17/08/2012
Time to leave Urunga having seen it all… or so we thought. As we joined the highway we noticed there was another half to the town on the other side of the road, we hadn’t spotted it on our way in. Nil out of ten for observation!
The Pacific Highway sounds rather grand but in actual fact it is nothing but an elongated set of road works. Occasionally you get a glimpse of the ocean as you drive along but mostly it’s nowhere near the coast. This is the third time we have travelled this part of NSW between Sydney and the border with Queensland, which is just south of Brisbane. We drove it in 2003, 2009 and now we can only remember bits of it. Coffs Harbour was familiar as we spent a couple of days there in 09, the marina and headland are very picturesque.
After a coffee in a harbour side restaurant we journeyed up to the town of Grafton where we skirmished with a super sized shopping mall. These bloody places are all the same but we never seem to be able to find our way out of them.
A late lunch by the side of the river Clarence, late because of road works and shopping malls, then on to Iluka where we are going to stay for three nights. We have yet to explore the place as what I needed most after a torrid day was a cold one ……..or six!
18/08/2012
Iluka is only 18k from the highway but it’s like another world, so quiet and peaceful. Not much bigger than Newbold, just a few shops and houses set beside the mouth of the Clarence River and the ocean. It has a couple of beautiful beaches, a very nice harbour with a tiny fishing fleet, the usual bowls club and a posh golf club. As with many of these seaside villages there are a lot of holiday homes, mostly empty right now, which is probably why the place is so quiet.
It has been a great day for wildlife spotting. From a bit of high ground, looking out over the ocean we saw a Brahminy Kite, a bird about the same size as our Buzzard, maybe a bit bigger. It has a gleaming white body and chestnut wings, we watched it hunting the shoreline looking for fish. Way out at sea we could see a couple of whales breaking the surface as they migrate along this coast at this time of the year. Closer to the shore we watched a pod of six dolphins cruising up and down. All this plus the usual Pelicans and smaller woodland birds.
This being a fishing village we bought some of last nights catch, black snapper, a fish we haven’t tried before and it was excellent.
Later we watched the Bedisloe Cup ( rugby union) on TV in the camp kitchen. Australia coming second again!
19/08/2012
Across the river/estuary is the town of Yamba, which is a half hour ferry trip. It goes 2 or 3 times a day depending on what day it is, and this being Sunday we caught the 10 -15am and spent five hours there. Yamba is quite a lot bigger than Iluka with more shops and eating places, and like Iluka is a pleasant little town.
There are some nice coastal footpaths leading to beautifully clean beaches with good surf. We spent some time sitting on the rocks overlooking one of the beaches as there appeared to be a surfing competition going on. How it is judged is a complete mystery to us. It seems they sit around on their boards waiting for the right wave to come along before attempting to stand up, then they fall off, and then they start all over again. We had much more fun when we had our body boards.
On the return ferry we saw more dolphins just a few metres out from the boat. We can’t help but get excited when we see these lovely creatures, the locals don’t give them a second glance, they obviously see them all the time. I expect we will see millions of them over the next few days as we are moving up the coast to the cannabis capital of Australia tomorrow …. Byron Bay.
20/08/2012
More road works as we head north on the Pacific highway, it must be costing billions of dollars, we have never seen such a huge project. At the biggish town of Ballina we stopped for coffee and a bit of shopping then turned off the highway to follow the coast road.
This section of the N S W coastline is equally as stunning as much of the previous coast we have seen and it’s difficult to keep driving as the tendency is to stop every time there is another view.
We did pull into a lay by just to look at some really good surf , only to spot 2 whales no more than 100 metres off the beach. That’s the closest we have ever been to them and sat watching until they slowly cruised away. Later we stopped for lunch at Lennox Head, a place we visited with Vanessa and the grandsons in 2009. It’s another spectacular viewpoint, where we saw yet another humpback whale, and lots of cormorant type birds dive bombing into the sea to catch fish.
We are now at a van park on the beach at Broken Head, another place we stayed when Vanessa was with us. There is a lovely walk along the coastal path and a fantastic beach. Tomorrow we will drive the few k’s to Byron Beach.
21/08/2012
According to the tourist information literature Byron Bay is a quirky coastal town full of urban refugees with artistic inclinations. I would say it’s a nice town full of weirdos who all try and outdone another in how bizarrely they can dress. Others make things that could be wind charms or things to ward off meat eaters out of sea shells and bits of sticks, then try to sell them. The butcher is soon to be bankrupt as the town population look like vegetarians to a man. I have never seen so many kaftan wearing, pasty-faced Rastafarian lookalikes, and if you put a metal detector near them it would explode! There is a constant herbal aroma about the place…..and it’s not coriander! Believe me, flower power is alive and well and living in Byron Bay.
Apart from the aging hippies the town has also attracted more than it’s fair share of dossers and tossers who live in their beat up V W campers with the obligatory surf board strapped to the roof. It’s all a bit of a shame really as Byron Bay is a beautiful place , but we have seen enough.
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