We're leaving the charming cottage park in Byron Bay. Driving to Sydney is still too far, so our destination is halfway, Port Macquarie.
Stopped in Coffs Harbour for lunch at the botanical gardens. It's almost becoming a tradition. You could buy plants here outside office hours with a coin basket. I also saw two lovely birds, see below. And something for my mother-in-law.
We also saw an echidna in the bushes, an egg-laying mammal just like the platypus! Another unique Australian animal. I looked it up: it has nothing to do with the hedgehog and it mainly eats ants and other insects with its fast, long tongue. It's a good digger, and when it senses danger, it quickly burrows itself.
I quickly drove past the harbor and beach. Surprisingly quiet here, empty beaches, empty parking lots. It's midweek, after all, and the school holidays are over.
When we got out of the car at the shore, we saw a whale jumping out of the water, fins and all! After that, it stayed away. So, no pictures, just talk.
Otherwise, the journey was uneventful, as a highway should be. "Follow this road for 220 km." A very quiet road; this isn't the Gold Coast.
It's funny, you also see cyclists on the highway. There are whole stretches of land where there's no other road. Cyclists do have to be careful at the on- and off-ramps.
Incidentally, there are so few side roads that every 5 km or so you have a center lane where you can turn around, using a passage in the center lane. Not a problem as long as a car only passes by every minute or so.
House:
