Along the Gold Coast - From Ballina to Brisbane

This post is about Friday the 20th of September. As most of you will know, though it was started on Friday the 27th of September, it is now the 12th of October before it is finally getting finished. Still, at least it is getting finished!!

On that morning I awoke at 3.15am with people leaving rooms downstairs and banging car doors, I couldn't get back to sleep, so at 4am when a group left pulling their cases along the concrete outside the door and, presumably, carrying them down the stairs. I decide to get up and write the blog post about St. Peter restaurant - almost a week earlier!

Drew wakes at 5.30am and I make tea for the two of us, using the Lipton Tea that is available at this Comfort Inn. 

It seems I forgot to note last night, that on arrival at the hotel we were presented with a list of breakfast items that we could pick up from the lobby by 9pm last night, when it closes, and bring to our rooms for this morning. The items were cakes, cereals or sweet things, none of which I eat, so we decided then that we would eat out for breakfast today, our first time this holiday, though it is a very common practice on our USA holidays.

Walk

This gave us the opportunity to walk alongside the river, which we couldn't see for the dark last night. These are some of the images from that walk, with a pelican eating and a canoeist passing by:

 
Breakfast

We had spotted four alternative places to eat breakfast in Ballina, the first we tried was no longer in operation - so we updated Google to inform of its closure. The second was called the Kitchen Cafe and after our little walk we arrived here at 6.45am. This is a busy take away place but there were only two people, in from the gym, plus us eating inside. There were a few others eating outside, but most driving up, shouting through the window and getting out of their cars to collect their drinks and food when it was ready. 

We order at the counter and the drinks, and later the food, gets delivered to our table. As is normal I order a Long Black - what are the chances of me asking for this not an Americano when I get back to the UK!! High I reckon!

Drew stuck to his latte

Drew had opted for a Ham, Cheese and Tomato Toastie, which he eat with gusto and relish.

I, being as it is Friday, went with the Omelette with Cheese, Mushroom, Spinach and Tomatoes served with a slice of Sourdough Bread. It was also delicious. 

Time for a check of the route for today while finishing our coffee.

At 7.30am we left the cage and returned to the hotel. We had a cup of tea in the room and a toilet visit before leaving at 8.50am.

Route

This is our route for today, starting in the quiet and piece of the seaside town of Ballina and ending in the hubbub of Queensland's capital city and the third largest city in Australia - Brisbane.

Pat Morton's Lookout and Beach 

Our first stop was just 11 kilometres out of Ballina at Pat Morton's Lookout arriving at 9.05am. Pat Morton Lookout is on the top of Lennox Point just above Lennox Head and offers amazing views along Seven Mile Beach. The lookout was a beloved place of the New South Wales politician, Pat Morton, and a monument to him is positioned here. This panorama captures something of the spectacular nature of the view along the beach from here. Making it well worth the early stop.

With the fresh air in our lungs we left the lookout at 9.15am [Co-pilot's note: I let him have a bit of sun, dear readers, and this is what happens!!]

Cape Byron Lighthouse

Our next stop at 9.55am was Cape Byron Lighthouse. It was only 25 kilometres further up the coast, but suddenly after days of asking - where are all the tourists in the lovely weather. We realised we had found them! The roads were clogged and even this early in the morning the beach below the lighthouse, called Wategos Beach, was full of surfers and swimmers.

We drove up towards the lighthouse and were turned around by a pleasant ranger, doing the same for everyone who had driven up, as the 50 car car-park was overflowing. We managed to find a parking space 700m away (the second car park on that route, the first also being full) and walked up the steep hill to the lighthouse, reminding ourselves that the exercise is good for us!

As we walked up to the lighthouse we got some wonderful views of Tallow Beach back toward this morning's lookout. 

The Lighthouse itself is a traditional build, in fact it was the last lighthouse to be added to this coast. 

It also, quietly and without much fuss, had a path down from it which led to the most easterly place in continental Australia.

Those of you who have journeyed with us in the past know how much we love these geographical points. Over the years we have been at the most easterly point in Canada - Cape Spear, the most southerly point in the contiguous United States of America - Key West and the geographical centre point in the 48 contiguous states of the US - Lebanon, Kansas. So, today we pick up another of these locations, and without really trying for it. I'm prompted to reflect that we were along in Lebanon, Kansas and in a huge crowd of others in Key West - so Cape Byron is between these two. As while there wasn't a large, marshalled queue for the photo, there were quite a few others taking selfies and group photos at the site. Indeed I took one for a group of four friends on a tour.

At 10.55am as we leave Cape Byron we note that the temperature which has stayed at about 24c since we left Newcastle at the beginning of the week is now 28c - and you can feel it.

The Gold Coast

We continue to head North. After four days when Drew has done most of the driving, I am driving today. Given that the traffic is increasing every step of the journey and that Drew prefers straight empty roads, it seems to have been a good decision for me to do the driving, especially with the big city ahead. 

We enter the Gold Coast in the New South Wales town of Tweed Heads

and the hugely popular Rainbow Bay

The temperature continues to rise. At 11.15am, beside the beach at Rainbow Bay it is 30c and the locals and the tourists are all loving it. 

It may be spring in New South Wales, but it feels as summery as any British summer I've experienced.

Tweeds Head also provides our first view towards Brisbane, looking like a city of the future in the distance from the beach here.

Into Queensland

Another notable thing about Tweed Heads is that it is a twin city. Tweed Heads is the southern part of the twin being the northernmost town on the coast of New South Wales. The other, almost indistinguishable twin, being Coolangatta, the southernmost town on the Queensland coast. An oblix sits at the point of the border between the two states (when founded two colonies).

Queensland Beaches

Our plan today, if you'd not already worked it out, was to take a very gentle trip up the coast, seeing the spectacular beaches, so that we didn't arrive in Brisbane to early to check into our hotel. 

With this in mind, once we had arrived in Queensland we headed to Burleigh Heads Beach, but as noted earlier, things were very busy and there was not a single carpark space, so we drove on to Nobby Beach, one of the quieter beaches along what they call Surfer’s Paradise, where we stopped at 1pm for lunch.

BSKT Cafe

BSKT, pronounced biscuit, cafe is a block back from the sea at Nobby Beach and was a very welcome stop as the temperature continues to approach 30c. 

On Friday, it had to be a fishy choice and I opted for the Miso Salmon Bowl. This was a piece of Grilled Atlantic Salmon (a long way from home! [Co-pilot's note: Perhaps, dear readers, it was a strong swimmer!]) in a Miso Sauce with sautéed greens, brown rice and crispy vegetable curls. It was crunchy and filling, while feeling healthy too.

Drew opted for Egg and Halloumi Roll with Byron Bay Haloumi, caramelised onions, Fried Egg, Spinach and the special BSKT Relish. He really enjoyed it - a healthy burger!

Brisbane

We leave Nobby Beach at 1.50pm and travel into the ever increasing traffic of the Brisbane suburbs taking us an hour and a half to travel the 88 kilometers into the city. 

We arrive at the Holiday Inn Express, City Centre, Brisbane at 3.20pm. We check in and go to our room. It is on the 10th floor which gives some good views across the city.

Having stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Newcastle, the layout and look of the room was very familiar. 

We begin to cool down after the hot, though enjoyable day and showered before planning the evening ahead.

We had booked to eat out south of the river this evening. But more about that in the next post.