Free camping…

After leaving the rain behind in Stanthorpe we moved on to Allora, the sunflower capital of Queensland. We searched for sunflowers but it is the wrong season, but we did find a bunch flowering in a garden in town. You can’t win them all..

When in town having a look around, we were told about camping for free down at Dalrymple creek. Wow what a find, beautiful sheltered sites and being first there for the day we had the pick of the best position. Soon 2 other vans arrived and we struck up a friendship with them, which resulted in Frank bringing over his early edition, hand built  Maton guitar after dinner, and as the sun went down, he sang a medley of country songs, some of which he had composed. Wal and Kate with little dog Sam joined us and we all swapped stories. It was a magical evening.  They told us of good free, or cheap, camp sites. What a fantastic start to our years adventure, this is the essence of travel, meeting people and hearing their stories and sharing hints and tips to make camping and travelling easier.

Camper Van Heaven

The search goes on...

We took a day trip to Ballina, 100kms south in New South Wales, just to check out this camper van specialist.

Ballina Camper Van  and Leisure Centre has a reputation for high quality small camper vans  . The type we are looking for. It was worth the trip. We drooled over the immaculately designed and presented vans. Quality materials used throughout and we fell in love with a Toyota Hiace, 2005 low mileage model with a new fit out. It definitely “talked” to us….

But the price was, unfortunately, $20,000 to high.

Thanks Max for your help.

“Never mind” says Max ” I now know what you want and will put you on my books. We get trade-ins all the time, but they never make it onto the yard as we have people waiting for them.” 

After lunch at the Ballina RSL club, we meander home in travel mode, slow, and detour to explore Bangalow, a small laid back country town with quaint craft shops and interesting architecture. The “Urban Bang Thai” served delicious coffee…

Next came a quick detour via Byron Bay, actually it was not all that quick, I took the wrong turn when leaving Bangalow! But it was a lovely winding back road with fabulous views across the valley to the ocean.