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A small prod in my side alerted me to the sad fact that I had less than and hour to wake, shower and leave the hostel. Bundled into the car, having inspected the newly decorated car park, we travelled north towards Taree where we stopped for breakfast at McCafe and caught up with our journals. Then we proceeded north to Kempsey and then Grafton, on the way to which I received a telephone call from Mark to say that two more items of post had arrived at his flat for me. I will have to arrange for them to be posted to another address from which I can collect them as we won't be returning to Sydney this time round. Grafton, where we had lunch, was covered by an extremely dense smog from bush fires which we presume has been blown north in the winds from the Australian Capital Territory or southern New South Wales. The cafe where we ate was run by a couple of women who at first reminded me of Cagney and Lacey but then a friend of theirs joined them from which point on it was like listening to an episode of Prisoner Cell Block H as they continuously bemoaned a mutual acquaintance for the duration of our endurance of them.

Having made numerous telephone calls to various hostels en route it was decided, by lack of option, that we would stay at Lennox Head Beach House YHA. It turns out to be very comfortable and Ian has just acquired the use of two boogie boards so we're off for some fun!

Wow! The hour we spent on the boogie boards, surfing in on the crests of the waves, dragging the boards back out to the surf again, was fantastic, full of laughs! Half a dozen times I managed to time it perfectly and surfed all the way into shore, being lifted on top of the waves, being the waves, riding into shore at great velocity, seeing masses of ocean quickly pass under me and the board, flying! As the light began to fade a pelican appeared at the waters edge, seemingly oblivious to the wandering people.

After a lavish hot shower later we enjoyed a meal at Seven Mile Cafe which was delivered by very friendly staff and is definately worth a visit if you're in the area, for the numerous wine list pages if nothing else!

Today we travelled 498 kilometres from Forster to Lennox Head.