Day 7/8. July 10/11 2026. Sawtell. We're back, baby!

Sawtell is the first place that we returned to from our first half lap. That trip was almost exactly four years ago, and we stayed in a cabin before picking up our “not-a-van”. This time we have a “new to us” van. It was a tight squeeze to even fit in our smaller than most van, and we got to use our very cool party trick of a remote control motorised wheel to straighten the van up into place once it was off the car. The last van I could literally lift and push if needed, this one, not so much.

Our other two new learnings in our “new to us” van was that the smoke alarm worked and to be careful cooking toast inside.

A day trip into Coffs Harbour had a prime objective of checking out a couple of record stores. Beans and Music is a wonderful coffee shop that opens at 4am and sells mainly second-hand records. Nice to have coffee while you dig, especially that early in the morning. Two records purchased. On our way to the second, we made a spontaneous ungoogle-mapped turn into the shopping centre to find a convenience after enjoying the rather large coffee. We found a crowd had gathered at one store, and as a couple that spent time in Singapore a while back, we know that if there is a line, there must be something to see.

Indeed, there was. It was the opening of an Italian premium Parmesan cheese ball, made from 1000 litres of milk. The event had been advertised, and the crowd had turned up initially for a smell and then a taste. It is nice to be caught up in local excitement when you are travelling, and we felt a real connection with the 50 locals that turned up for a free tidbit.

The second record store was called Rage Music and Vinyl and included a barber. I should have availed their services but it would have been hard to cut my hair while I looked through the shelves and shelves of records. Three more records into the tote bag and we decide we have to explore the Coffs Harbour region a little more and that I have hit my record limit for the day.

A trek out to Bellingren was a nice little visit, a bit like going to the Dandenong’s on the weekend, but with different shops to look at. It was a nice stroll around, and there was a good book shop there too. Honestly, it was a book shop. It was called the Book Nook. There was no reference to recorded music of any kind being inside the shop. Anyway, after a Mia Dyson vinyl purchase making record number six for the day and no record player to play them on for 10 weeks or so, we headed back to the campsite for the night.

Big 4 Sawtell Google review

I am not sure who the Big 4 are. There are a lot of Big 4’s around and whatever the Big 4 are, they can’t be at all of them. This is a nice park combined with council grounds and only a short walk from the shops and the beach. Facilities are old school, but clean and ample. Top marks for lack of shower curtains and bonus points for having accessible showers which is a rare find. Not that I need them yet, but we have bumped into people that do and they find them hard to locate. 5 stars.