Bingara

After a Macca's breakfast we headed to Bingara to our Muster, looking forward to catching up with our caravan friends and making new ones. There were 6 vans from our Sydney City Slickers group, which is almost half of the Club. We all headed to the local RSL Club for dinner on the first night and had lots to chat about.
Next day was fairly quiet, we went into town to check it out, bought a couple of items and walked around looking at the buildings etc.
We had our Official Opening Ceremony, then  a game of Boules, Rick and I made it to the semi-finals, but were beaten by better players.  Next day we drove up to the Lookout over the town of Bingara and could see the showground and all the caravans in a "wagon wheel" style.  We enjoyed a group bbq at Noelene's van before joining everyone for a game of Charades which our team won, what a fun night !
Debbie had asked us to help with the catering, so many of us assisted her by slicing tomatoes, lettuce, opening cans of beetroot and pineapple and preparing the buns and cooking the meat patties enjoyed by all on the Thursday night.  Next day we all helped in cutting and slicing vegetables for a variety of salads ready for Saturday night's meal and then enjoyed a Blue Ribbon afternoon tea with profits going to Cancer research.  It was a Trivia night after dinner, but we didn't do very well at all.
Saturday we spent at the lovely Roxy Theatre with talks, singing by a mens choir from Inverell, part of a movie and our AGM, then hurried back to get the evening meal organised, which went very well.  Sunday morning we were on deck again for a Farewell Breakfast and Raffle drawing.  In the afternoon we were invited to join  George and Sonja for afternoon tea and then to Noelene's for our last Happy Hour. We said our goodbyes to lots of new and old friends and really enjoyed our Bingara Muster.

Glen Innes

On our last night before arriving in Bingara, stopping on the way at Raspberry Lookout where we could see the views over the area,  we stayed at Glen Innes at the caravanpark just out of town.  As we just had everything connected, the skies opened up and we had a nasty storm with thunder and lightning. As soon as it had finished we went into town to get some groceries, and then drove out  to the edge of town to see the Celtic Standing Stones, then came back to town for coffee at Maccas.

Iluka

We stayed at Ballina a bit longer, then travelled to Iluka, only a short 100 kms further south where we booked in for four nights.
We had gone into "town"  for a few things and to look around,when we returned we saw several caravans with the ACC logo displayed, so we introduced ourselves and were invited to join their "Happy Hour" that afternoon and the followingevening,  they were ordering fish and chips and planning  to sit beside the Clarence River as a group to enjoy them, so we were also included.  The Club Chairman, Lionel, was there as well, so we introduced ourselves to him  Most of the group were continuing on to Bingara, as we were, but they had several stops on the way  there.
We met Jake and Yvonne from Appin, and she had the most gorgeous collection of bears that she had made all displayed on shelves in their caravan, we had some great times with them.
Dick and Gloria caught up with us on their way south, they had stayed a few nights at Hastings Point and were on their way to Valla Beach to stay with his sister, and spent an hour with us.
East Ballina was just over the bridge, so we drove around the area to have a look.

Ballina

Hail at Ballina

We said our goodbyes to Dick and Gloria, as they wanted to stay another week with Lynda at the Gold Coast and  we headed to Ballina were we had booked in for a week.  It was a nice  quite caravan park, we were at the western end and only a few vans there alongside several cabins and as the tenants of both were there for over a week as well, we joined in with some friendships made.
Our second day was a bit scary -the sky turned a dark shade of green and  we had a horrendous hail storm !  The golf tournament was "whited out" the whole course covered with golf ballsized hailstones and the matches had to be called off. As fast as it came, it went away, just leaving hail stones over the grass for the children to play with.
Rick and I drove to Lennox Head for lunch one day and enjoyed the trip there, the beach was quite rocky, not really a surfing beach and the road into the town was still being repaired after the bad storms earlier in the year.
Roger and Julie from Brisbane hosted a "sausage sizzle" for the caravanners and we all got together for a "Happy Hour" with them.
We haven't been to the movies for ages, and we were told that "Red Dog" was a good movie, so we went along to the theatre at Ballina Fair and really enjoyed it. We enjoyed lunch there at the Fair the next day and purchased "Amelia" on DVD - the story of Amelia Earhart and actually watched it.  We have quite a few DVDs in our collection in the caravan still waiting to be watched ......we actually watched "Charlie and Boots" on t.v. the next night.
There was a Country and Western Festival on over the Labour Day weekend in Ballina, so there were several Buskers in the street, as well as some Line Dancing and bands playing in the area.  Unfortunately Ballina had another hail storm, around the same intensity as the previous one, and luckily again we were on the edge of it - there was great excitement with the children as they built snowmen out of the ice - they took a while to melt.

Gold Coast

On the way from Bribie Island to the Gold Coast, we called in at Coomera Waters to see some "old" friends, Gay and Ian Macdonald.  They were leaving the next day on a 6 weeks cruise, so if we didn't see them at that time, we would miss seeing them again ( last year on our way to Maryborough they had gone away as well)  It was lovely to catch up.
We arrived at Southport at the Broadwater caravan Park and were invited to Dick and Gloria's daughter's home at Helensvale for dinner which was very nice.
Next evening we joined Lynda's family and some friends to celebrate their son, Joel's 18th birthday at a local Chinese Restaurant, it was good to catch up with them all.
Another night out was enjoyed at Robina at the "Salsa" restaurant chain where Joel has a part time job whilst studying at University.
Rick and I drove to Tambourine Mountain for a view of the Gold Coast, but it was rather cloudy, so there wasn't a great view, but we enjoyed the drive,then continued out to Hope Island before arriving back at Southport.