Travelling up the highway the forests either side of the road gave way to thousands of acres of sugar cane, with an occasional banana plantation.

We stopped for lunch at a little town called Ulmarra. We sat by the banks of the Clarence River for lunch. There were a couple of people fishing from the dock, didn’t appear to be catching many fish, but the fish were there, you could see them leaping up out of the water.

Arrived at South Ballina Beach Holiday Park at about 4pm. The managers, Rosie and John are also bike riders and chatted with us about our trip and various rallies and places they had been to.

Set up the tent, had some tea and settled in for the night.                                                         

On the first Sunday of the month is the Byron Bay market, it was huge with stalls selling jewellery, clothing, many organic and natural products for eating or putting on your skin. There were buskers with didgeridoos, guitars, organs and interesting eastern musical instruments. We spent a couple of hours at the market, then had a quick look around the town before heading back to Ballina.

We grabbed some groceries at Ballina before catching the ferry back to South Ballina. The ferry operates across the Richmond River between South Ballina and Ballina. If it weren’t for the ferry the trip would be a lot longer, you’d have to drive to Wardell to cross the bridge. To take the bike on the ferry cost $1.60 each way.

Nimbin was where we decided to go. When I worked at the gallery we had a photographic exhibition from Lismore Gallery that featured images from Nimbin. Nimbin is a place where a lot of the residents wish to live an alternative lifestyle. I went there thinking there may be some good galleries or artworks to look at and perhaps some alternative style homes such as mudbrick or haybale construction. What we found was a street full of spaced out people who had come to town looking to score. The town thrives on the reputation it has, with lots of backpacker accommodation and bus tours. The ride there and back was through some nice countryside and we can now say we’ve been to the most easterly place and the dopiest place in Australia.

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