Yamba is about 700km north of where we live and is located on the New South Wales north coast. We booked the Calypso Holiday Park, which is located right on the Clarence River with a 2 minute walk into the village centre and a 5 minute walk from the ocean beach.
There is plenty to see and do, with cafes, restaurants, shopping, bike tracks, walks and all manner of water activities. There are numerous beaches within a 5 minute drive, as well as more pools and beaches 10 minutes away in Angourie.
We did the trip in a day and left home at 6am and we had stopped for breakfast in Buledelah, a coffee at Kew and lunch was at a roadside rest area around 1:30pm. We arrived into Yamba and were set up by around 4pm for 8 nights at Calypso Holiday Park.
Day 1 saw us walk around the Yamba main village shops and then up over a steep hill to the headland ovelooking one of the beaches. The Pacific Hotel (pub) is located at the top of the hill and overlooks the ocean and beaches.
Left is the main street leading into Yamba village which is located at the bottom of the hill. This is the street we walked up, and it is actually too steep for cars and, as such, has been barricaded off.
Upon reaching the top, we found a cafe and had a cold drink before having a walk around the top and then walking down another street into the village shopping area as shown in the photo below.
The caravan park and river lie to the right of where thes photos were taken, and the beaches were also to our right and behind us also.
Stephanie's sister Karen joined us on this trip, however she stayed in one of the cabins located in the holiday park rather than us all being crammed in the caravan.
The first day gifted us some awesome weather, which was short lived as we then had torrential rain that night and the following day. Good news was that there were no leaks in the van!!!
On Day 2 was a miserable and rainy day, so we headed off to explore some of the surrounds starting with breakfast at the Macadamia Castle. We all had pancakes with different toppings. Andrew's was the Black Forest Decadence stack that tasted as great as it looked! Sorry... no food pics were taken but if you click here you'll get an idea of what we had to suffer!
From There we headed through Newrybar, a quaint historic village just off the old Pacific Highway and then we arrived at the village of Bangalow.
Bangalow is another historic village that tourists flock to because of it's picturesque architecture and "old style" feel. The buildings are preserved and as a result it has a great "feel". There are some quaint shops and cafes and was worth the visit just to get a feel of what an old style town would have looked like many years ago.
From Bangalow we headed to Byron Bay to visit the Byron Bay Cookie Store and get some Christmas gifts for friends.
Byron is always a busy place, but as "schoolies" was on, we did not stay and we moved down the coast to Ballina to do some shopping before heading back.
On the way back, we stopped at the Harwood Island and had a drink at the pub.
Harwood pub lies on the Clarence River about 15km up-stream from Yamba and is at the northern base of the Pacific Highway bridge at Yamba/Iluka.
Day 3 was another beautiful sunny day and we had a couple of visitors, John and Helen, who were staying up at Lennox Head and they decided to drive down to catch up with us. We hung around the holiday park and had lunch at one of the cafes at Yamba.
After John and Helen left, we then jumped in the car and drove 15 mins to Angourie to visit the Blue and Green Pools.
Normally, these pools are actually blue and green, but all the recent rain has stirred up the water and they have temporarily lost their colour.
The Blue Pool above and the Green Pool on the left are remnants of mines and they attract many visitors that jump off the cliffs into the water below.
The photo on the left captures someone juming in and about half way through their descent.
It's actually quite a nice place to visit and ideal for a picnic and swim.
We finished the day with a walk along the breakwall (approx 3km return from our van)
Day 4 started with a visit to the Farmer's Markets where we bought some fresh produce. From there we headed to visit the town of Maclean and then the fishing village of Iluka.
Day 5 saw us head off to Grafton with the idea of getting some Christmas shopping done. It was a hot day with temperatures around 33C. After Grafton, we headed back to Yamba along the northern bank of the Clarence River through farmland - just for a change.
After returning, we then headed off to Harwood Hotel for dinner, but not before packing away all our chairs etc from under the awning as hpossible eavy rain was forecast for the evening. We packed everything away but left the awning down as it was secured by four tie ropes.
The Harwood Hotel has a great bistro and reputation, so they gat a few visitors. We took advantage of the outdoor dining and sat down to enjoy a bit of a view and a great dinner.
About 45 minutes after arriving, the most horrific storm hit with wind gusts around 100 kph. Trees blew over, roofs were stripped off buildings and a power pole was taken down by a flying roof. Power was lost at the pub, and everyone was huddled inside. The storm came from nowhere and was in full force withoin minutes. It lasted about 10 minutes and then disappeared as quickly as it came. All the time we were thinking that we should have pulled the caravan awning up and packed it away. We expeted the worst upon our return.
As soon as the rain storm ceased, we jumped in the car and headed back to the van.
We saw minor flooding, trees down and lots of damage on the way back. We slowly pulled into the caravan park and were in utter disblief whe we realised that the high winds completely missed Yamba - which was only 15km from where the storm hit. Our van and awning were secure with absolutely no damage to any van there!
Day 6 was spent bumming around and we headed off to the beach in the afternoon as it was a nice day. We sat and watched the sunset by the river in front of our van and that night we had dinner under the awning.
Day 7 in Yamba was our final day. It started at Maclean markets where we purchased two citrus trees, then we headed back to our van and had a day of bumming around and relaxing. We did contemplate going to the beach, it it was rather windy and decided we did not need to get sand blasted!
Dinner was at The Italian on the Hill in Yamba - we drove there as we were not willing to walk up that hill again prior to dinner! Great food, good atmosphere and a fun night.
Day 8 was a 6:30am start. We packed the car and van and departed at 9am. We drove back to Sydney and the van was back home by 6:30pm.
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