18.11.2018 | Australia, Travel

Visiting a Koala Hospital and surfing in Woolgoolga+Byron Bay

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G´day! After our stay in Sydney and after hiking in the Grampians we drove with our camper van further north passing Newcastle. Our plan was to visit the Goldcoast and Sunshine Coast until we reach the Great Barrier Reef a few weeks later.

Newcastle and the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie

Newcastle is a pretty big surf town and densely covered with buildings. We visited “Nelson Bay” and “Port Stephans”, unfortunately, the dolphin season just ended, but until April you can book a tour for swimming with the dolphins. If I remember rightly the best and cheapest tour is offered in Adelaide. Because this day was pretty windy and rainy, we drove further north. You can actually feel the temperature increase while driving along the coast from south to north. We went for great distances on the highway until we reached Port Macquarie because the roads next to the coast are almost appropriate for 4-wheelers. I highly recommend the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie! In this establishment, they care for the injured koalas and the koalas have the possibility to live in big, tall enclosures. Sadly most of the koalas were blind because of car accidents, some of them had burns due to forest fires. Some of the koalas will be released after some time, some of them have to stay forever because due to their blindness they simply wouldn´t find the way. Luckily the koalas can still sit on top of the eucalyptus trees in their enclosure. There was a room full of information about the cute creatures, too, and the entry is free. However, we donated some Dollars for the koalas.

Overnight Stay in Macksville and visiting Scotts Head and Nambucca Heads Beach

We moved on until we reached Macksville. We found an amazing free rest area in the “Lionspark”, there were already a few campervans. The rest area is located directly next to a river with pelicans.  Actually, we wanted to go surfing the next day, but it wasn´t that easy to get some surfing gear. At first, we tried to get some gear at Scotts Head Beach, a good beginner spot because of the long waves, but there was only a trailer of the surf school and the phone went unanswered. Therefore we moved on to “Nambucca Heads Beach”, but again we couldn´t reach someone. For that, we talked a lot with an old Australian man who told us a lot of funny stories ;).

Next stop: Coffs Harbour

We then drove to Coffs Harbour, the next bigger town. It was pretty crowded and they have a really big banana as a landmark in front of a leisure park :). At first, we visited the “Diggers Beach”, another beginner beach. There were a few people out in the water and the waves looked pretty good. Strangely enough,  the owner of the surfing trailer sad the waves are too big…We assumed that they weren´t motivated to go out on a weekend only to give some surfboards :). We found out it is a lot easier with your own surfboards and wetsuits because you are a lot more flexible. We watched the pro surfers at the “Rotary Foreshores Park” riding the extremely big waves. Everyone was surfing, except us, at this moment suddenly the phone rang and a surf school gave us the tip to rent some surfing gear in Woolgoolga, a few minutes up north.

Woolgoolga – finally we could surf again

We rent our surfing gear for two days at the XS-Surf shop in the beautiful, cute coastal town Woolgoolga. We chose two little hard surfboards (size 8.4/8.6) and two wetsuits and paid 70 AUS Dollar. Actually, the shop was a beach clothing store but luckily they had a few boards. The beach was directly in front of us and we finally could surf again. There were only 3 other surfers in the water and we had a lot of space. Near the beach, there were smaller waves, far out the bigger waves. By now I was able to ride some bigger waves and to stand up on my board easily. We only came out of the water when the sun went down. We could leave our campervan at the parking space for free directly in front of the Life-Saving Club. We simply felt the temperature increase, the more we drove up north along the coast. In the evening we walked through the little shopping street and talked with two nice men. One sentence made me smile. They sad: “We know someone in Germany, he is living in Cologne, do you know him?” :). For Australian people, Germany is equally thinly populated as Australia. :). We stayed the night next to a kettle near the Woolgoolga lighthouse. It was a little bit difficult to accommodate the two surfboards in our little camper van, especially because it became very windy outside wherefore they were almost blown away. The next day we woke up at 6 am and we drove to “Emerald Beach” and “Arrawarra Beach” to look for some waves, both around 10 minutes away. The monster waves were so high, that we returned to Woolgoolga beach. The waves can be pretty different at the neighboring beaches, depending on the size of the bay and the orientation. Back in Woolgoolga again, the waves were PERFECT and we went surfing all day long. There were some other surfers and a surf school, too. We were able to ride perfect waves and talked to some nice people on the water. Sitting on my surfboard, I talked to a nice woman wearing a hat (! yes she surfed with a hat, she seemed to never fall into the water…). It is really common to do some small talk on the water. There was also an older man with a long white beard and a cap surfing one wave after the other. Parents seized the Sunday to surf with their kids, and these kids could surf fantastic, no wonder if they go surfing ever since they are 3 years old. 😉 The sunshine was amazing and we didn´t want to come out of the water. Later we returned our surfboards and talked with such a nice guy, asking us about our travel plans. He told us, that his nephew is married to a German woman and he gave us a few secret tips for our route.

