Friday 13 September 2013 – Skennars Head/Ballina

We were conscious of rain through the night, and woke to very cloudy conditions which continued all day – the first such day of this trip.  There were several small showers during the morning, but I still did a bit of washing – just a bit of hand washing, and pegged it out on the lines here as the caretaker reckoned that it would dry as there was a wind, and I guess it wasn’t cold.

After I did that, and Grant chatted to a funny man who lives in his van opposite us (we found out later that he is 85!), we went for a drive and to do some shopping.  But first – a bit more about the 85 year old (Ray).  He is quite a character and travels with his dog Toby – has a sign on his caravan door ‘Ray and Toby’.  When he spoke to Grant this morning he had his van hooked up and he told Grant that he was going down towards Coffs Harbour for a couple of weeks.  Grant asked him: ‘Where’s Toby – is he in the van’ to which Ray replied: ‘No, I’ve already got him tethered in the car.  He’s got his own seat where he can see out of the windscreen and see what’s going on’, and led Grant to the car to look.  Sure enough, Toby was in the back, looking out between the seats – but he’s a big stuffed toy dog!!  Apparently he’s a bit of a celebrity at the caravan park, as someone gave him a Beware of the Dog sign which they laminated for him in the office and that is stuck on the door of the van underneath their names, and someone else has given him a leash and feeding bowls.  

When he first came to the park he told the girl in reception that he had a dog, but it was stuffed.  Very sympathetic, she said: Oh! You must have thought a lot of him to have had him stuffed!  She assumed that he’d had the dog taxidermed. Apparently someone a while back told him that Toby was a man’s name, so Ray thought that others may think he was gay, so he took a photo of Toby, had it enlarged and laminated and it is stuck on the door beside the names.  Talk about whacky!!

We drove into Ballina (about four miles away), got petrol, had a look around the town – the riverside, the boat harbour, the historic manor (now a boutique hotel), did a bit of food shopping, followed the signs down Lighthouse Road to the lighthouse, which we couldn’t find, stopped at a couple of lookouts, then came back to the camp.  The sea was dark grey, the water was choppy and the day was bleak, so we didn’t see Ballina at its best.

Ocean looking southward at Ballina.

We had a late lunch when we got back, then read, etc, and at about 4pm I thought I’d better go and get the washing off the line and put in the dryer.  I was most surprised that the wind had almost dried it, so it only needed five minutes in the dryer to finish it off.  I then finished off a marriage ceremony I have been working on and sent it off to the couple, sent another email or two, then the dongle ceased to work.  I’ll try it again later as the reception here hasn’t been strong, otherwise it’s another visit to a Telstra shop when we find one.  Ahhh …. the joys of technology!

So all up a pretty nothing day today, and tomorrow we make out way to Port Macquarie for a couple of nights, so hopefully we’ll get some sunshine again.  We’ve been spoilt and don’t like it when the sun is not showing its face!