We are now in Ballina, but first a report on the time we enjoyed on the Clarence River. If you look at the Clarence river on Google Maps, you will see that it is quite a river navigable all the way up to Grafton. We entered the river at Iluka and Yamba and after spending the first night anchored in the river, we motored upstream to Harwood where the bridge operator stopped the traffic on the Pacific Highway to open the bridge for us. Quite a bit of old world engineering!

The Harwood bridge over the Clarence river

Motoring through the opened section

We passed fairly big ships on the river on our way up to MacLean, a lovely town with Scottish heritage up the river.

Vessels on the river

We tied up to the public jetty in MacLean, where we were welcomed by Peter (with a strong Scottish brogue) and invited to sign the visitors book and given brochures about the town. We stocked up with groceries and bought fresh fish caught that day in the river. A relaxing evening with Van Morrison, fresh grilled fish and wine followed.

Esprit tied to the jetty at MacLean

The following day was spent exploring this delightful town where all the lamp posts are decorated with Scottish clan tartans. A 5km walk up the hill above the town gave us good views of the area and the Clarence flowing back to the sea.

The MacLachlan tartan colours

View out to sea, some miles away

We then motored down river where an obliging Craig Knox opened the bridge for us again to allow us passage out to Iluka where we anchored in the river for the night. We were delighted to see “Now and Zen” on our AIS approaching the bar at the river mouth. Marty and Sue anchored near us and came over for drinks so that we could catch up with their travels since we last saw them in Port Macquarie.