After leaving Sydney at 11pm, I arrived in Coffs Harbour at 6.15am the following morning. This was my first experience of the greyhound coach network, which I will be using over the next 3/4weeks to work my way 1,600 miles up to Cains, stopping at many towns along the East coast. The coach was very comfortable, with nice reclining seats, more leg room than an aeroplane and had a toilet on board. It also made a couple of 30min stops where you could buy hot food or just stretch your legs. I slept for a few hours on the coach, but after I checked into my hostel at 8am I went back to bed for a few hours.

Coffs Harbour has a beautiful small marina, lovely beaches and is surrounded by green hills in the distance. Very quiet and beautiful. This was much appreciated about being in big cities (Singapore, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney) for the last 3weeks.

 

My first day I took a walk down to the marina and found a fantastic fish shop. It sold fish freshly caught by the local fishing boats and had huge selection of sea food. You could buy a whole fish (or fillet) from the left counter and then the right counter would cook it for you (fried, battered or grilled). I tried a local parrot fish, about 30cm long and had it grilled. It tasted amazing and was so fresh. Wish they had this huge selection of fish in fish/chip shops back home.
 
 
 
 

On my second day I went canoeing on the river opposite my hostel. Canoeing was free and luckily no crocodiles (they will be further north in the tropics).   I went with 2 girls, a Brazilian and a French girl I'd met in the hostel the night before. After lunch I hired a bike and went for a 10-15km ride exploring the coastline to the left of the harbour. Found 2 beautiful beaches and a local shopping centre, mind you, the hills were hard work in the sun!