Red Rock Beach and our overnight stay in Ballina

Next, we visited the Red Rock Beach. We could leave our car at a campsite and walk the last few meters to the beach. It was a wonderful beach for a picnic. We moved on along the highway to “Ballina”. Most of the campsites were already closed, therefore we checked in in our first Big 4 campsite for 38 AUS Dollar per night. If you have a Britz campervan you get a 10 % discount at any Big 4 campsite. The camp area was amazing!! We had a wonderfully big place under palm trees and there were a hot tub and a pool under the palms. The shower rooms were amazing, clean and new.

Byron Bay – the most relaxed surfer town at the surf coast

The next morning we drove to Byron Bay along coast streets passing Lennox Head. Byron Bay is suuuuch a cool place!! There are these hip cafés simply everywhere offering avocado bread, granola, Acai bowls…you know what I mean. 🙂 There were a lot of chic clothing stores as well. Everything was dipped into a “no worries – mentality”. At first, we visited the “Clarkes Beach”, there were many surfers although it was early in the morning and even it was a weekday. The waves went into the Bay in a pretty perfect and long way because they are formed far out the ocean at some rocks. The surfers built a line and waited until it is their turn. There was a big rainbow due to sunshine and rain clouds at the same time. After watching the surfers for a long time, we climbed up the “Fishermen´s Lookout” the big rock near the beach. From here you can watch the surfers starting to ride the waves and you can have a glance on the beach “Wategos Beach” next door. After that, we explored the town Byron Bay and found ourselves between all the wonderful cafés and cute stores. There are no high-rise buildings at all, every building is at most two-storied. Everyone is wearing nice comfy surfer clothes, although some of the people seemed to have a lot of money because we found a lot of expensive luxury villas near the beach. Byron Bay Lifestyle: to spend most of the time surfing or relaxing in a nice café. Several times we were approached, I totally fell in love with this town and I will definitely come again someday! We moved on to the “Belonjil Beach”, here again – the water was full of great surfers!

The monster waves on the Cabarita Beach

We drove along the highway to the “Cabarita Beach”, professional surfers tackled the big monster waves far out at sea. Many people stood on top of the rocks to watch the surfers examining their techniques. Across the street, we found a cute café-vehicle for all the surfers offering some good coffee and biscuits.

Farm & Co. Kingscliff – organic products

The small farm run by one family is located in the 529 cudgen road and developed to a popular spot for photos in the sunflower fields. They grow organic products and sell them in the surrounding area. I was really pleased to see that there are many local vegetable and fruit farms in this area and a lot of Australian people prefer to buy the vegetables in their neighborhood. We were allowed to walk around the whole Kingscliff farm through the vegetable beds and avocado trees, we could even crack some macadamia nuts under the trees. The highlight was definitely the big sunflower field! With a scissor, we could choose a sunflower and we paid 11 AUS Dollar for the sunflower, 1 avocado and a big bowl of strawberries.   

The border between New South Wales and Queensland

And then we suddenly reached the border of Queensland. Byron Bay is the last tropical town in New South Wales before reaching the border. There was no visible border, but the Snapper Rocks are located directly next to it. Because plenty of sunlight in the year, the coast from the Snapper Rocks to Brisbane is called “Goldcoast”. We then explored all the nice places at the Gold Coast. *** Dieser Artikel enthält Werbung, da Marken genannt werden.