Wow, what a few days we have had.  We left Hastings Point, in the direction of Yamba.  We pulled into Byron Bay with the intention of going to the Lighthouse, but our caravan was too big to and could only go so far, so we parked and walked as long as the twins could handle.  We then decided on two very important decisions, one- what to name our GPS!!! Sarah it is, and two- what was our theme song going to be.......ON THE ROAD AGAIN, by Willie Nelson, (thanks for the tip Cassie).

We then pull into the Yamba Big 4, with much anticipation about the giant jumping pillow.  Yamba is lovely, we were told by locals to check out the Green and Blue Pools.  So with a picnic morning tea in tow, we set off to a natural beauty of mother nature.  Directly next to the ocean, is two huge natural freshwater pools, one of green colour, one of blue, (hence the name).  Beautiful!!!!  Then off to the lighthouse and the Trawler to buy fresh King Prawns for lunch....MMmmm Yummo.  After two days of the parks water park and pool and jumping pillow it was time to set off again.

                                                                  The Green and Blue Pools

We headed to Coffs Harbour, purely to take photos outside the Big Banana.  Oh, and of course ice cream!  It was pretty steamy so we pulled into Park Beach for a swim, and picnic lunch at the park.  We were told about Sawtell (Thanks Uncle Petey) and boy are we grateful for that.  What a beautiful place Sawtell is.  The huge fig trees that line the centre of the main street and the headland and beaches were breathtaking.  One downside to our stay was, we were walking back from town, when a duck got hit by a car directly next to us.  We had three very upset children, while Elley was more curious about the splat!!!!   Anyway......

 

                                                Beautiful Sawtell

After great navagating skills from yours truly, I head us to one our highlights so far.  A place called Trial Bay, South West Rocks.  It was amazing, educational, relaxing, fun and totally unexpected.  We toured the remains of the Trial Bay Gaol, where convicts were sent just to build a breakwater for the ships to shelter from bad weather.  We walked inside the cells the prisoners were kept in and apart from Sammi thinking we were going to be locked in, the kids were amazed.  Highly recommend it.   We walked along the beach first thing in the morning and came across some commercial fishermen, who pulled there nets in purely for the kids benefit.  They knew it wasn't a huge catch but wanted the kids to see the nets come in.  Two very memorable nights, where we also met a lovely Dutch family, who for some reason couldn't understsand Troys dutch language!!!!(Robyn wetting her pants laughing)

 

                                                   Morning walk along the beach

                                                 The guys bringing in the nets for the kids
                                                     (one big yellow tail king fish plus a box)

                                               Part of Trial Bay Gaol

Such is Life!!

                                                  The Breakwater the Convicts built

Troy finally lets me take the wheel, and has his hand at navagating.  He leads us to a place called Diamond Head, in Crowdy Bay National Park.  Lovely spot, very popular with the locals, which had a school camp which set up 3 meters from our caravan.  We were worried for no reason, they had a huge fire and and played acoustic guitars and sang.  We had our own fire and after dinner Troy threw his meat scraps in, next thing you know,  a Kookaburra flies directly into the centre of the fire to retrieve the meat.  Was cool to see.

                                                   The Kids at Diamond Head

We then pull up at the Big 4 Forster/Tuncurry.  Gorgeous spot, Kaicey, Elley, Max and I went for a bike ride this morning and found a rockpool beach, (Troy and Sammi had to turn around due to Sammi's lack of riding ability), so about face to get them and the car.  So glad we did, walking along breakwater, we spot what would have been at least 10 dolphins playing in the sea way.  We all had an amazing time watching them for around an hour.   Dragging ourselves away, we tour Forster/Tuncurry, and buy some King Tiger Prawns and some bait at the Fish Co-Op.  The Big 4 here is on the waterways, abundant with Pelicans and small fish that Troy cant catch, yet i seem to have no trouble landing 3 within the matter of minutes....

                                                   Elley and Sammi watching the Dolphins

                                                Dolphin right in front of boat

                                           Troy and Max fishing, Sammi being Sammi

Having the time of our lives, missing special people but cant wait to see them all and tell them all the stories that aren't blog suitable!!!!!!

PS.  The special people in our lives are in our hearts on this amazing journey, you know who you are, and THANK YOU... 
PPS.  You have all these amazing moments and know your doing an incredible thing with your family, but there are always going to be  hard days when we miss our friends and family.

 The Travelling Bryants

                                                              Our Theme Song