Yesterday's break from riding was essential and went very quickly. As far as we were able to discover, there's not much to Coffs Harbour beyond a great climate, a couple of decent beaches, and a forlorn pedestrian mall peopled principally by derelicts. The town's premier tourist attraction is the \"Big Banana,\" a giant fiberglass replica of the region's chief crop. Neither of us had the energy to do anything beyond laundry, phone calls and a short visit to the beach (where we yoga'd while watching three kookaburras compete over a still-writhing snake). Today was another story. We woke up early, delighted to see that the southerly wind had lasted through the night.
Hitting the road at the unusually early hour of 9am, we cycled out of town over a steep ridge. The climb caused our energy and enthusiasm to flag only temporarily, for today's route was easily the most cycle-friendly road we've seen thus far in Australia: a good surface, rolling hills, pretty countryside, and --most importantly---a dearth of motorized traffic. The only disappointment was the lack of kangaroos and other marsupials live or flattened. A woman who runs a gas station in the middle of nowhere (literally) told us you usually see them early in the morning or at dusk, and that the big ones can get quite aggressive.
Stopping only a few times along the way for cold drinks, we made it to our destination in time for a late lunch at a funky old pub/hotel on the banks of the surprisingly wide Clarence River. While we thought we'd spend the night in a campground listed in the Spartacus Guide (which sounded kinda intriguing), the riverside location won us over. Tonight's action-packed agenda includes a walk around this supposedly historic town (\"oldest city on the Northern Coast\" proclaims the sign coming into town) and another sunset bat vigil. The local tourist literature hyperbolically describes the flying fox colony here as \"largest in the southern hemisphere,\"
thus explaining why all the fruit orchards we passed today were entirely enclosed in netting.