F&F Tour, Days 7-9 - The Gold Coast

The view from the sandhills in front
of the Sandpit Cafe, Evans Head

For the seventh day of the tour, we managed to included some less traveled roads, with few people living or even visiting along them, on our way to the densely populated and attraction-over-sufficient, Gold Coast.

The first detour from an older section of the M1 north of the Clarence, was via the still recovering Woodburn - flattened by the flooded Richmond River in 2022 and still struggling and then east to Evans Head and a coffee at the Sandpit Cafe below the surf life saving club. Situated behind the back dunes of the main beach, it was a wet and windy experience but only in the getting there from the carpark. The coffee was good and the waitstaff wore a green Hawaiian shirt, making me feel much like family. While we were there, we made a forward booking for the return journey south.

Back on the M1, we made quick progress past the conspiracy of "B" towns - Broadwater, Ballina, Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads - before again leaving the straight and narrow for lunch behind the beach at Wooyung. Leaving the highway not long after the site of the annual Splendour in the Grass site, north of Byron, we navigated the narrow mostly bitumen and sharp bends that wind to the nowhere that is Wooyung and then turn abruptly north in an apologetic straight line to Pottsville. Our lunch spot was a roadside layby, only just long and wide enough for Forester and Avan. We were hidden amidst the dense paperbarks that hide the Tweed Coast Road which parallels Wooyung, Mooball and Pottsville beaches in one continuous stretch of sand and waves. I attempted to pierce the trees along a narrow sand track where the ground cover brushed my bare feet an either side, even when walking heel to toe and then decided I was a long way from even mobile emergency care which I might gamble on for the sake of a sight of a beach. Those of you who know of my affection for beaches will not be surprised I returned after a few steps to the comfort of my tuna sandwiches and glass of milk.

After lunch, we went north to Pottsville, seemingly a pleasant and tidy coastal town, a view garnered admittedly only on a drive-through, back to the highway.

Our view from the digs at Bundall

Thereafter, it was just highway lanes and rolling hills, well back from the coast, on the way to Bundall. We had a brief glimpse of the long sweep of Wonmin Bay just before we crossed the Tweed River and then again as we crossed the border into Queensland beside the Gold Coast Airport at Coolangatta. From there it was just skyscrapers and multiple lanes and cars in a hurry and trucks opposing them until we reached the canals at Bundall.

Our little van looked most out of place as I squeezed it onto the driveway of the AirB&B rental we would be sharing for the night with the partial Gibbens Clan. 

This - one of the Family parts of the tour - was a celebration of survival of one of the younger members, diagnosed a year ago with cancer in his 17 year old sportsman's legs and the traumatic path he had trod to wellness since. We who have experience of the shitty parts of life should be expected to endure such, not young men who are still getting used to shaving ... nor their amazingly supportive close families. It was a grand night, full of great food, laughter and the lack of reserve only families can provide. The setting certainly helped, with a canal as the backyard and a covered deck providing the platform for the view. 

For photos of the Gold Coast,
click here

On our first full day of two at the Gold Coast, we left family behind and headed for the more familiar surrounding of a tourist park , this time at Kirra Beach, right at Coolangatta. Not much was memorable of this day and the next. I walked into a door handle of a heavy steel door and gained a hairline fracture in my twelfth rib. It poured with rain except when it just rained steadily. There were puddles and mud but the toilets were as clean as you can keep them when they lie in the middle of puddles and mud. We did manage a picturesque coffee at the Coolangatta Surf Club, picked up some medication from the friendly pharmacy, had a nice walk beside a crowded road and a surprisingly quick visit to the A&E dept of the local hospital.

The Gold Coast has never impressed me. Nothing has changed.