30 July 2012 - Mullumbimby League Club, Northern Rivers, NSW

This evening we are parked up adjacent to playing fields bounded by sugar cane, all beside the Brunswick River and the small town of Mullumbimby. This was not our intended camp for the night, however we found ourselves rejected at the Mullumbimby Showgrounds; it seems that campers are no longer welcome here. Perhaps this is a new innovation of all councils in the Northern Rivers area, having started at Murwillumbah last year and Lismore more recently.

Our departure from Lismore was uneventful; we were soon climbing eastwards out of the wok, passing through the hilltop suburb of Goonellabah and arriving at the riverside town of Ballina before we knew it.

Ballina lies at the mouth of the Richmond River, with a population of over 19,000. Obviously it is a place of substance so we checked it out before pressing on. We walked up and down the main street, noting that the Woolworths Supermarket was being rebuilt. It seems that there was a fire last Christmas, and work has just been started now on the rebuild in tandem with upgrades of the main street. We were impressed with the commercial centre of Ballina, with the esplanade along the river where we did not linger due to the cool wind, and even more impressed to locate all the supermarket chains not too far away in another shopping centre. There we bought fresh bread for lunch and headed north to Lennox Head.

This is pretty little seaside town of nearly 7,000 situated in a wide shallow bay of surf swept white sand. We were unable to find a suitable space to park the rig along the foreshore; the parking places are laid out to suit regular size cars. However we made our way along to Lake Ainsworth, an attractive freshwater lake with tannin stained waters from the surrounding tea trees. We were pretty much alone by the lake apart from the birdlife however we could not help notice the caravan park adjacent and imagined it would be an excellent place to stay should one wish to linger in Lennox Heads.

After lunch we continued on up the Ballina Coast to Byron Bay, a world famous seaside resort of a permanent population of not too much more than 5,000. Until 1963, Byron Bay was a quiet unassuming town, but then in that year surfers discovered “The Pass”, a gap between Fisherman’s Lookout and the headland, now the most popular surf break on the north coast.

There are actually seven different beachfronts here, so there is something for everyone if you like beaches, and for those who don’t, there are a mass of cafes, pubs, clubs, restaurants and everything that high spenders could possibly want.

Today it was backpacker types who seemed to crowd the streets, more than we have seen since Airlie Beach far up the Queensland Coast or Cairns even further north. They and the traffic on the roads had brought the town to a standstill, and had we not already been warned about this, we may have despaired. Lonely Planet says of Byron Bay: When Byron Bay is good, it’s very, very good. Long days, balmy weather, endless beaches, delightful accommodation, delectable food, rapturous nightlife. But when Byron Bay is bad, then let’s just say it’s crowded. Very crowded. But then let’s focus on those periods when the traffic isn’t so thick on Jonson Street that driving to the chaotic mess of Woolworths takes forever; let’s instead think about the qualities that make Byron the most desirable beach in NSW.”

A drive up to the lighthouse looked like just the ticket however half way up we were faced with a sign forbidding caravans further travel, so we turned back in frustration and made our way back on to the flat foreshore, delighted to find a parking spot. We walked out on to the extensive bay with its glistening white sand and watched the hang-gliders circling the cape, agreeing that this was indeed a fabulous beach for beach lovers. We returned to the cruiser and bravely faced the traffic chaos of Byron Bay before travelling on back to the Pacific Highway.

As we departed the area, we passed an intense police presence and then signs about a festival, then remembered the Splendour in the Grass four day festival featuring musicians such as Smashing Pumpkins and  Ladyhawk, names I am familiar with, had taken place over the weekend. We learned tonight on the news that the police had been disappointed to find 400 people with drugs over the days of the festival. Perhaps some of the festival goers had stayed on to enjoy the other attractions Byron Bay had to offer and perhaps that accounted in part for the unbelievable crowds, given that it is Monday, 30 July, the middle of winter.

It is less than twenty kilometres through to Mullumbimby from Byron Bay, west of the Pacific Highway so did not take long to reach. We headed straight for the show grounds and found this little town quite charming. It is apparently referred to as The Biggest Little Town in Australia, having a population of just over 3,000 and lies at the foot of Mount Chincogan, a peak we initially mistook for Mount Warning in the Tweed River area. It is here that the Sydney / Lismore / Murwillumbah railway line crosses the Brunswick River; the line having been opened in 1894 and then closed in 2004 because of an argument over funding between Federal and State politicians, despite strong community resistance.

Both the show grounds and the league club are listed in the Camps 6 bible, hence our seeking them out. We were disappointed to learn on checking in here that the tariff is $25, a bit hefty in our opinion for a camp such as this. There are several caravans and motorhomes established along the riverbank, the occupants able to step out their homes and dangle a line into the river from their awning chairs. We, along with a couple of others, are set up directly behind casual grandstands, with power and water. Tonight there are several teams in training under the lights however they will head off home soon leaving us to this otherwise peaceful park.

Our plans have been turned on their heads and all because we have arrived in this area at the beginning of the working week. We had hoped to call upon my ex and his wife at Murwillumbah, however Clarry, even at more than a decade older than the regular retirement age, is busier than ever with work and our ex-niece on the Gold Coast will also be tied to her work until the weekend. We have no desire to kill time until next weekend so will review our entire travel plans tomorrow. Fortunately the weather forecast for the next week and beyond is excellent.