Yamba

Saturday, 10 June 2017

A wet and soggy afternoon at Darlington Beach

Mouth of the Clarence River at Yamba

Oyster beds

Floods not far from the caravan park

Clarence River from the boat ramp at the caravan park

Friday afternoon, it rained; all Friday night, it rained heavily; Saturday morning, it rained heavily; Saturday afternoon, it was still raining heavily.  We packed up in the rain this morning, for the relatively short (105 kms) drive to Yamba and drove in the rain all the way.  The rain did abate for a short while as we set up on site and then set in again with a vengeance!  Yamba had 135 mls in twelve hours overnight and will probably get the same tonight.  The countryside is very soggy and underwater in places.  We aren’t far from the banks of the Clarence River, but should be okay.

We are staying at the Big4 Saltwater@Yamba which turned out to be some distance from Yamba – about 15 minutes by car.  The park is average, with dirt road, no kerbs, some concrete slabs and some grass/dirt sites.  We are on a drive-thru with slab, but once again, underneath a big tree.  This means that once again, television reception is either very poor or non-existent.  It is also strange that when I tune the television on arrival, I have perfect reception on all channels, but when we turn the television on later in the day, all reception seems to disappear of pixelate.  Very frustrating …  The park has a number of features such as jumping pillow (too wet once again to use!), water park (too wet to use), outdoor cinema (too wet to use), flying fox, bocce and I’m sure there are other entertainments.  Being a long weekend, this means there are lots of children but the rain seems to have forced them indoors.

We did a quick tour of Yamba township after lunch – the place probably buzzes come holiday time.  There are very many large holiday apartment complexes along the beach, as well as some very nice houses and an enormous bowls club.

We saw our first sugar cane crops today as we left the blueberries behind in the Coffs Harbour region (bananas seem to have disappeared from the landscape) and after seeming some mango trees, we know that Queensland isn't too far away.  Hopefully it will be sunny Queensland.