Day 37 Monday 28th July
Twin Waters to Evans Head via Byron Bay (350km)

We were on the road by 8.45 am and our journey took us mainly on motorways around Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Although there was heavy traffic, the drive was eventful until we approached the turn off to Byron Bay, a popular coastal resort in Northern NSW.
About 4km before this T/O, roadworks began which slowed the two lanes of traffic to a crawl. The route to Byron Bay is a scenic loop, taking in other coastal towns, before re-joining the motorway further south. We can only assume that some vehicles took this loop road in order to avoid the roadworks, because the large volume of traffic heading into Byron Bay caused a massive traffic jam and it took us almost an hour to travel 4km. We were not impressed. And of course it is not easy to do a U-turn with a trailer!!! There was nothing to do but wait it out! Once in the, (very busy), town we headed for the Lighthouse. This Lighthouse, and Byron Bay itself, is a popular tourist attraction, (even in mid-winter, and on a weekday!), mainly because it is the most easterly point of Australia. However there is not enough parking space to cope with the number of visitors, and nor is there any signage to suggest that there is NO parking for caravans or vehicles with trailers once you have driven up the reasonably steep and narrow road! We got to the lighthouse, (where it would have cost $7 to park), and just had to drive back down again. I was very disappointed because the views from there looked tremendous.
We sought solace in a very nice lunch at a beachside cafe. The waitress suggested that we walk to the lighthouse, and had we had more time, (which we would have done if we hadn't wasted an hour on the drive in!), this would have been a good idea. However we had already decided that we were not going to camp in Byron tonight, so needed to get back on the road again. We did have a short walk along the main beach to a lookout used for whale-watching...we didn't see any! When visiting again, we would ideally stay overnight and walk up to the Lighthouse early in the morning!
So, we are spending our last night of this trip, camped in a caravan park at Evans Head, which is a popular surfing spot not far south of Ballina. We will be able to drive the remaining 575km to home tomorrow.
It has been been a sunny, but windy day today.