We spent 3 nights in Yamba on our way to Brisbane. Yamba is a small town halfway between Coffs Harbour & Byron Bay. The caravan park was huge with a fantastic waterpark. It was very quiet while we were there but I'm sure it's packed in the holidays. There are a lot of prawn farms in Yamba & just at the end of the road was a large farm that sold direct to the public. They were the freshest, tastiest prawns we have ever had. It's worth visiting Yamba just for the prawns.
Scarborough is 38km North of Brisbane on a point, next to a large marina. The caravan park was very clean & neat but felt more like a carpark with a lot of concrete. We met some lovely couples & enjoyed lots of chats & a few drinks. We stay connected via Facebook with a lot of people we meet. It's great to follow their travels while they follow ours. Hopefully we will meet up again somewhere.We caught up with Gary's mate from Futuris, Clayton & his wife Bernie. Clayton now works for a company that builds buses. He took us To see how the buses are built. It was so interesting. As usual, we cannot comprehend the work & detail that goes in to building the buses we see on the streets every day. We then had a beautiful lunch at the café attached to the caravan park.
That night I was still full from lunch so decided to just have a couple of Vita Weet biscuits with
Vegemite for tea. All of a sudden I felt a crunch that was very in biscuit like. I'd broken a piece off my wisdom tooth! I phoned Bernie who gave me the number of her dentist. I phoned first thing next morning & thankfully he could see me that afternoon. He did a patch up job that could last a year or a day. Unfortunately, 2 days later it broke again so I was left with no option but to have it pulled.
The dentist wasn't confident to remove it as he said it would be a very complicated extraction due to the roots being 'hooked'. He referred me to a dentist in Chermside who was able to do it later in the week.
In the mean time Cyclone Debbie was about to hit a bit further north in Airlie Beach. We paid Close attention to the news bulletins as we were going to Airlie Beach in 4 weeks time & they were forecasting torrential rain & winds for the whole east coast..... Rain & wind is the natural enemy of the caravanner.
We packed up everything outside & pulled the awning in as did most other people. A few people either didn't know about the impending storm or decided to risk it. Either way they were soon going to regret that decision. An ex Tip Top work mate, Lyndsay who lives in a nearby suburb, messaged me offering a bed for the night as she was a bit worried about us. That was so lovely of her, but we decided to stay put and caught up with her and husband Brian for a coffee later in the week.
Next morning I had to go to the dentist for the extraction, all schools were closed & everyone was advised to stay home & avoid all non urgent road travel due to the dangerous weather conditions. I had no option but to keep my dentist appointment. Luckily, it was in the morning & the worse conditions weren't expected to hit till around 4pm.
That day I have never seen so much rain on the roads, it was pretty scary driving the 26km to the dentist on unfamiliar roads in pelting rain. The tooth extraction itself wasn't too bad, the dentist was fantastic but took over an hour due to the curved roots.
Back at the van the heavy rain continued & we braced ourselves for the winds that were on the way. We were watching on TV the devastation Cyclone Debbie was causing to the Whitsundays.
The really strong winds started around 5pm. We couldn't do much but sit inside our rocking & Rolling Van watching TV (with the volume up due to the crazy noise of the rain on the caravan roof) & knitting Trauma Teddies. I was glued to the 'Willy Weather' app on my phone following the weather & could see it was going to last a few hours. At one stage we could hear some commotion outside & looking out the window one of the neighbours who didn't pack away was outside scurrying around putting things away in the torrential wind & rain. Around 7pm I could hear a strange banging outside. We kept listening out in case it was coming from our van but it couldn't be because everything was packed away. Around 8pm the rain & wind had all but gone & the rain was light enough to go outside & check for any damage. 2 caravans down from us a poor couple were soaking wet sorting their gear out & we discovered that their awning started collapsing in the storm.That was the banging we could hear. They then stood under it literally holding up the roof for 2 hours till the storm had passed. Poor buggas! We heard later the winds were up to 120kmh. The Next morning the sun was shining again & apart from the soggy ground there was no sign of the previous nights Storm.
We spent our last few days in Scarborough going for walks around the marina & chatting with other couples at the park.
Next stop........ Coolum!
