Thursday 13th February

I've never been so pleased to arrive somewhere! That overnight journey was horrible! Although saying that, not as bad as I thought it was going to be!

We arrived at 8am and left our bags at reception of our hostel as we couldn't get into our room till 11am. So we decided to have a look around Byron bay! I was so pleased we had visited here! Even though we are only here for a day I guess the way to look at it is it's better than not seeing it at all! We went and had a walk by the beach- it was nice being there so early seeing it quite empty. First impressions were it was so cool! Byron reminds me a little of Croyde in Devon- it's very chilled and there's surfers everywhere! :-)

We went for a nice breakfast as we were quite hungry and needed to pass the time! After that we went and had a lie down on the grass for a bit and not long after it was time to check in!

The room was pretty basic- just a room with a bed and a tiny wardrobe. We had our own room but were in an apartment with a shared kitchen and bathroom as we had 4 girls next door to us. We quickly showered and put our swim stuff on then headed back out. It was good actually arriving so early as we'd already felt like we'd seen a fair bit by 11am! :-)

Lauren and Martie have been to Byron and Lauren mentioned to me about doing the lighthouse walk so we thought we would check it out. It was absolutely boiling in Byron and the sun shone all day! The walk was so lovely! Started off at the bottom of the beach and we walked miles- the whole thing took about 3 hours! Anyway there were lots and lots of steps (I actually thought I was going to pass out at one point!) but the views were just incredible! We stopped half way for an ice cream each too! Once we got to the top I couldn't believe it! It really did feel like an accomplishment! :-D Byron bay has had sights of dolphins, whales, sharks and see turtles before so was hoping we would see at least one. We stood there for ages looking out to sea until we spotted one! A sea turtle!!! :-D id always wanted to see one but seeing it out in the wild was just incredible. We saw afew after that! We also managed to spot a shark! :-o it was about 2 metres but this lady who I'm guessing worked for the lighthouse pointed the shark out to us! Again so awesome seeing it with our own eyes!

On the walk down we had to walk a different way which was more through the jungle! As soon as we got there it had a sign reading "warning recent snake sighting". It did say they're harmless but I was still so anxious. So Jamie walked infront to protect me, he started looking at something on the floor which actually looked like poo lol I was just looking at the floor which is when I saw it in the corner of my eye! A snake!! It was so camouflaged Jamie was right next to it and he didn't notice! It wasn't too big really but still scary! I'd prefer them over spiders any day though! Managed to even get a few shots of him!
It was a real travellers experience seeing all these cool things in one day! We also saw a massive lizard in the jungle bit too! On the night we went for a nice pizza but wasn't out too late as I think Jamie had sunstroke as we'd been out in the sun all day (guess he's not as used to it as me!). Tomorrow we leave to go to noosa which is where Steve Irwin zoo is! Actually can't wait! :-D