Waking up from a surprisingly poor night's sleep in the paid camper site, we showered for what could be the last time for a while....

Drove over to nearby Ballina for coffee, where we went to a place called 'That New Coffee Shop'. Yes, we went there entirely for the name. And wouldn't you?

Before heading off, we went to a bargain basement shop in Ballina (tricked into believing that it was a charity shop... Maybe these don't exist in Oz??), where we bought some cheap, dispensable CDs for our campervan.

Having spotted our overnight stop, we decided to take the scenic route, away from the Pacific Highway - along the B60, Bruxton Highway, if you must know - hopefully in order to discover some interesting points of interest along the way.

...and then we saw a gigantic prawn. Immediate win. (see photos)

Then, as Alice was driving, Alex played his 'surprise' CD choice from the bargain basement shop. "Australia Fair - Grand Concert Street Organ, Volume 4 'Somewhere My Love'". It was genuinely terrible.

Alice : "I think what this CD is teaching me, is that there are plenty of classic tunes that I would like to listen to... Just not in this form."

&

Alice : "Next time you're getting Christmas tunes, just saying"



Stopped in a place called Casino for a Woolies luncheon materials shop, but not before we got to experience (separately) the magnificence of the "Exeloo" on Casino high street. It welcomed us in a deep, American voice akin to Star Trek... "Welcome... to EXELOO. You have 10 minutes. Enjoy EXELOO". And then it played Burt Bacharach at us!! It was incredible. "Thank you for visiting, EXELOO. Have a great day." Yes, my day has improved markedly now. Thanks.

Anyway. We proceed to drive down to our rest stop at Halfway Creek on what was actually a largely unspectacular drive. We were clearly just very lucky the other day with the meandering plan!

The only place we stop off at is Grafton, a cute little colonial town that has a long history. A post office, court house and historic police station all next door to each other!

We arrive at what is a very large trucker stop on the Pacific Highway. Pros... A cafe, shop, fuel, lots of lights, toilets, SHOWER. Cons... Trucks going past every 5 minutes. We'll report back tomorrow if this was a good trade off.

What was completely unexpected however, were the kangaroos/wallabies we saw hanging around! We spotted at least 6 immediately upon arrival. Our first pack of kangaroos in the wild!! They really didn't mind the noise, and were happily munching on the grass nearby.

Buying Bunderberg rum mince pies from the service station, we have our first slice of Xmas with a cup of tea outside our camper, before preparing 'roo sandwiches from leftovers from yesterday (sorry wild roos). We then close the day with a film inside the RV - K19 the Widowmaker. It's a cool evening, so fingers crossed for a decent nights sleep!

AF