in these just horses hoofs, pigs ears and arseholes).

We drove up to the lookout and below shows the Pinnacle Rocks with the Clarence river in the background.

Below is a shot of the Maclean township as we drove down from the lookout (could certainly live here).

Linda fell in love with Maclean; she was so pleased to see they had a street which recognised the vertically challenged (wee Scott people and others).

Hope you are all well and will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Minnie Water/Wooli - Oct 08

Rolled into Minnie Water on Friday 3rd October for a 3 night stay; Dad asked if we could check out a small town called Wooli and send some pictures to him, Dad wanted to see if the place had changed much in recent years.

In checking with some other travellers it was decided it would be better to stay at Minnie Water and visit Wooli for the day as it was only 15km from Minnie and supposedly Minnie would be the better place to stay (NOT SO).

If you do want to see Minnie Water and Wooli do yourself a favour and stay at Wooli as it has 2 van parks, a pub,a couple of shops, ATM and mobile service. Minnie Water has 1 van park (not the best), 1 shop and no mobile service.

The park at Minnie was $23 per night or $138 per week; the amenities are small and not the cleanest. The van park is really only for campers (tents, camper trailers etc) and has only half a dozen powered sites for vans, the rest of the park is permanent residents.

During our stay the park held a fish auction to raise money for the Minnie Water/Wooli surf life saving club; all the fish were donated and in the main were large snapper as shown above(3kg plus), this particular fish went for $30, a very good buy considering they normally sell in fish markets for $30 – $35 per kg.

During the auction several seafood trays were raffled off and Linda scored a good one; the tray had about 1kg of prawns, 1 dozen oysters and 4 bugs. Total investment by us was $10.

The above shot is the Minnie Water general store which sells a bit of everything; it also the local servo and take away. Prices her were quite high for food items (All Bran $9 a box) so if you do go into Minnie or Wooli for a few days best stocking up as the neares majors are at Grafton which is about 60km away.

The above is the Minnie Water SLC; reading the local paper tells how they have just approved $340’000 to build a proper building to house the club volunteers, you can just see the beach to the left.

Close up of the sign showing when the patrols operate.

The above is the Minnie Water community hall which sits opposite the shop and adjacent to the SLC; it was all locked during our stay but they do have some local club meetings here.

The sign shows the hire cost should you be interested in having a wedding for any of your family or maybe that special birthday or anniversary.

Above is the Wooli breakwater; Wooli sits between the open ocean and the clarence river so you get the best of both worlds.

The beaches here are really good but unless you like just beaches and fishing a week may be a bit long to stay. Of the caravan parks our pick would be Solitary Island Caravan Park at Wooli, from Wooli you can visit Minnie Water.

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Coffs Harbour - Sept/Oct 08

Arrived at Coffs late September for a week stay and used the Park Beach Holiday Park; the week we were in was the 26th Sept to 3rd October which was end of the Qld 1st week school holidays and the start of the NSW first week so it was quite busy. This is a family park with plenty for kids to do (pool, games room etc, etc) and the location is very good being close to the beach and central shopping. The park has quite strict rules and regulations (no skateboard's, no scooters, no roller blades etc), all of which were never enforced, given it was school holidays the park management did not seem to worry about it.

Price was not too bad considering it was a school holiday period at $215.00 for the week after the normal Top Tourist discount.

Two major events were on in Coffs Harbour during the week we were in town, one being the Coffs Harbour Air Show on the Saturday & Sunday and the other was the International Buskers Week. The air show was $20 for either day but we took the free option as most of the planes took a flight-path over the caravan park; the buskers were a little different in being able to fleece anyone and everyone at most parks and street corners (they were good and worth the gold coin donations).

The busker above has a steel helmet on with a small frying pan and burner welded to the top; he set the thing on fire and tossed an egg in the air and caught and cooked it in the small pan. You cannot see it but he is standing on a balance board and also juggling a flaming torch, egg and knife at the same time.

Linda’s Birthday was on Wednesday (1st Oct) so as requested lunch was a seafood platter (for one as I hate the stuff); we went to the Coffs Harbour Deep Sea Fishing Club which has some spectacular views of the ocean and surrounding beaches. The only draw back on the day we went was the winds; but seafood for Lin, meat for Dave and champagne for us both made it a great day.

Yummy – best keeping your fingers clear whilst Linda is eating seafood; beautiful views of the back beach at Coffs.

Both of us a bit wind blown before heading in for lunch.

Will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.