WOOLGOOLA REGION

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Smoky Grafton

Cows in the smoke

Siblings and partners

Darlington Beach

Storm clouds over Arrawarra headland

"Think he knows we are here?"

Sharing lunch

Catching up

Wild surf south of Woolgoola headland

Hanging on in the wind

Sheltered by north of Woolgoola headland

Sikh temple

Fierce competition

Moon cakes

We arrived in Brisbane on Friday morning, having no trouble negotiating the motorways, thanks to TomTom.  After checking into the Brisbane Holiday Village and setting up – we have stayed a number of times in this very nice and professionally run park.  Having been on the road for five consecutive days, we decided to treat ourselves to a massage and lunch at Garden City, which was just round the corner from the caravan park.  Friday was hot and the city smog bound, owing to the large number of fires in South East Queensland.  A very strong wind developed overnight (the awning was hurriedly rolled in at midnight, but at least the smoke was blown somewhere else.  On Saturday, we enjoyed a Chinese lunch (or banquet!) with our daughter-in-law’s parents and somehow seemed to bring home more food than we actually ate!  Sunday was time for another lunch with friends, Jenny and Brian.  We have a lovely couple of sociable days in Brisbane.

We departed Brisbane early on Monday morning, continuing south along with thousands of other vehicles, towards the Gold Coast.  With the hills to our west covered with thick smoke, we travelled very slowly along the Coast strip until we were well south of Tweed Heads.  By this time, the wind had started to pick up once again and the countryside became quite hilly.  Unfortunately, the smoke did thicken and the dreaded roadworks once again appeared and lasted for about 100kms.  It was very slow travelling, especially as we followed a hire motor home who appeared to be very nervous, had trouble maintaining an even speed and was unwilling to pull over and allow the long line of frustrated traffic to pass.  The smoke was very trick around the Grafton region, but did clear as we neared the coast at Woolgoolga/Arrawarra.

We are staying at the Darlington Beach Holiday Park at Arrawarra – another favourite park with enormous sites, lovely trees, kangaroos and friendly birds.  Sally and Paul arrived about half an hour after us and we able to set up next to us.  Although it was still windy, we discovered the beach seemed to be sheltered from the south westerlies and we able to have a good walk on the sands.  Needless to say, there was a fair bit of talking until very late in the afternoon as we caught up on the family and travel news.  Today, after Sally’s fresh scones for morning tea, we drove into Woolgoola for fuel and supplies, a drive around the lovely seaside town which has a large Sikh population, a quick stop at the headland in a force 10 gale and lunch at a local brasserie.  Back at the caravan park, we enjoyed a quick game of bowls on the four rink green before celebrating with Moon Festival with moon cakes supplied by Linzi and Wei.  Although sunny all day, it was extremely windy and quite cold.  We have now realised we are not in Queensland anymore.