Coffs and Yamba - Clarence River

We left Port Macquarie a couple of days ago overnighting at Coffs Harbour where we anchored beside the old jetty. We are currently at Yamba which is a little town at the mouth of the Clarence River. We planned to travel down the river as there are some really interesting stops but the bridge over the Pacific Highway which we would need to get opened is closed for 6 months while they do repairs :( We can still travel 8 nmiles up river so will spend a night at the bridge and do some walking.
Travelling up the coast from Coffs we passed the Solitary Islands which are environmentally protected and span for about 40nmiles, very popular with divers. The first picture shows South Solitary Island - there are several others dotted around.

Reaching Yamba in the Clarence river was a challenge as we had to navigate through a convoluted, narrow and shallow channel, to a marginally wider bay which was already quite full of boats. We eventually found somewhere to lay anchor from where the second picture was taken. As this shows we've had some slightly stormy weather while here, apparently side effects from a tropical depression up in Queensland.

Just as we were thinking we can do this everything is getting easier we managed to gaff (puncture) the dingy when coming up to an old wharf. The picture below shows David cleaning (which was overdue) and repairing it which took a while. The other pic shows me sporting an eBay purchase which I thought would come in really handy: a fold-up bike. This is the first time we have used it and could be the last as its a bit of a palaver getting it off the boat and set up.