Gully and Elise's Travel Blog: No Harbour in the Storm

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that I was fearful for my life in Yamba. I was more afraid to walk around there alone than I was in South America – so I was thrilled to move on to our next destination. Coffs Harbour was truly a family vacation destination, and during the five days we spent there we didn’t get harassed by drunken bogans even once. There was a pool at the caravan park we stayed at that had 3 water slides, a pirate ship, built-in water guns, and a seahorse shooting water out of its nose. It was awesome.

But an action-packed kiddie pool can only entertain an almost-30-year-old for so long. Soon we were starting to feel a little bored…I have to say that I’m actually starting to get tired of beautiful beaches, nice boardwalks, and sunny weather. We had just decided to pack up and head to the Hunter Valley to do some wine tasting (yum!) when it hit…. the ten-minute storm (not to be confused with the Fifty-Year Storm a la movie Point Break, this storm was actually ten minutes in length, not a storm that happens every ten minutes). I was alone at the campsite while Gully was surfing when out of nowhere this wind picked up that blew our stuff halfway across the campground before I even knew what had happened. I spent the next ten minutes sitting in the tent and holding it up from the inside so that it wouldn’t blow away, praying that the tree branches I heard falling all around me wouldn’t fall on my head. Finally Gully arrived to save me, but he also had his own problems as the wind had actually blown out a window in our car. We thought we had somehow stumbled into the path of a hurricane. Then, just as fast as it came, it left, and left us confused… how can a ten minute storm blow out your car window and flatten your campsite and then just disappear like nothing had ever happened? Australia is a crazy place.

-E