SN-DTOMC - Ballina

The next day we zipped over to Ballina to visit the town where my parents lived earlier this century. That part of the country is a really nice place, but it was slightly less charming on this visit because the recent flooding in the area* means that all the fish in the river have died. And when I say all, I really mean all. Apparently most of the dead fish that were washed up on the shore were collected by the council over the last week or so, but there was still the odd deady lying around.

a dead fish. charming.

Apart from the stench of rotting flesh, though, it was all really lovely there. We drove to Byron Bay and went for a swim (which was weird. There was an extremely strong current in the area where we were swimming, such that in mid-thigh-deep water you could hardly avoid being swept away. Fortunately it was more sideways rather than out to sea, and it really wasn't that bad, so no one was in much actual danger of drowning) and we ... actually, we didn't really do much what with it being an arduous day of driving (8 hours or so). It was nice, though.

* Have I mentioned this? There are floods galore all over the place at the moment. Personally I am not very impressed with the fact that the minute I decide to get married here the worst drought ever ends and rain comes bucketing down. I read in the paper today that Sydney has almost already exceeded its annual average rainfall for February, and it's only the 5th! Grr. Reto is being all optimistic and saying that the fact that so much rain has fallen already means that surely it will have stopped by the time we get married (which is in a week or so), but I think he's living in a fool's paradise. Not that rain would be the worst thing ever (I am a big fan of rain normally, especially in these days of water restrictions) but I do enjoy the complaining.