With school holidays finished thought it was safe to head back to the coast again so from Gulmarrad we travelled north on Pacific Highway to Ballina where we stopped for lunch. Temperature dropped quite a bit with the cool wind and rain. Continued up the Coast Road to Lennox Head, Suffolk Park, Byron Bay and onto Brunswick Heads where we stayed for 3 nights at the North Coast Holiday Park. Back into Caravan Parks with very close neighbours, although such a nice setting by the River.
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| Grassy Head Tourist Park on the banks of the Brunswick River |
Unfortunately the weather was not the best as very overcast and threatening rain, so took a drive to Tugun and visited Todd for a few hours. On the way back to Brunswick Heads we encountered very heavy rain however once back at the van the weather had cleared and was looking good. The following day had cleared and I had a morning ride on the bike. Helen and I walked to the town area and had a look around, then I rode back to the beach in the afternoon for a swim. Sea was very rough so didn't stay in for very long.
We left Brunswick and headed back into Queensland, saying goodbye to daylight savings and getting into the same time zone as Briony and Todd. Helen was most pleased as we had all clocks on the same time instead of one showing Qld and one showing NSW. When travelling close to the border it's a bit of a challenge for us!
We stayed at Burleigh Beach Tourist park for 8 days taking advantage of the off season offer of paying for 6 nights and staying for 8 nights.
Once settled into Burleigh Beach Tourist Park we walked up to Briony's place and had a lovely home cooked meal and catch up. Over the period of our stay we had reasonable warm weather so I took advantage of being so close to the beach and had a swim most days. Its also nice to walk up Burleigh Hill and watch the surfing particularly early in the mornings. It's quite a busy spot with many making time for a quick surf before work.
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| Burleigh beach from the headland |
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| Catching a wave |
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| To get out to the big surf they walk down from the headland and jump from the rocks onto their boards timing the waves not to crash onto the rocks. |
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| With good surf it's always a busy spot - Surfers Paradise in the background. |
On Friday evening Briony and Todd had organised a belated dinner to celebrate both Tenelle and my birthdays. I didn't want to have anything too flash and was surprised with a BBQ in the park on the banks of the Currumbin River. This was 'spot on' as the evening was quite balmy and we watched the sunset over a beer and bbq dinner.
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| BBQ dinner in the park on the Currumbin River |
I managed to get the bike out again and most mornings road down to Surfers Paradise about 15 km return. It's a nice ride and there is a bike track all the way, however at times it's shared next to the road and if you ride on the track next to the beach, you have to share with multi-skilled Mums who push the pram, drink coffee and talk on the mobile while walking in designer Lorna Jane gym wear.
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| I went for a ride most mornings down to Surfers and back, this morning stopped at North Burleigh for a view over Miami. |
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| Some mornings I saw koala and dolphins on my ride, well statues in the park. |
