Almost active in Coffs

We packed our stuff into the car at Forster and went to the ambiguously named One Mile Beach to see how long it was. Despite the excesses of the previous day we were feeling vaguely with it and lolled out of the car eager for sand. We got it and there were bonus waves and, and, and dolphins too! The pod of about 6 was swimming past about 20 metres from the shore. They were big buggers and at first we thought they might have been sharks of some kind. We were eventually glad to have borne witness to the bloody demise of some local surfer, but sharks would have been cool. Not that the dolphions were anything but spectactularly beautiful. We clambered over rocks and conquered a sand dune that was at least 20 metres high (and felt about 100m!) before heading off by car to Coff's Harbout in search of more life. The driving is much the same (how could it really change, car, 3 of us, PSP, CDs, stunning nature, were the order of the day. When we got to Coff's it became apparent that my LP was slightly out of date as the hostel we liked just wasn't there. It had moved site and after a bit of fannying around we tracked it down. We got a 4 bed dorm to ourselves and went to get a beer at the Yacht club. It was far less posh than we'd expected (expectations just aren't order of the day when travelling!) but had a good view and a pool table, nice. We ate awesome Thai food that night and a few beers and some wine saw that all of us slept well. It might also have had something to do with that dune climb in the morning.

Next day...

...there was enough water to make us nervous about our balls...

A crazy weather front moved in that day and it quickly became the coldest November day in around 100 years in NSW. We didn't let this affect our fun too much and headed out to go go-karting. After a few laps on a cool course where we were given probably the most abbreviated safety talk possible we hit the mini golf for 18 holes of pure genius. Ok, so we were mostly a bit rubbish, but it was good fun and we saw St. Andrews spiders like the ones they had in the wildlife place in Sydney. I went to write while Oli and Martin (who I refer to in my head as OM or MO, which is quite funny for me as in India about the only hindu principle I liked was om (the syllable that encapsultes all other sounds etc.) and in Oz they are currently celebrating MOvember whre blokes grow 'tashes for men's cancer charities) played a round of golf. I met some randoms and got an idea or two about Brisbane evening possibilities. We went for posh fish 'n' chips that night and did the same beer/wine combo as the other night, but this time threw in some cards before sleep. Next stop Byron Bay.

Okay, so we played 9 holes of golf before leaving for Byron as Oli and Martin so enjoyed their round the previous day. The course was still young, but some trees were of a good size and there was enough water to make us nervous about our balls (not a sentence to be used outside of golf methinks) being lost. We even hired a buggy for the round which I'd never done before and really enjoyed. We didn't wreck it or drive into a lake or anything. How restrained of us! The course is pretty and there are birds of all kinds flying about. Our golf was mostly ugly, with the occasional good shot which was enough to satisfy all of us.