Monday 25th March 2013

Again I had another good nights sleep. I woke only a few times when people came back from nights out. The lad from Leeds was last back at around 5am, he wasn't noisy but chatted, mainly to himself but to the girl above responses a few times. He wanted the bathroom but another girl was in there, I wasn't sure who. She was taking a long time and then she showered, the lad suggested she might have been sick. I feel back asleep only momentarily before my alarm went off at 5.15am, snoozed until 5.30am. I got up and went to shower, I lifted the toile seat and the lad was right, the girl had been sick. Instead of the normal thing to do and flush the toilet she filled it with toilet paper, almost 3/4 full. There was also a bad smell, so that stopped the shower plan. I got dressed by my bed and took my first bags out to the kitchen. When I went back for my second, the Asian lad was up and I tried to warn him about the toilet, I don't think he fully understood but by the time he walked into the bathroom. It took me three trips but I had vacated the room. I was glad I was leaving early as the aftermath of the bathroom situation wouldn't have been nice.
I sat down and had my breakfast, cereal with tea (I made some toast for the trip) and watched the news. I also booked my accommodation for Byron, as I'd by heard from any of my emails. I was torn between 2, the one Kate stayed at and a cheaper one (there was £1 in it). I went for the cheaper one. At 6.15am I took my plate box down to reception and got my deposit back. I then went back up and collected my bags. Back down I went and checked out, and receive the rest of my deposit. I sat in reception for a while sending emails. At around 6.30am I headed to the Transit Centre, it was only a 5min walk and my bus was at 7am. I walked up to level 3 and to the Greyhound desk, I went to the counter and checked in. I was worried they would weigh my bags, as the driver that took us to Noosa, warned some girls they would weigh them at Brisbane, but alas she didn't and just gave me two tags for my bags. She also printed off me a new ticket as I'd 'lost' mine.
There was a slight confusion over buses as 2 were leaving at the same time but one north and one south, I was on the bus second to board. I was on, I sat near the front again and had 2 seats to myself. As we got going the driver introduced himself and also announced it was his birthday and that is wife was also on board. I plugged my music in and slept for part of the first section. It was easy after the early start. We made a couple of stops and we also had to move out clocks forward as we were now in New South Wales and they were in day light saving (I am still unsure why Queensland don't have this). We had a breakfast stop around 10.30am until 11am, then it was a simple 40mins until Byron. As we drove down the coast the sea was always in view or wasn't far off, even from leaving Brisbane. There would be rolling fields of grass with a sea as its backdrop. There was water logged grass at the bottom of hills. I learnt from the museum that Queensland was declining in the amount of sheep farmed (due to wool prices dropping and lamb prices dropping) and a subsequent increase in beef farming. There was also field and field of sugar came, in between grass fields or even just fields as far as you see. As we drove up to Surfers Paradise massive high rise building came into view, like you would imagine any small city or large town, but as we drove closer it became apparent all these building were apartments or hotels. I was amazed such an area could support such a huge demand, but obviously it could. As we left Surfers Paradise, the driver pointed out to us he view of the city from a distance with the high rises, it stopped stunning in the morning sun. I wasn't too miffed about skipping this city, although the high rises looked impressive, there was a lot of construction work being completed. As we drove from our breakfast stop I just watched the land go by, watching the waves crash on rocky and sandy beaches or fields, forests and land go by. It made my laugh when we passed a sign directing toward an 'exotic fruit world', was that the best they could come up with. We arrive into Byron Bay at just after 11.40am. It was a very hot day outside. I swiftly got off the bus, as I tended to do to make sure my bags went thrown about. I collected by bags and waited for the mass of people to disband, either from arriving in Byron or getting on the bus. The town seemed busy, a typical seaside town. I was a little nervous, as I didn't know what I was meant to do about being picked up, I had emailed the hostel when I booked about my arrival time but heard nothing from them. 2 ladies from Peter Pan (who I think were just scouting for people arriving to find them accommodation) asked if I was ok. I said I was staying at Byron Beach Resort and if they knew where it was, I couldn't see any shuttle buses or signs for the hostel. They didn't know where it was, but then one remembered seeing a sign from someone walking off to some shuttle buses, naturally there was a whole heap of shuttle buses from all the hostels behind me. I quickly said thank you, grabbed my bags and headed for these shuttles. It took my a few looks to find the right bus. I was an old bus, and the lady in the passenger seat told me to thrown my bags on. I put them on top of the others that were there ad climbed abroad. A few more people climbed aboard (along with the driver). People kept having to move back as more and more people came from town to be picked up. The driver and co-passenger jut spoke to themselves and were not like the ones from Noosa. I was a little apprehensive about what this hostel would be like. I started chatting to the couple on the bus, both from England, one were checking in and we spoke about yoga, the others had been to get a subway by the look of it and we chatted about traveling, the latter were from Wimbledon and seemed really nice. I felt a little more confident about the hostel.
