Thursday 12 September 2013 – Cotton Tree to Skennars Head, NSW

Well we are officially heading south as we are now in NSW!  We again woke this morning to beautiful sunshine which continued throughout the day.  It was about 9am when we pulled out of the park, Zola primed and ready to navigate our drive to Skennars Head right beside Ballina in northern NSW.

She went well – taking us towards Brisbane on the Bruce Highway, and as we got to within about 25 kms from Brisbane she cleverly led us onto the Gateway which bypasses the city and takes you directly to the Gold Coast.  This is a toll way, so once we got to our destination I logged onto the internet and paid our fee – this time making sure to enter the correct number-plate!

Hills behind Byron Bay

We crossed the border into NSW and cruised on down the Pacific Highway, negotiating several batches of roadworks, but coming across a huge roadwork site on the highway in the hilly region behind Byron Bay.  The roadsigns were showing Ballina straight ahead, with various turn-offs to seaside spots along the way, so Zola was excelling!!  But then a few kilometres along …… she once again blotted her copybook!!  She directed us to turn off at a sign pointing to Suffolk Park.  Well this seemed an option, as presumably she was going to take us down the coast road from Suffolk Park to our destination – maybe a more scenic road!  And of course, with the aim of keeping our car rides as harmonious as possible, I have now vowed to never argue with Zola again.  So we took the turn off.

BIG MISTAKE! The road we embarked on was high in the hills, windy, narrow one car width with broken-edged bitumen, gravel in parts, and as each turn we were required to make was to the left (our destination was to the right), we were obviously heading back towards the Qld border.  After the fourth such ‘take the next turn to the left’ instruction we found ourselves back on the Pacific Highway, about ten kms back from where we were directed to leave it!!  We’d done a big mis-shapen circle, and once again endured the delays of the big roadwork project we had experienced half an hour earlier.

What we found interesting though, was when we again neared the Suffolk Park turn-off, Zola remained silent and didn’t try that trick again, instead choosing to send us down the right exit – to Lennox Head, just four kms from where we are now settled.

  

We are staying at Ballina Headlands Leisure Park and it is lovely – and only cost us $28.50 per night compared to $46 per night at Cotton Tree.  The amenities appear to have been newly built as they are lovely – even a mirror in the ladies section with lights around it and a chair to sit and make yourself beautiful!

The very modern hand basins at the caravan park.

We got here at about 1 o’clock, had lunch after setting up and just sat and read/relaxed/dozed (Grant) and had cuppas for the afternoon.  We are staying here for two nights, so we’ll do some sightseeing tomorrow.  We are pretty close to what is obviously the Ballina airport, so have had a few close encounters with landing and taking off aeroplanes.  There haven’t been any for a while now, so hopefully they have a curfew.  

And I wonder if the 4.30am butcher bird serenade will continue to follow us – it came to Cotton Tree with us, but we may have shaken it off – hopefully.