Ballina - New South Wales, Best Kept Secret

Am just back from my little camping and touring holiday in Northern New South Wales, only problem was that it wasn't long enough. Well ain't that always the way!

We collected the "Explorer-Off Road Camper Trailer from "Its all Good off Road" Hire at Jimboomba, about 50 mins out of Brisbane. I have to give these guys a plug or two, they looked after us very well and I can highly recommend them. Terry and Sue own a few "Jimboomba Camper Trailers" you can find both these companies on the web.

We headed home, packed the trailer and the Nissan Patrol with the usual half the house...lol, even having time to have a quick run though of setting the trailer up in the front yard, so at least we knew how it all fitted together. Must admit we did very well with only some quick verbal instructions from Sue at "It's all Good off Road".

Heading off the next morning around 9.00am, we arrived at our destination in Ballina around 2.00pm, having stopped off along the way for a long lunch and a bit of leg stretching.

We caught the car ferry across the Richmond River to get to our camping spot. Here's an interesting pic I shot whilst waiting to reach the other side of the river. I like the clouds sitting atop the folded life rafts and the colour contrasts here.


Took us a couple of hours to set up camp, with me watching some huge black clouds rolling in behind us. Just as we finished putting up the seabreeze enclosure, (that's an annex for those of you that don't understand the lingo) it started to pelt down. Only lasted about 30 mins and then the weather cleared, although not entirely, with a few short showers over of the following days and then beautiful sunny weather till we went home. We didn't have any issues other the the fact the I forgot to remind Mike to lay a tarp on the ground under the Annex. We only had shade cloth down, which is not much use when its raining.

Here we are at our campsite at South Ballina Beach. We snared a pretty good spot, nice and private, but admittedly there were only about 3 other campers round. March is a good time to go holiday, well usually, providing the heavens don't decide to open up and drop a bucket load of that wet stuff, we haven't seen here in a very long time.

Our friends, Russell, Cathy and Peppa the Border Collie arrived a few days later in their Pajero towing their Jayco Camper trailer. Unfortunely due to work committments they could only stay 4 days. During this time there were lots of BBQ's and plenty of catching up to be done, we all had a fab time and not to mention those two rascally rabbit four legged fur balls of ours had a tonne of fun together.

Here's the stunning beach not far from our camp, unfortunately, it wasn't dog friendly as it's inhabited by seabirds and is fiercely protected by Parks and Wildlife Rangers. We were advised by the park owner that fines can be around $1500 if you're caught disobeying their signage.


We are always very careful with our dog around birds and other wildlife, fortunately, Rem, has absolutely no interest whatsoever in birds, preferring to swim and chase his ball - rarely takes his eyes off the soccer ball for that matter.
We found heaps of other beaches that he could have a swim and play in the area. e.g Patches beach, South Ballina which is dog friendly is about 10 minute drive along a very scenic route beside the Richmond River. Well worth the drive just for the scenery, interesting gardens and statues along the way.

Here's a massive jelly fish we found washed up at Patches Beach, I estimated it would have been at least 42 cms wide. There were tonnes of them, I expect they were launched out of the ocean during that wild storm we had.


Ballina really is one of New South Wales best kept secrets, but then northern New South Wales seems to have tonnes of little interesting beachside hideouts with vertually no inhabitants. Frankly I don't understand why so many people move to South East Queensland and then proceed to live on top of one another. Retire to northern New South Wales, its peaceful, has all the necessary ammenities, the traffic won't drive you nuts, and ferry commuters won't be parking out your street.

Ballina isn't far from Byron Bay and Lennox Head both of which have stunning beaches. The town centre has tonnes of interesting little shops, and there are lots of nice walks to be had. It has a shopping centre just outside of town with the usual KMart, Coles, Big W and Woolworths Supermarkets and speciality stores, there's also an Aldi for those of us looking for a Chocolate fix. Yep they have the best Chocolate range as far as we're concerned!
There's also Bunnings Hardware for the handyman, a Library for us bookworms, Vet for our furry friends, RSL Club for cheap meals and I expect entertainment, great fishing spots and tonnes of water for boating activities.
There are two Camping Stores as well, one in the centre of town and another which is possibly more suited to Caravan owners etc is located in the shopping centre.

Best cooked Fish and Chips we found were at Lennox Head. No Basa on offer here, thankfully - not like Nambucca Heads last camping holiday! We also bought raw seafood at the Seafood Market on the way out of town to the Ferry and found it to be good quality and very fresh. The green prawns sans heads were rather delicious done on the BBQ with a little Chilli, Ginger, Garlic and Lime Juice....Yum!

Our favourite Beach was Angel Beach, where we spent a considerable amount of time swimming in what was a "Lake" in front of a Beach Break. The sand at the far side of this Lake had been gouged to above waist height, so that on reaching the deepest side, you could then climb up on the beach to breaking waves. Fantastic!
The water was like crystal and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. Rem had a absolutely fabulous time swimming. When we arrived at the Beach he raced off down to the water, pausing half way and looking back at us as if to say " Well come on, its time to Swim" Boy, is that a new word in his vocabulary. Not!
Here he is having a surf on the doggy beach at Byron Bay too. Can't say there weren't too many doggy beaches that he didn't visit.


We took a day trip inland to Lismore, and then drove onto Evans Head, also a very pretty seaside town. Take a look at the next pic, which was taken at the Lookout at Evans Head.

and this pic is the other side of the view
.

We also had lunch at a great little cafe right on the Beach. Its called "Shelly's on the Beach". You can find this cafe at Shelly Beach which is not dog friendly, but the cafe is Dog friendly. Furry friends can have a snooze at your feet whilst you indulge in a very nice lunch with a view.

