On Thursday 2nd April we said goodbye to Mum and Dad in Brisbane and headed south to Byron Bay on the Greyhound. We left Brisbane in torrential rain and arrived in Byron, NSW with exactly the same weather at lunchtime, so camping was out of the question really. We ended up at a decent enough hostel right by Main Beach and settled ourselves in for two nights until the rain cleared.

Byron Bay is known for its hippy laid back ‘no problem man’ culture and in some ways this is evident but to locals they just say that’s perception of the town. With great wave breaks and lots of shops and bars, backpackers and surfers flock to Bryon all year round.

We checked out some of the shops while it continued to rain and in the late afternoon we caught up with my friend Abbey from the UWIC tennis team. It was so lovely to see her has we’d just missed her in Melbourne as she arrived into Australia, we flew to Alice Springs for our outback tour, so it was lush to finally have a catch up on Oz soil! Along with Kieron (from uni) and Darren, we all headed to the backpacker central bar ‘Cheeky Monkey’s’ for a cheap meal and drink. One wine led to many and we certainly had an enjoyable night, from what I can remember. Friday was spent nursing a severe hangover (on my part!) I think Darren wandered the shops in more rain and checked out the beaches etc! I just remember I couldn’t wait for Friday to be over with and I think that went the same for Abs!!!!!

Abbey and Kieron headed to Surfers on Friday so we only had the one day together, but it was still great we were able to do that! We’re in Nz the same time so hopefully another little ‘less alcoholic’ reunion will be arranged over there in May!!

On Saturday we checked out of the hostel and headed to Clarks Caravan Park right on the beach front. There had been plenty of rain but it didn’t stop us from camping and when we were given a pitch with awesome views of the beach we were quite happy!!!!

The cloud coverage remained but at least it was dry. We took a nice stroll along the beach and I have never seen so many surfers on one beach in my life! Main Beach is a big curved bay with a tide that goes across the bay, so the surfers all start at the south end of the beach and drift and finish further up the beach, so they are continually getting onto the sand and walking back down to start the whole process over again! it’s mental!

There is a great lookout at the south end of the beach to watch the surfers and possibly spot dolphins so we had a gander up there but with there being a lot of cloud and haze, the photos are not that good.

We went for a jog in the afternoon up to the lighthouse at Cape Byron (on the headland) and didn’t realise the rainforest walk consisted of some many steps….lets just say I was glad when we came to going back down hill! Haha!

The views from the headland were lush so we promised ourselves a proper walk up there the following day.

We headed back to Cheeky Monkey’s for a cheap cheap dinner with soft drinks in the evening and was most probably asleep in the tent by 9pm!

On Sunday we woke up to some beautiful sunshine so we decided to head back up to the lighthouse early to maybe spot some playful dolphins. We took the walk through Palm Valley and spotted two kookaburra’s searching for worms on the grass. We walked passed Wategoes Beach (a surfers haven) and headed up onto the headland to take some photos of what is known as Australia’s most easterly point of land!!! We continued up to the pretty lighthouse which was built in 1901 and then eventually headed down onto the strip of land that juts out into the ocean where plenty of dolphin spotting occurs. Unfortunately we didn’t see any riding the waves, we saw some great big crashing waves and Little Wategoes beach was very idyllic.

We took a walk into town in the afternoon, did a little retail therapy and bought some dinner supplies! We got absolutely caught out by an unexpected storm on the way home and got drenched by the time we reached our tent! Luckily our tent is serving us well and kept us dry all night!!

Well at least on Monday morning the rain stopped and we were able to pack everything up in dry weather! Our Canadian campervan neighbours were heading north a similar time to us and were kind enough to give us a lift the to bus stop which was a good mile down the road (we would of walked it otherwise!)

We caught our next Greyhound bus to a little town 100 miles south of Byron called Yamba, a place many people believe what Byron used to be like 100 years ago!

We really liked Byron Bay. Its got plenty to do and see and the beaches are spectacular, that is the waves too! There is definitely a hippy vibe going on with the town of Nim Bin not too far away and shops on every corner burning incense candles and selling all sorts of arts and crafts. Its also great that there are no commercial retailers/builders in the town as there are no high rises and there isn’t a McDonalds or Red Rooster in sight. Apparently the local people are passionate about keeping there little gem the way it is and we certainly liked it like that! And to all those future backpackers, Cheeky Monkeys is a definite MUST!!!!!!!!

We continued our journey south……next is Yamba!
xxx