The headland at Coffs Harbour

There is not much to report from Coffs Harbour. The two day stop was for mostly commercial reasons as there was work to be done. But we did have time for sightseeing on the second afternoon, so we did a round trip through Nana Glen, a small town on the back road from Coffs Harbour to Grafton and a station on the north coast railway line.

Both road and railway line follow the Orara River. The road is known as the Orara Way. This small town received much publicity some years ago when actor Russell Crowe bought a rural retreat near the town. Singer Wendy Matthews did likewise a bit later. Both events received a fair amount of coverage in capital city media.

Café on the main road to Grafton

Nana Glen is really two towns, one on the railway and the other on the road. It is all quite old looking but there are signs of benefit from the Coffs harbour tourist boom. A small restaurant operates on the main road and a little further from town another restaurant/bar  was promoting live music, no doubt to attract tourists from the coast. Coastal holiday makers seem to like to include a hinterland experience in their holiday.

The town has facilities including a pub and fuel supplies.

The drive that we did would be ideal for a diversion from sun and sand. We drove north, through the extensive road works that seem to have been going on for ever, for about 10 km and turned into Bucca Road. A further 20 km brought us to Nana Glen. We then turned south to travel through the small rural towns of Coramba and Karangi and back into the centre of Coffs Harbour, a round trip of a little over 60 km.

Coffs Harbour is the home of the Big Banana, but perhaps not for long. Banana production is moving away. We passed some plantations as we approached Coffs Harbour from Nana Glen but there do not seem to be many more around. And we saw no bananas at Nana Glen!