Highlites on the Camper Trailer

1) Steps to the bed - no ladders to climb
2) The battery operated water pump on the sink
3) The spaciousness of the living space

Lows on the Camper Trailer

My Pet hate and I do have one, the Bed. If I owned a camper trailer it would have to have an inner spring mattress. As it was the mattress would have been low density foam and certainly no more than 13cms high. That to me is like sleeping on concrete. Mind you the other half didn't seem to have an issue, but then he can fall sleep anywhere!!

To try and make life more comfortable I went off an bought a foam underlay from Big W at Ballina. The $60.00 it cost me was well worth the money spent for what was almost a comfortable nights sleep. Once I was out of bed in the morning, usually 6.00am, there was no way I was crawling back in. Although I did managed to sleep till 8.00am one morning, most likely from sheer exhaustion.

Ok now, would I own a Camper Trailer? No, not unless I planned on using it constantly in the next few years and I don't mean just for the annual holiday. I've come to the conclusion that a caravan (perhaps a small compact one) would be less combersome. I figure too that when you're older finding the strength to open out a heavy trailer manually is not the way to go, particularly with continuous overnight stops and particularly if one of you is taken ill. I read recently about a woman whose husband was taken ill and had to go to hospital approx 200kms away, their camper was so heavy, the poor woman was unable to manage it on her own, needless to say they've since replaced it. I also think that I'd like to be up off wet ground.

Russell and Cathy reckon a pop top caravan is on their shopping list down the track. Consequently, we're looking forward to the Caravan and Camping Show in June.
It's always interesting to see the new developments in camping, either way am sure it will end up being a hard decision in the end as there are just so many options.

Last and not the very least here's Mike with Peppa (left)and Remy - on Tour. One of my fav pics.

Little Miss Peppa Pants

Here's Miss Peppa Pants... as I call her because she is such a little bossy britches and a mind of her own (well she is a female after all)....lol.

Peppa is Remy's (my border collie's) niece, born the same day as him and I get to pet sit her occasionally. She must be fed first and get all the attention...lol...
Remy just takes it all in his stride, he's so easy going. They get to spend heaps of time together, running in the park, on the beach, playing Frisbee although Peppa won't return it and I have to send Remy to get it when she finally drops it...It's a funny sight. We meet up with Peppa's human parents fairly often.

Here's the pic of her I used to do the painting.

Not exactly the same pose but I think its a good likeness of her and her little personality.

I used Atelier Interactive Acrylic paint and this time I tried a new sealer from Windsor and Newton - Galeria Acrylic Medium Gloss Varnish. It went on easily enough but like most sealers one needs to be mindful of not over brushing and only using a light coat, otherwise it can tend to look milky on the canvas.

Fur babies

We've had a house guest the last four days, or rather Rem has. His litter mate Peppa Hammond has been visiting whilst her folks were interstate. Needless to say Rem is way too busy catching up on sleep to do anything with me today. He's exhausted from playing ball, chase, frizbee, tug, swimming and walking. Presently he's asleep on the mat behind my chair. Well at least he's graced me with his company if nothing else.

Peppa is a gorgeous little Black and White girl from Bojak Border Collies, full of beans and very clever. Her mum Lilly, a shy black and white border was secretly pregnant and gave birth to her and her two sibblings the same day Rem was born to Maggie. Maggie had eight or nine pups, so Lilly helped look after them along with her three. At the time we really didn't know that Peppa would go to a couple who lived close by and it was by chance that we all signed up for Puppy school with the same dog trainer. That's how we all met.

Peppa can Spin and do a Figure 8 through and around legs. She is also very food orientated and would come sit in the kitchen when ever I was preparing meals during her visit. Jet our previous collie has a lot of the same traits as Peppa. Rem is way too laid back and acts like the protective Uncle. He watches everything from a short distance, rarely ever barks, without first being asked to "Speak". I often wonder what's going on in his head, whilst he's soaking up all the action.


Check out the photo of him with his protective paw on her. He uses his paws a lot and has done so since he was a tiny pup. I never ever saw Jet do that. When I throw the Frizbee to Rem, he races after it, waits for it to land, and then folds it over in half with his paw and picks it up with his mouth. Peppa was even doing that by the end of her stay. At first she tried to pick it up whilst it was flat on the ground and was having some difficulty, but watching Rem seemed to clue her in.

I promised Cathy and Russell that I'd try to teach her to "Speak". I found it a little difficult at first, because she kept jumping up every time I gave the command and hand signal. Cathy had warned me that she does this whenever she hears a strange noise from one of them. In the end I kept asking Rem to speak which he did and eventually Peppa copied him. So that indeed goes to prove that dogs do learn from watching one another.

A funny little story from the weekend.... I was tidying up the palm fonds on Friday afternoon as I knew that these two holy terrors would no doubt by the end of the weekend pull them off the drying heap and out into the garden. We tend to stockpile the fonds till they're dry and then put them through a palm shredder as they make good garden mulch.

Peppa was helping me take a few to the bin, spinning around and racing about the garden with them, Rem was obviously peeved with this, because usually I scold him for dragging palms fonds about the yard, so he doesn't do it much anymore. He's sitting beside me watching Peppa spin about with the the palm in her mouth, and then gives me a couple of nudges on the leg in quick succession as if to say " Well look at Peppa, how come I'm not allowed to do that?" I just burst out laughing, gave him a little cuddle and said "Its ok we're putting them in the bin, you can go help her bring them out." which he did.

Ever watchful Uncle Remy

Photos courtesy of Russell and Cathy Hammond