Day 251 - Tuesday 5 September - Northern NSW coastal towns

Day 251

Tuesday

5 September 2017 –

Casino – Ballina – Lennox Head – Byron Bay

The golden light of the new day streamed in through the bedroom window beckoning us to wake up. We lay in bed for a while reading before making the effort to get up. Paul put the washing on and had a shower while I sorted the breakfast and went off for a shower too.

Once we were organised, we jumped in the car and drove towards the northern NSW coastline. We passed through Lismore once again and then followed the signage to Ballina. After finding street parking, we took off around the block walking along the Richmond River watching the water recede quickly out to sea.

We then navigated down the main strip checking out the various stores before returning to the car and driving on to Shaws Bay. We parked again and then walked out along the path to the end of the headland where the Richmond River breached the Ballina Bar and entered the Pacific Ocean.

Once at the end we watched at least thirty dolphins moving through the water. At first they were obviously schooling around chasing a bait ball, but then they swam off before returning to jump through the waves and surf down the face. It was awesome to watch and so much better than anything Seaworld could offer.

We slowly made our way back to the car, with me continually looking over my shoulder catching another splash as yet another dolphin jumped from the sea.

Once back at the car, we drove to a small shopping centre to buy postcards to send home and then drove on to Lennox Head lookout. Here we stopped to sit on a park bench and eat our lunch while enjoying the warmth of the sun and the views over the water and down to the town. We completed the walk up the hill to take in the views and then drove on through Lennox Head before making our ay to Byron Bay further north.

Byron was very busy. It is an obvious surfy hangout and tourist mecca. We parked for an hour at $4 and made our way to the pub on the seaside where we bought drinks and then sat in the beer garden to enjoy the view. Once we were finished, we had time for a quick walk of the block before we had to return to the car.

Before heading towards home, we did a drive by Byron Bay Brewing and Stone & Wood, so we knew where to head for tomorrow, we then set the GPS for Casino and made the hour and a bit journey back through Bangalow and Lismore.  We stopped briefly in town for supplies before finally making it back to the van for 4.30pm.

I prepared dinner as Paul collected the washing and then we enjoyed some down time for a short while before getting into the cooking. Once dinner was out of the way, we did another walk around the lifestyle village finding new streets to walk down and check out the houses and the motorhomes.

We returned to the van for our evening wind down. I worked on the blog and pics as Paul read his book before we eventually called it a night.