Blogs from Yamba, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” -Dr Seuss After the luxury of Noosa Springs and the McNamara homestead, it was time to once again embrace the charms of Brutey and the open road. This was day 35 of the 42-day sojourn and a creeping realisation dawned that this East Coast adventure was running down. The speedo recorded a journey distance of 3240kms as we set forth which was a stark reminder that it is never a straight line on a journey such as this. The GPS distance from Cairns to Sydney is 2413km so there was undoubted confirmation that the routing to date had not been a case of rushing from one point to the next. Gazing out frontwards ... read more

Yamba was voted the best town in Oz in 2009 by Australian Traveller Magazine. We thought we would check it out on the way south. First of all though were birthday wishes from the family and a surprise cake. We had breakfast and then birthday cake. On the way to Yamba, we stopped at a rest area and had coffee and out came the carrot cake again. It tasted excellent. We arrived in Yamba about lunchtime and decided a walk around the beach to the shops would be in order. Our caravan park was close to the beach and breakwater (like Ballina) and we had a lovely walk looking at the yachts that were moored, and the birds before we got to the beach. Yamba has a few small cliffs to walk around, but eventually we ... read more

So our next stop was Yamba! We headed off early morning again and got there for afternoon and arrived to sunshine yay!!!! We stayed in a cute resort with little lodges, we shared with Kerry and Dave and opposite our room was a huge hot tub, so yup as you can imagine brad was first in with me not far behind! We made a little, well maybe not so little friend too...a huge lizard!! I had to check with owner if it was harmful but apparently not and was part of the resort, they fed it and it was more scared if us than us of it....not so sure of that but we went with it! Kerry, Dave, Margaret and Keith went for a walk when we got there and me and brad chilled at the ... read more

On our way to Yamba, only about an hour’s drive from Grafton, we stopped in at Maclean. This town has a strong Scottish heritage which is apparent from the moment you arrive. The power poles are painted with all the different Scottish tartans, there is a Cairn with plaques displaying clans’ mottos, the street names are written in English as well as Gaelic and there is a Highland Gathering each Easter! Neither of us had expected to find such a place in Australia and I felt strange ‘rediscovering’ my own Scottish roots.Sadly the Maclean Historical Society, housed in a quaint 1879 stone cottage, was closed while we were there but we admired the view from the lookout and drove around the town checking out the tartans on the power poles. This part of NSW is the ... read more

With the prospect of a five day holiday weekend this Easter. including Anzac Day we booked a pitch at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park at Yamba on the coast, at the mouth of the River Clarence, in Northern New South Wales with our good friends Anne Marie and Mark. We set off early keen to avoid any traffic jams leaving Brisbane on the Pacific High Way and found ourselves enjoying breakfast at our favourite restaurant at Twisted Sistas in Byron. We love Byron and never tire of its shops and boutiques, book shops and galleries and always welcome an excuse to pay it a visit. We decided to take the coastal road down to Lennox Head and enjoy the different views along the way before joining the highway again and driving down to Ballina. The ... read more