Surfers paradise, Byron bay and around

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In Southern Queensland and north new South Wales there is so much more going on and so many more people. We arrived in surfers paradise and did our normal drive and walk around to get our bearings and fell straight in love with this place. The beach is of course beautiful with surfers everywhere as you would expect from the name! Surfers has some massive sky scrapers loads of posh restaurants with so many different cuisines and generally so much going on. We just walked around and chilled on the beach trying to learn a bit from watching before we took surfing on!

The first few days we tanned on the beach and did some window shopping, we found a free camp site/rest area about 30km out of town because we refuse to pay the $36 just for parking a van for the night and plus there are free BBQ's and public showers all along the beach front in surfers. This stop was a bit scary though, there was a strange looking man there every night sleeping in a run down blue car and we were convinced one night that we weren't going to wake up!!!!

So we didn't sleep that well there and had a kitchen knife ready just incase. I'm sure we were just thinking the worst, those bloody horror movies!! We were naughty one night and camped in a car park just outside of the city, which had a sign saying camping prohibited penalties apply! But we wanted to give it a go for ages to see if we could get away with it and we did, even with these German lads keeping us up all night from their drinking games, the loser of the game had to sleep up in the top of the van that's meant for a for child! Love what people do for travel!

On the third day we had enough of lazing around and saving money and we were mad to get on the water so we rented two of the biggest surf boards ever and headed out. Now I think of me and Mish as quite sporty people and we seemed to pick board sports up quickly like wake board, snowboard, kite surfing, this wasn't the case with surfing (bloody impossible sport)! Its hard enough getting beyond the break without getting battered from the waves and getting tossed around not knowing which way is up!! After 3 hours of getting smashed we got the hang of getting out there catching the waves but not standing, as soon as we'd try to stand we just fell over, but was great fun watching each other get nailed by 8ft waves and using our surf boards more like body boards! This one wave Mish caught was massive I watched her disappear from the back and then after 3 seconds saw her her board fly up into the air and no Mishee! So brave the only girl out on the water as well.
I tell you what though all the people who surf are ripped and so fit, its a knackering sport, its a way of life out here I think people get up surf go to work surf go to bed and do it all over again. Definitely a sport we would love to get into but might need a bit more tuition than watching a how to surf video on you tube the day before!!!!

The next day after staying with the serial killer blue car again, we headed for a national park which was about 50km away so Mish told me after 4 hours and 200km we arrived!!! We had one of those arguments that you hate each other at the time and when you get to where you wanna go you just laugh about it, hate getting lost especially when you're low on fuel! Was worth the drive though Lamington national park is a massive mountain with epic views and a great walk on the top of the trees on a wobbly bridge (yes I was scared)!

We went back to surfers that night to enjoy a pizza on the BBQ next to the beach before heading for my run, I'm running every other day with 50 dips, 50 press ups and 50 sit ups, Mish joins me occasionally because she hates cold showers so she runs to get hot first!! Also meant to be a good night out here but for $8 a beer in most places we opted not to go out! Class 5 days in surfers and would definitely recommend visiting surfers and me and Mish could easily live here.

Byron bay is a lot smaller and more quaint than surfers but absolutely rammed with people! Me and Mish found a beach around the corner of Byron bay and watched a long board competition and wandered around Byron having a few drinks in the local bars.
We stayed at 2 motorway stops again and fell asleep listening to the glorious songs of passing lorries! Oh well its free, but be warned toilets are not nice!!!! Byron bay a class place really relaxed and again all about the surfing, and loads of surfing shops with cool gear.

We also checked out the Minyon water falls and headed on to Nimbin (aka weed capital of Australia), this place is mad every shop seems to sell drug accessories and the air smells like sitting at a table with Bob Marley! A lot of the people here sit around playing the gutier with joints hanging out their mouths!

There is a police station in the middle of town, strange! They must turn a blind eye or something, me and Mish felt well out of place not looking like hippies and not having dread locks but the people are so friendly in the cafes and bar and our camp site (that we had to pay for dammit! Only $22 though).I went for a run in the morning here and I was stared at like I was committing a crime! Well relaxed here not a lot goes on but well trendy and we felt like we hopped in doc browns time machine and arrived in the flower era of the 60's!! Really cool to see. The countryside around here is stunning! We can see why Captain Cook named it New South Wales, its so green with rolling hills, just like Wales (but on a much larger scale of course)!

We have loved the weather in OZ so far it has been clear blue sky and only 10 minutes of rain in our whole OZ trip, love it its cool at night to snuggled up in our sleeping bags in Carlos!

We are heading back to byron for a few days may give surfing another go before heading south only 850 km to syndey now. Beans n toast for luch get it!!!! Hope everyone is well x

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