Yamba to Skennars Head - 1st Jan

Everyone was up early on the campsite as it was a changeover day and so you had to vacate your plot by 10am. We, unlike the rest of the happy campers, were travelling light and so all we had to do was put the bed away, unplug the electrics and drive off the site.

The Chalmers' travelling relatively lightly for once!

Before doing so though we spoke to more family and friends on Skpe (having spoke to Phil and Kate the night before) to wish them all a forthcoming UK based new year. just like Christmas, it was strange to not celebrate with them but it is only for one year.

Yamba is a nice place, 15mins drive coastbound from the Pacific Highway. It won Prettiest Town in Australia 2010! We did like it, it did have some lovely aspects to it and the beaches on offer were beautiful but I am not sure if it was the prettiest place we have visited in Australia - maybe one of the top 5.

Pretty

Not so pretty - large water-tower pride of place
by the lighthouse

Another downside was the evidence of a potential crime epidemic in Yamba.... there was a lot of police out over New Years Eve night, I can only assume they were patrolling for a toilet roll thief....

We vacated the site on time and headed to have breakfast at the top of the hill with views over the Main Beach. The main beach was set in a cove with a seawater swimming pool cut into the rock on the one side – it was indeed a pretty setting. As the bread had gone mouldy we had a light breakfast and then went for a walk down to the beach. The waves were not big however so we decided to save our daily dip for the larger Pippi beach just around the corner.

Main Beach

Pippi Beach

After our dip we dried off and headed back into town to pick up a coffee and a snack as well as some food for the evening. We ended up grabbing a sausage roll and flat white/ latte from the bakery despite the overwhelming pie consumption of the locals.

We left Yamba and before rejoining the Pacific Highway North we drove by the small town of Maclean, who showed off their Scottish Heritage. Unfortunately, we did not get to the bottom of the origin of their Scottishness but it was good to see all the same.

By now the weather was changing, the clouds were ominously grey and by the time we drove through Ballina it was tipping it down. As it was raining we chose not to stop and take a closer look at the famous fibreglass crustacean that takes pride of place as you approach the town.

The Giant Prawn

5 minutes north of Ballina we arrived at our campsite at Skennars Head, a very nice site that was obviously very popular as the only way they could fit us in for two days was to move us from one plot to another after one night.

When the rain eased a bit we drove down to Lennox Head, a nice beachside town famous for great surf at it's southern most point. It never stopped raining fully and so we did not take a swim or walk along the beach.

These guys must be from the UK...