Coffs Harbour - travel diary

We left Sydney late in the evening, exactly around half past ten. There were also many other buses during the day but we preferred to travel at night for a simple reason: the usual money! A night on the bus means one less night in the hostel... what wouldn't we do just to save!!!

Arrived at our destination at dawn, we waited for it to become a decent hour to start the usual round of phone calls and find accommodation. Actually we already had the name of a hostel, but we didn't know how reliable the source that had given it to us could be. In fact, after about an hour, without us even phoning, there it appeared in front of the bus stop, the usual backpackers' van with written in capital letters: "Barracuda"... it was exactly what we were looking for! We arrived in the room exhausted, but also hungry, and so we rushed to the nearest hypermarket to do our shopping. Unfortunately it wasn't eight o'clock yet and the market was closed. We dragged our feet in front of the entrance for about half an hour until finally they opened. For the first time in our lives we were the first customers of the day, there was no one else.

Seized by food frenzy we treated ourselves to a super mega cake that, since it expired the following day, was heavily discounted! Devoured breakfast, straight to bed; but the party didn't last long since after no more than an hour the hostel staff came to tear us away with shouts because one of the day's scheduled activities was starting: the jump from the town pier. Actually we, still half asleep and with our macaronic English, hadn't understood that it was a six-metre jump into the void... we learned that later, with no little astonishment. It was really high and the sea was really blue. Two steps to get over the protective railing and then the void. One two three, don't think and empty your mind, close your eyes and fly... a nice shot of adrenaline that woke us from our torpor.

Coffs Harbour can certainly not be considered a very interesting city: the town centre is really limited and quite sleepy which, combined with a practically non-existent nightlife, makes it a place to spend no more than three or four days.

Actually we had stopped there because Coffs Harbour is also known as the land of bananas, since there are endless plantations of them. To remind everyone of this there's also a super mega giant banana that greets you at the entrance to the city. I don't know why but this banana is quite famous... it's even mentioned in books, but actually there's really nothing interesting about it. But back to us... we had decided to stop in this city to find work in the banana harvest, in order to earn a bit of money and be able to afford a few more stops in Australia, towards the north. Unluckily the harvest season hadn't started yet... oh well, maybe another time.

The interesting thing about the hostel was the possibility of using surfboards for free... did you understand that right!? For free! And do you think we could let such a juicy opportunity slip away? Obviously not

The following day after an abundant breakfast we grabbed the boards and headed towards the ocean. For a while we felt like real surfers... we were really happy, super pumped up by that board carried under our arm. But once again the party didn't last long... once the board was in the water we clashed with the force of the ocean... it's really a big thing, majestic and strong, but above all around these parts quite dangerous! It all seems easy when you watch others do it, all too easy! But it isn't, for us at least it wasn't, and after the first day of surfing we had feet covered in bruises and grazes all over our bodies... but happy, really happy. No one managed to stand up on the board, but it was equally exciting and fun.

In our favour it must be said that the day chosen to learn to surf was quite inclement: a wind was blowing that hardly allowed you to stay on your feet and on top of that the boards we had been given were certainly not suitable for beginners.

But it was exciting, so much so that the following day we were again in front of the big blue to ride the wave. Just one day apart we had already made little steps forward and improved our technique. We spent a few hours watching the surfers, the good ones, to copy their movements... we even started having strange conversations about how the waves should be taken, about their cyclic patterns, about the influence of the currents... And then back in the water, charged up by all these conversations, which however didn't lead to big improvements. We came out of the water like little old men after climbing five flights of stairs, we were exhausted, defeated and destroyed.

And that's all that can be said about Coffs Harbour, which we left after only three days, full of bruises and without a job. We had ourselves driven back to the bus station towards evening, as late as possible since we had chosen to travel at night again to save a bit of money!