Ballina

Had breakfast this morning sitting in the sunshine - lovely blue sky, palm trees, lorikeets - a bit cool but pleasant - sunshine at last!!
Yes we are in Ballina, talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous, Tuesday night we spent in Glen Innes, our overnight stop between Ballina and Moree, where it was so cold there was light snow.
We had become very comfortable in Moree, friendly with the people next door who had recommended that the best drive to Ballina was through Glen Innes but to beware, it could get very cold there, and they weren’t wrong. We had decided that as we were only staying one night and because of the weather we would stay in a cabin, and we are so glad we did, there was light snow and so we enjoyed a night with warm electric blanket heated bed and room heater.
Glen Innes is known as the Celtic capital of Australia, the landscape is very rocky and the early settlers planted lots of deciduous trees which had their colourful autumn leaves. The first settlers were mainly from Scotland and there are aspects of the landscape which would have reminded them of home. Major Archibald Clunes Innes, one of the original settlers, gave his name to the town which was gazetted in 1852. There is a Celtic festival each year, a ring of standing stones (installed in 1988 a la Stonehenge!**!) and the area is also popular for fossicking for sapphires.
The drive from Glen Innes goes through the heavily wooded World Heritage Gibraltar National Park, quite steep in places and then drops down near the coast and runs through sugar cane plantations and past the Clarence River which at present is running fast and a chocolate brown colour, due to the recent flooding rains. We leave here Saturday for Brisbane via Byron Bay.