Byron Bay

Thursday 2nd December - Monday 6th December 2010

Hello again everyone!

I am beasting out these blogs today! Sorry again for the delay but as you'll be able to tell from these blogs, it's been crazy!

We got the Greyhound from Brisbane to Byron and travelled through Kirra and Coolangatta on the way. These surf towns are how you would imagine a typical Australian surf town. They have class beaches with good surf and white high rise buildings scattering the coast. These places (along with Burleigh Heads) are slightly prettier than Surfers paradise because the high of the buildings is restricted. The buildings at Surfers are huge, creating a city skyline on the beach. This means that the beach becomes quite cold early in the afternoon as they block out the sun! The towns further down the Gold Coast are more appealing, but only slightly.

When we arrive at Byron bus station, it looks like we have arrived at the Big Market in Newcastle on a Saturday night. There are drunken kids everywhere! Apparently it's "Schoolies" which is when all the 17/18 year-old school leavers from every school in Australia go to a place such as Surfers or Byron and go wild! Similar to Spring Break in America (or like every Friday night in Cramlington!). We got a taxi to our hostel in Belongil and the taxi driver informed us that the council actually supports the event. They have "Schoolies huts" on the beach offering support to the kids, they supervise the antics and support the door staff of the pubs and clubs. All of these people are volunteers, I like this approach as oppose to trying to stop it from happening and failing miserably, causing absolute carnage for everyone involved! (That's how we would do it!). The problem is, this encourages weirdos to also be attracted to these places to prey on young schoolies. Anyone who is too old to be a schoolie but who goes to schoolie events are called "Toolies". The volunteers and police also watch out for these people. I suppose that makes me and Joe Toolies! Great!

Our hostel is fine and we are so happy to be back in a normal place! On Friday we walked along from Belongil to Byron on the beach. It was a really nice walk and only took ten minutes. I can see why everyone loved Byron so much now. The scenery is nothing like that of the Gold Coast. The long, misty beach has a back drop of fluffy green hills scattered with gorgeous houses. In the distance you can see mountain ranges behind the hills and there is not a high rise in sight! It also has a really cool, chilled out vibe. It's not trying to be pretentious or up-market, it's just pretty and cool.Unfortunately the weather is a bit grim and the scenery isn't quite as impressive, but even with the dull weather, we can tell how beautiful it is and we love it already! The centre is bustling but not in a busy way. It has loads of restaurants and shops but the council won't allow franchises like "McDonalds" so it's all local, quirky places. I love that! I love looking at the hippy clothes in the hippy shops and got myself some amazing harems! Because all the stuff is local or hand made its so much cheaper than the stuff from the larger chains. I also bought a whole box "Surf" ready to attack the bag of doom that's still in Joe's backpack! We did our first food shop for a while and purchased yet another blue cool bag! When we got back I spent all day and $30 washing EVERYTHING. I never thought I would get so excited about washing but the feeling of a tumble dried towel and the smell a clean t shirt was amazing! Some stuff will have to be washed more than once to get rid of the stale smell of plasticine that Fiji has engrained in our clothes! I dried everything as I was so sick of everything being damp and not quite drying properly and luckily the only casualty was Joe' Fiji Bitter vest (or "singlet" as they say out here). It would fit action man now but he still wears it as he likes the 'belly top' look! We found a lush little café/bar/restaurant attached to our hostel called "The Tree House". It is so cool! A little bit like Ziggy's or Baby Lynches with live music, cool furniture and a really relaxed atmosphere.

On Saturday we walked to the lighthouse. It's still cloudy but very warm! I somehow managed to pull my hamstring in my sleep (which Sam and Helen found very amusing apparently! Cheers for the sympathy kids!) so walking up hill for 2k in the heat wasn't too much fun but well worth the view. The view of Watagos, Byron, Belongil and right up the coastline as well as the shadowy mountains and grassy hills was amazing! The sea was deep blue and quite rough around the rocks. We did manage to get lost though, even though you can see the lighthouse from everywhere in Byron, we still got lost! We ended up in a very posh housing estate and had to ask for directions which sent us back down the huge hill we had just climbed and up another one! My poor hammy! After we had our pasta from a Tupper Ware box on the grass (hobos!) we found a pub and watched the cricket all afternoon! England are destroying the Aussies!

We have pretty much chilled out since being back in Oz and haven't got the energy to "do things" every day like we did have in Queensland. There are lots of things to do and see around here but we haven't got the energy or funds! We wanted to go to the hippy town of Nimbin because we've heard it's a hoot (and a bit wild) but we couldn't manage it. We are looking forward to getting to Sydney and totally chilling but don't want to wish the last couple of weeks of travelling away. We have pretty much run out of money and need work asap! So in light of this we went to the Tree House and got absolutely battered. The evening was sponsored by Capital One.

We left Byron the next day with every intention of coming back some day. We got the Greyhound to Coffs Harbour and ate tuna pasta on the bus and totally stank it out! It's the first day of sun we've had since being back in the country and it's the day we're on a bus! Ha! But we still loved Byron,

Hope everyone is well! Lots of love,

Elle and Joe x x x