Sydney to Coffs Harbour
Sunday 21 October
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6:50 AM. We left the Travelodge and made a short drive through Sydney. The first event of the day was a group photo at Mrs Macquaries Point. Today it was very sunny, that's good! A nice way to start a holiday. After the group photo we walked to Mrs Macquaries chair. Paul told us about this place and the story behind Mrs Macquaries chair. Back on the coach we finally made our way to Coffs Harbour. Passing the famous Harbour Bridge we had the last glimpse of the beautiful harbour of Sydney.
While moving on Paul told us what's going to happen these couple of days and laid down some rules to make this a pleasant and enjoyable trip for everyone. Doing a Contiki tour, also means hearing a morning song each day. The morning song was called "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown.
The group was large, 22 girls and 18 boys. A good mixture and quite some fun is going to happen these couple of days. We stopped at a service station for a quick snack before heading further north to our destination.
In the coach it was time for an inescapable event, the introduction! It's always a little bit scary to introduce yourself to a bunch of people you don't know. I had decided to capture the whole event on tape. Great to see it back one day. This tour is going to be special. Telling your name, occupation, where you're from, etc. Some are quite funny too! Last of them was our tour manager Paul and tour driver Chris.
11:45 AM. We stopped for lunch at a place. Back on the road again we went through the optionals of the tour. 2:15 PM. We stopped again, for a quick snack at a roadhouse, before continuing to Coffs Harbour. In the coach everyone is making his/her decision about the optionals. So much to choose from it wasn't easy to pick one.
5:00 PM. Finally we arrived in Coffs Harbour at the Coachmen Inn Motel. Free time till dinner at 6:45 PM. Got our key to our room and unpacked some stuff. Headed to an ATM to withdraw some money and bought some groceries at the supermarket nearby the accommodation.
Back at the accommodation, sat by the pool with all the other boys. I was more listening to their conversations than participating. My English isn't very good and I didn't have something interesting to tell either.
It took us nine hours to get here, with two stops. I took a shower and getting ready for dinner at the Tim's Surf 'n' Turf. I had ordered chicken schnitzel and a glass orange juice. When the order was called we had to get it and it was pretty massive meal! During the meal we got the chance to know each other. Took some pictures of our first evening. After dinner we headed to a local bar for a couple of drinks.
10:00 PM. Three of us decided to called it a night. Exhausted from the long distance drive of
today, we didn't want to stay up late. There are plenty of days to come and do crazy things.
Freshened up, packed my stuff, wrote my diary and went off to bed.
