The Big Banana

On the way up from SW Rocks to Yamba, our destination for the day, all travelers pass "The Big Banana". One of the worst tourist traps I've ever seen, its a moderately sized banana placed along the roadside. Its backed by an ice cream shop that makes a pretty tasty banana split and a way overpriced souvenir store. We stopped for a few pictures here and for some ice cream to help cool off from the heat.

Once we got into Yamba, our plans to stay in the national park were quickly derailed by the "NO CAMPING" sign at the park entrance. We drove around for a few minutes looking for other campsites and ended up at a tourist park on the edge of a bay. It was not one of the nicer places I've stayed in- the term "trailer park" comes to mind. According to the JJ's, it wasn't that bad compared to some other options. I'll give the place this much- they did have clean bathrooms.

The next day I woke up early and went for a walk down to the beach. There was a large breakwater with a walking trail that went out into the ocean. At the entrance was this scary sign warning that waves could crash over the breakwater and sweep you away into the water. There was even an accompanying diagram of what could happen. One of the things I've noticed about this country is the entertaining diagrams on their signs. My favorite is the road sign for "frosty when wet" that shows a car careening off the side of the road. Unfortunately my camera battery died halfway out on my walk and I didn't have a spare with me. It wouldn't have made a difference, because once I got back to camp I discovered that my cheapo third battery spare batteries don't actually fit my camera. They are a tiny bit too thin to engage the battery catch mechanism. When we have some spare time, I'm going to try rigging up a fix so I can actually use these batteries.

Back in the car today: destination Brisbane.