Georgia was a bit under the weather with a cold, so we decided to take it a little easier today. We mapped out a route through the hinterland and onto the coast, starting at Billinudgel.

It was a little overcast, but no rain was forecast as we set off after a two-coffee breakfast. There wasn't much to Billinudgel and we parked in the hotel car park, giving us plenty of room to unload the bikes. We took the road out of town towards the Pocket, with many roadside signs proclaiming this weekend's Winter Festival at the Pocket school.

It was a lovely cycle along a quiet country road, thought the road surface deteriorated rapidly after we passed the Pocket. We bought some blueberries from a roadside stall hoping that they would survive the rough surface. We then had a bit of a climb, followed by a long descent into Main Arm, fortunately on a smoother road.

The road to Mullumbimby was a little busier, as we passed another two public schools. Three primary schools in 18kms made us wonder how many kids were in the local area. We were keen to find an information centre to purchase a better map, but though Mullumbimby had lots of organic food stores, the nearest tourist information centre was at Brunswick Heads.

We stopped at a park outside the council chambers to eat our "not cross" (thereby christened "happy") buns and then took the road across the railway line and towards the coast. It was narrow, and the traffic was heavy so we were pleased to be able to turnoff onto the Saddle Road. The sealed road ran out after about 1km but the dirt surface was better than our potholed experience en route to Main Arm.

It was a good choice, and we enjoyed views to the coast and after descending under the highway, picked up the cycle path into Brunswick Heads. It was a lovely ride into town, and after purchasing a much needed Hayman's adventure map, we crossed the river to Ocean Shores, and after struggling up a few steep hills, descended to the ocean for lunch. No whales to be seen today.

We said goodbye to Jonno as we picked up another bike path back to Billinudgel to return to the car, and I did a couple of laps of the car park to get the odometer up to 40 kms for the day.

Upon leaving us, Jonno followed some back streets of Ocean Shores, determined to find a route back to camp, being about 6kms on the map. He picked up a fire trail, crossed a river, getting his feet wet, then rode through sand and worked his way up to Jones road, then down a steep and bumpy hill, along a muddy path to Wooyung Road and back to the campsite.

As requested, he rang us on his arrival back at camp to let us know he had returned safely, and that the bush chooks had got into our garbage that we had neglected to dispose of that morning. After advising Jonno to clear it up as best he could, we finished our shopping and headed back to camp to find most of the rubbish still on the ground.

Georgia took control of dinner, cooking up an excellent Greek chicken accompanied by potatoes baked on the fire.

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