NO Matilda I'm not going to do another U-turn!

cassowarie
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Wow I am a slacker! I started this set of blogs WEEKS ago and am just now getting back to them. My apologies everyone! Where did I leave off…oh yeah we were at Benbellen for our last breakfast there. Another couple joined us for breakfast that morning and we chatted away as we ate finding out all sorts of interesting things. They were Australians who lived in Africa for several years if I remember right. After breakfast we said our goodbyes to Peter and Sherry and hit the road again. We didn’t make it far before we saw a sign pointing us to Billabong Koala sanctuary. We were in! There we saw sooo many Aussie animals. Kangaroos that we actually petted, wombats, cockatoos that talked to me, peacocks, of course the koalas and so many others. We spent hours in there just looking around and taking in as much as we could. After spending the day with the animals we wound our way out in to the countryside near Coffs Harbour and attempted to find Bangalow Cottage which we would be staying in that night. Well Matilda got us near to it but then we saw a sign and tried to go down what used to be a driveway but I’m pretty sure hasn’t been used for the last couple of years. It was very dark out and luckily Laraine’s husband Digger was looking out for us. She called my mobile and guided right to the lovely little cottage. It was perfect for us. Small and cozy. After getting settled in we ordered some takeaway Italian and set out again to find the Italian restaurant. We got a bit lost trying to get out of suburbia and I had to back down a very long driveway that we managed to go up. We made it eventually though and brought the food home with growling bellies.  We opened up our bottle of Rosé and had a delicious dinner in. After dinner we snuggled up on Mama’s bed together and did some wedding planning for Manda :D It was perfect bonding time.

wombat
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I woke the next morning to some crazy screeching sound and thought that Mama was screaming for some unknown reason. When I finally rolled out of bed I found out that it was the peacock on the garage roof…yeah that’s apparently quite normal. Haha! Since the lovely peacock had woken me up I made us buttermilk pancakes and we slathered them with Nutella. Mmmm so good! Full of energy we made our way back into Coffs Harbour and found the Opal Centre. Let me just tell you I had to resist a LOT of temptation there! We shopped for a good hour if not two getting lovely gifts for people and…well for ourselves too ;) What better souvenir than an Australian opal?!? After our shopping excursion we decided to go bush. We drove inland to Dorrigo which is not very many k’s away from Coffs Harbour but the road is TINY and very steep. I was white knuckling it the entire way for sure. Once we got up to the first lookout there was no stopping us. The views were absolutely stunning. We continued on up the mountain to Dorrigo and the Skywalk. The skywalk is a really high walkway that goes probably 500 metres into the rainforest so you can see the view from the level of the canopy. Again the views were stunning and we spent quite a while just taking in the beauty of Australia. Our next stop was not too far away at Dangar Falls. It was a bit chilly but I convinced Mama and Manda that swimming in a waterfall in Australia was a once in a lifetime experience (now twice for me :D) and they had to do it. Well the water was very very chilly but it was beautiful and we played in the water till we were numb. Luckily we had some scones waiting for us in the car and had a little snack before we had to head down the mountain again.

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On the way home we went to the shops and picked up some lamb and mixed veggies to make some dinner with. We also found a nice little fruit and veg shop along the way and had to stop in and see if there was anything good. It was really interesting because I got to show Manda and Mama all the weird names that Aussies have for our fruit and veggies. Like their pumpkin is really squash and I have no idea what their squash is to us. Rock melon is cantaloupe and capsicums are peppers. Haha. It was good fun :D Mandie was so tired after dinner that she crawled into bed and refused to stop snoring. I talked very loudly and tried to wake her up but was afraid to actually move her because I have tried that before in my life and know it’s a bad idea. So I took pictures of her and made Mama wake her up. Muahaha ;) After a mostly peaceful night of sleep we got up and got ready to leave. Digger (the owner of Bangalow Cottage) came down to meet us and say goodbye. He was a very sweet man and was incredibly excited to have finally met us! Apparently I have a lovely accent and he saved my messages on their answering machine just so that they can hear it. I’ve never thought of my accent as lovely so that was really nice