Welcome to Illuka, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Well, we've been here in Iluka for a couple of days. This too, is one of my childhood haunts. I didn't set out to make this a nostalgia trip, but it just seemed to be the next logical destination when we worked out our travel times etc. The other option, Evans Head, would have been a few kilometres closer to Kyogle, but in the end I figured it would be nice to see how the town had changed in the thirty odd years since I learned to ride a bike and roller skate there. [sigh] My dad had a big curly head of hair and a fluffy bushy beard and mustache back then. He was like a wild man of Borneo from the shoulders up.

Kyogle was a busy set of ten days so I didn't get to post particularly often. Even now, writing anything about it would feel like old news. When I studied journalism, one of the first things my lecturer said was "Yesterday's news stinks. That's why they use it to wrap up old prawn heads." So Kyogle was lovely, we met up with Maya, Nanna, Maybelle, and a whole bunch of friends from my old church. But now we're in Illuka.

Illuka is pretty and the Clarence River (at least the lower reaches up as far as Maclean - that's all I've seen) is positively majestic. Driving alongside vast expanses of still blue rippling water is just delicious. I would love to get out there in a little dinghy and just putt around in it. There are plenty of boats floating around in the safety of the Iluka Bay. It is a man-made bay set just inside the Iluka - Yamba bar. The town is just as pretty as I remember. The beer garden at the pub, The Sergers Reef Hotel, has the best view in town.

Grace has been difficult to settle. The reasons are obvious. The challenge now is to deal with it. I need to try and implement (and stick to) an appropriate sleep routine for her. This needs to be fairly rock solid before I go introducing something as challenging as toilet training. [sigh] I knew the work of motherhood wouldn't stop while we were on this trip and this just proves it. In a way, the work of motherhood has just been knocked up a notch because now we're not doing it in a safe and predictable environment. Grace doesn't feel safe, she doesn't know what's coming next. [Did she ever?] She would suck that dummy all day long if we let her.

I'll tell you more about Iluka tomorrow.

Cheers.