1 December 2013 - Boyds Bay Holiday Park, South Tweed, New South Wales

We have only come a little over 134 kilometres today, but most of it in the sunshine and all through lush green countryside, grazing land giving way to sugar cane, gardens full of flowering frangipani and vibrant colour. The Northern Rivers region of New South Wales truly is a lovely part of the country, but no doubt you are tired of this mantra; so many parts of Australia qualify as most appealing.

After leaving Casino, we continued along the Bruxner Highway until we reached Lismore, the city familiar but the road in and out new, and then we cut north east through to Bangalow on the Pacific Highway, passing through the charming village of Clunes. I have bad mouthed the Pacific Highway in past postings, but I have to confess that the section travelled today from Bangalow through to Tweed is a truly excellent highway, worthy indeed of the name: “highway”. We are now only minutes from the Queensland border and have already changed our watches in anticipation of keeping a timely appointment with Tineke.

Over lunch we debated where we would overnight, given that we were unable to immediately raise our niece on her cellphone. We did wonder whether we had cut our visit too fine and that she might have been rushed to hospital to deliver her long awaited baby, but later she returned our call and we decided to stay here at Tweed Heads, less than fifty kilometres south of her home, where we will call tomorrow afternoon, babe allowing.

The sun has stayed out, the day fabulously warm but the breezes brisk and I have been left to fight the wind at the clothes line yet again. It seems to be my lot these days; however it makes for excitement over an otherwise mundane chore.

We stayed here last time we were through, over eighteen months ago, and were pleased to find the tariffs unchanged, the camp less congested and the experience even better than the last.

Chris has been happy to settle himself in front of the box to watch the Australian Open, the golf being played in Sydney; he is weary after having attempted unsuccessfully to sit through the night in support of the Australians in Britain, as they played the League World Finals against my own countrymen, and Rugby Union against the Welshmen. For the participants, both Australian teams were gloriously triumphant and I will, no doubt, never hear the end of it.