We spent a few days in Yamba to see in 2009.

A few weeks before the end of 2008, Dom put out a call about spending a few days in Yamba. Suddenly 6 rooms were booked and 15 of us converged on the poor, unsuspecting beach-side town of Yamba on 30 December. It turns out that we booked ”Yamba’s quietest Motel”, but they’re going to have to pull down that sign now… and they should also add a disclaimer: *No actual lounge.

We checked out Yamba’s main beach at the end of the day. After maybe a year since my last beach visit, it was great to feel the sand between my toes… not so great to feel the sand between my teeth and in my ears though, thanks to some stinky swamp creature called Ced. We’re Thai food fans, so we went to Annola Thai and it must have been good because Dee didn’t get served last, and it wasn’t recorded in JC’s black list. Walking back to our rooms, we weren’t going to let the ”Yamba’s quietest Motel” sign put a stop to our night, so we grabbed 3 guitars and put on a private gig on some bleachers beside a nearby sports field. Some highly creative and timeless lyrics about aliens, watermelons and various body parts were written to some fine country accompaniments. Unfortunately an audio recording was made, which we’ll dig out sometime when Michael goes into politics. Ced developed temporary breasts, Dee came out as a member of The Village People, and JC almost pulled a shoulder muscle requesting a very non-guitar-friendly TISM song. Oh, and apparently I was almost killed by plovers.

After a slow start and a late breakfast, we headed to the beach a bit further south at Angourie and spent the afternoon there in perfect weather. Dee surfed on his Mal, and the rest of us did some body-surfing. Back in Yamba, we had an early dinner at the Pacific Hotel, perched on the cliffs over the beach, with an easterly view over the Pacific Ocean as the sun went down. With most places in town either closed or booked out for New Year’s Eve, we grabbed supplies and set about changing this ‘quietest motel’ reputation. We piled into one room and put on some music pumping through Al’s subwoofer, but that crafty motel outsmarted us with its soundproofing. Our midnight sparklers were far more impressive than any fireworks… well, have you ever seen a streaker at a fireworks display? Huh?

Day 3 was all about BBQ and prawns around the motel pool, and another visit to the beach in the afternoon. The tapas at El Pirata that night were as superb as the waitress was surley, but the food won, especially the gnocci.

Happy New Year and Yamba Damba Doooo. Here’s some of the better photos from everybody’s cameras…