Day 255
Saturday
9 September 2017 – Completed “Elizabeth is Missing” by Emma
Healy . This was not what I was expecting. I assumed it would be a story about
the struggles of dementia like “Still Alice”, but it was more the recollections
of a life lived and the mystery entangled amongst it. It was a good read.
Well done to Richmond getting through week 1 of the AFL finals.
Paul is a happy Tigers fan.
Byron Bay – Ballina
Even though we were moving on this morning, there was no rush
to get ourselves out and underway as we were only moving 30km down the road.
This meant we could lazily hang out in bed reading until 8.30am.
We could hear the rest of the camp waking up and getting
active around us and this encouraged us to eventually get out. After a shower
and breakfast, we began to pack up the van and disconnect all the cords and at
9.30am, with a little effort, we were finally able to head on down the road.
It was another glorious day and it made for an enjoyable
drive along the coast through Lennox Head and then on to Ballina. We pulled
into the Ballina Lakes foreshore caravan park at 10am, checked in and drove to
our great big spot and set up for the next couple of days.
When the set up was complete, we did a wander of the park checking
out the facilities before venturing out along the lakes edge and on to the
groin. The wind was whipping about today stirring up the water in to angry
white caps. It was also quite cool as the spray of water covered us as it
pounded in against the rocks.
We made our way back noticing two pods of dolphins in the
river mouth bobbing amongst the waves and trying to avoid being taken out by
the surf. We switched our attention to the lake as we came up alongside it.
From our higher vantage point we were able to see large schools of decent size
fish swimming around. Paul thought they were mullet, but there were also some
other species zipping about, their blue and silver flashes catching our eye.
A family was also watching the water below, but it wasn’t for
the fish, but a brown snake that they had seen swimming across the water to the
safety of the bank below. They tried to point it out but we couldn’t see it and
kept moving on.
We followed the path over the traffic bridge and then
trekked into the town centre, a fair distance, but we needed the exercise.
After walking for a good hour, we had worked up and appetite
and the local bakery was pumping out great smells, so we stopped to indulge in
a lunchtime treat before heading into Woollies for a few bits and then began
the trek back to the van.
We didn’t hang around for long once back either with Paul
keen to take a drive around town and see if we could find any cheap seafood. We
stopped at one place but weren’t particularly happy with the prices so we trundled
further down the road finding the Northern Rivers Seafood which was packed. We
joined the throng, checked the offerings and then picked up some oysters and
prawns.
Just up the road was the BIG PRAWN, so we parked at the
Bunnings so that I could take a photo and Paul could buy some bait. We then
returned to town driving down a different street and finding a large shopping
centre. We stopped at this Woollies to pick up some forgotten items and then
returned to the van.
Paul was keen to go fishing around the bombie we had seen
the fish swimming about so he took off while I stayed back at the van to begin
loading the brewery reviews onto the website. Paul wasn’t gone long which I
figured was a good thing, but it actually meant there was no fish to catch as
there was no water, seems that end of the lake is tidal!
The caravan park has an 18 hole putt putt course, so we took
Paul’s putter and a couple of balls and went off for some fun. Neither of us
managed a hole in one but we had plenty of close calls and lots of laughs and
in the end we both ended on 51. I guess there will be a rematch tomorrow to see
if we can break the deadlock.
I was ready to marinade the prawns, when we returned to the
van but with forgotten ingredients once again, we did a quick dash to the shop
to collect the bits we needed. We stopped for fuel and then made our way back.
We sorted the prawns and then Paul grabbed his fishing rods and took off to the
lake to try his luck for a second time. I again stayed behind to add reviews
and surf the net.
Paul returned an hour later with nothing to show for his
effort, lucky I had barramundi already out. I started on dinner and we ate soon
after before enjoying the quiet of the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment