An Aimless Walk Takes Me To Downtown Coffs Harbour

I went on an early morning aimless wandering away from the hostel in Coffs Harbour.

On the walk at the Jetty Foreshores, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia.

Hiking at Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.

Here is a picture of me from the lookout point on Muttonbird Island.

 I got back to the hostel, and ended up watching this awesome Australian movie from 1966 about an alien invasion in 2150 while I undertake some minor sewing repairs. "Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 A. D."  The movie music was very "campy Batman", and the effects were outta sight!

After the movie, I went out walking again.

I ended up walking around the town center.

Aborted Journey To The Lookout Point

I got up pretty early today, packed up all my stuff, and made breakfast with the last of my veggies and rice. Then I checked out of the hostel, but they'll let me hang in the common areas until I leave tonight.

I was pretty sluggish this morning, but around noon, I decided to try to find a good walk today. So I was thinking that I would go to the lookout point on top of the highest mountain outside Coffs Corners, which is called The Forest Pier. I asked the woman at the hostel desk if there was any shuttle or bus that went there, and she didn't know of any. So I told her maybe I would just walk there.  She was aghast that I was even considering that; she said it was way too hot and too far.

I looked it up on my GPS, and it was about a six hour walk roundtrip, and way the fuck out of town. No big deal, six hour walk. So I took off on my journey.

But as I got further out of town, I realized my GPS on my phone would run out of batteries fast. So I had to turn my phone off, and turn it on every once in a while to check my progress. This was working fine until I missed a turn because the street I was supposed to go down was not marked with a sign. And then I ended up walking way past it,  and didn't realize it until much layer, when I next turned on my phone to spot-check my progress.

But another problem was, once I got outside the town, there were no more sidewalks. The roads were narrow, and they were cluttered with profuse weeds and vegetation along the borders. So I had to walk in the street and either jump in the weeds when a car came, or stay in the street and hope I didn't get run over when the shrubbery was too thick.

Also, it was REALLY hot, and the sun was beating down on me. I decided to turn around when I had walked about halfway there; maybe a little more than halfway if you consider the wrong way I took. If I had walked the whole way, I would have gotten really sunburned. As it was, I got a little toasty, though the back of my right calf got the worst of it for some reason.

Since my phone was off most of the time, I didn't take any pics, and all the territory I covered in town, I had covered before and taken photos.

So I think I'll just stay at the hostel for the rest of the day until my bus leaves late tonight. I've had plenty of adventure for the day.

I took this picture as I was heading out of town.

Back at the hostel, I took a picture of the peak I had tried to reach.  That is it between the trees.

Just Coffing

Today, I spent the day exploring Coffs Harbour. I walked a little over 18 km. For the last week, that's probably been about my average day of walking. I've been walking between 16 and 25 km a day.

I stayed my day just aimlessly taking off from the hostel, and found a nice hike and bike trail that had an offshoot boardwalk that went through a mangrove patch along the creek. Then I found the trail that went along the jetty, and led to Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve. I hiked the whole trail on the island, which had some spectacular views of the ocean and the surrounding mountains. I talked to some locals at the summit lookout for a while, and then meandered my way back to the hostel.

Then I had to make a minor sewing repair to my hip pack, and while I was doing that, I watched a surreal Australian sci-fi movie from 1966 that depicted an alien takeover of Earth in 2150.

Then I took a shower, and did some laundry in the sink, which is sitting out to dry now. So far, I haven't done any laundry in a washing machine; I've just washed my last clothes in the sink. I got some combination shampoo/conditioner/body wash at the store, and ice been using it both in the shower and on my laundry.

I went back out again, and this time I walked toward the city center. I poked around the center of town and the surrounding area, and then headed back to the hostel again. I've got one more day here in Coffs Harbour, so I'll probably do some more exploring tomorrow.