It was about a 10min drive to the hostel and ad we arrived, unloaded our bags it was about midday. We were not allowed to check-in to the dorms until 1pm as they were still being cleaned. I took my day bag and headed to the beach straight over the road. The beach was literally just over the road and apart from having to clamber over some rocks to get to the sand, it was perfect. It was a long sandy beach with clear sea. It was obvious from the cliffs there were trying to fight the erosion in the form of concrete barriers. There were a few people already on the beach, including a few topless ladies (although many would take their bikini tops off they would be lying face down, these were just waking around). I found a spot and read my book in the sun. I was enjoying reading at present. It was hot in the midday sun. I ate a cereal bar and made sure I drank some water. Just before 1pm I made my way back up the rocks to check in. Alas they were still not ready and told us to take a seat. A few went to the cafe next door, whereas myself and the first couple I meet sat outside the reception on a wooden bench. We spoke about traveling and trips, the man said it was impressed that I was travelling alone. Thy heard someone check in, so we went into reception and checked in (the couple first). I was handed my sheets and blanket (incase it got cold...really), my key and information sheet. I asked about leaving my bags on my last day (as I was catching a night bus), about the lighthouse and about town. I headed to my room following the map. The hostel had many rooms and could be seen as a little maze. It took me two trips to get all my bags in place. I put my sheets on a bottom bunk, as I preferred thees. I put my food in the fridge, the kitchen was large and ample of fridge space (this was very uncommon in hostels). I was going to have lunch but there was a queue in reception, so I decided instead of collecting my plate box (again a deposit required) I did some much needed washing and hung it out to dry inside and out. After this and sorting out my day bag I went to collect my plate box and had a cream cheese and ham sandwich made from toast. It was yummy. I also had a banana. I then checked the time to see of a shuttle was leaving, there wasn't one for over an hour. As town was only apparently a 20min walk down the beach, I decided on this tactic. I walked down the beach and it was beautiful. The sun was at my back, as I walked through the wet sand and waters. It was a perfect walk, I could understand why people move to Australia. There were people walking their dogs, people sunbathing (a few more topless), people swimming and people like me just walking. It was literally 20mins walk. I could see the lighthouse in the distance, I planned to walk there early tomorrow as it was about an hour. I arrived at what must have been the main beach, there were hundred there just on the beach. It was exactly the same as ours (apart from the shallow went out very far) but ours was a lot less busy. I walked up into town. It was a large quirky sea side town. The previous place had either had nothing or just been a single street, but here there were winding roads and plenty of unique independent shops. I walked around for a bit with no real purpose. My aim was to go to Peter Pans, to book my flight from Melbourne and email New Zealand people. I found myself at Aldi, the first I'd come across. I went in as I wanted some veg for dinner. It was my cheaper than the other supermarkets, although choose and availability was limited. I got some sweetcorn, pinned pineapples, red onion, mushrooms and some breaded fish. I wanted something a bit more than just noodles, this box had 6 so it would last me at least 3 nights. I assumed there was a freezer at the hostel and I hoped for an oven (I was wrong with both). All my purchase came to under $7. I then carried on walking through town and succumbed to buying an ice-cream. There was 2 I wanted to try and today was the turn of 'Golden Gaytime', Lindsay had had one in Fraser and it looked good. It was milky ice cream (not proper ice cream though) covered in a condensed milk type coating them covered in nuts. It went down well. I had to ask for directions to Peter Pans, as I was walking in circles around town getting nowhere. I though I saw the nice German girl from Carnis (my second and third night) as I walked passed someone, I wished I said hello now. I got to Peter Pans and jumped into a computer (which I shared with ants), the hotmail setting were strange, like in a mobile setting, so between my phone and computer sent my New Zealand itinerary to Del. I also checked the email I sent Anna Cook, in closer expecting I had the wrong email address when I emailed her last, no wonder I hadn't had a reply (I used the wrong one first time around, I used co.uk and not co.nz, however first time round the wrong recipient let me know), so I emailed her again. I also chatted to Kate a bit and booked my flight to Sydney, I choose a flight a couple of hours before Kate but it was $20 cheaper, it was $44ish in total. I also gambled and assumed I could just take my bag on as hand luggage. I also checked my penny situation and I was worried, money was going to be tight. I needed to sit down and work out what I had and what I could spend (remembering costs of seeing people like Mrs A and the Wilsons). After this and sending a few messages I headed home. It was cooler now the sun was going down and clouds were now closer and more predominant in the sky, it looked like rain could make an appearance. The tide was coming in as I made my way down to the beach, so I couldn't walk the first section so instead ended up walking along a path for a bit just above he beach. It was as equally nice walk back. There was even more people waking now with only a few in the sea. But the looks of it you could easily swim here, so that was added to the list of things to do. I also came across a completely naked lady going for a swim, however her patented had his trunks on...this beach was strange.
I got back the hostel it felt a lot quicker than it took to walk to town. I got back to the hostel around 6.20pm, I was impressed it was that late. I dumped my fish in the fridge, alas no freezer and headed to my room. I picked up my clothes from outside, they were still damp and picked up my things for dinner. A few of my roomies were sat outside talking, we said hello. When i got to he kitchen There was a few people cooking, so I left it for a bit and went into the common room and started watching the second Sherlock Holmes film that was on TV. There were plenty of sofas to sit on, it was a nice layout. After a while I went up to cook. I decided to fry my fish and cook them all, as they were meant to be kept frozen, I cooked them in butter and it seemed to work. They had defrosted nearly completely after spending most d the afternoon in my bag. They cooked quickly, until they were browned and the first 3 I cooked I cut one open and they were hit in the middle. I then cooked in the frying pan my onion and mushrooms (corn was being kept for another day). As these were nearly ready I cooked my noodles and made a cup of tea. Once all cooked, I put a third of my veg withy the noodles and spilt the noodles in 2 (the third lot of veg were for my packed dinner Wednesday night and the noodles were for tomorrow). I then went down to the common room (the kitchen was above it) and continued to watch the film. Once I was finished I drank the rest of my squash and watched the film. After a bit I went back from some inked pineapple. It was refreshing to have a different fruit and they were chilled from being in the fridge. I ate these, watched the film and drank my tea. After the film had finished, I started writing my diary (I was so desperately behind), someone changes the channel but it soon got put back into the film channel for the largest Mission Impossible (big films made me laugh as they were what we had seen in the old cinema club). I went to put my dishes back in room, and put food in the fridge. I went back to the common room with a new cup of tea and biscuits, where I watched the film and completed the days diary (whoop). After I fished writing it was perfect time as the film finished, so I went to my dorm and bed.