NSW coast

We are now in Coffs Harbour and, once again, can see how this must be a very popular holiday destination for the millions who live in the East here, great beaches, lots of things to do and see and heaps of accomodation options. Currently, as I said before, it is nice and quiet though!

We are staying at the Clog Barn here in Coffs Harbour. It is run by people with a dutch heritage and the man actually showed us, today, how wooden clogs are made. It was very interesting and although, not by hand as they used to, the machines throw lots of wood shavings everywhere so Darren really loved it - plus, we got to keep the clog!

Today we visited the Pet Porpoise Pool -which has an interactive dolphin and seal show and really allows you to get up close and personal with these wonderful marine animals. We all got a kiss from a dolphin and a seal - nice and cool and wet, but fun! And then, after the show, we could pat the dolphins and chat to the trainers, as well as feed a seal, a green turtle, a port jackson shark and some little blue penguins. Usually in summer they get 400 people to a show, today there were only 50 people there so the kids had a great opportunity to spend ages patting and watching the dolphins do tricks and learnt a lot about them and their environment. It was a fantastic day, one we are grateful for and will remember for a long time.


From The Entrance we headed north, again, and made it to Wauchope for a night. It rained all night and we thought we might float away by the morning - they'd had 100ml over a few days! But the sun came out the next day and we visited old Timber town, a replica village of an 1850's forrestry and saw milling town. The most interesting thing was the Bullock team and its trainer - there are not many of them around now days, but this guy did a great job keeping his 10 bullocks yoked together and in order to drag a log around.

It reminded me that God calls us to take up his yoke which is easy and His burden which is light. One bullock can only drag so much, but when yoked to another, their strength is more than doubled. God wants us to be yoked to Him, why would we want to bear this life alone with all its troubles and misery's - we can be yoked with the One who gives sufficient grace for every time of need and then know the secret of peace - putting off the taxing yoke of self and accepting the Master's relaxing yoke.