Today we took a trip down to Byron Bay for the day to see how the hippies are doing and to get ourselves out of Queensland for the first time in over a year! We left our apartment in Palm Beach just after nine o'clock this morning for the short drive south but due to the time difference in New South Wales we got to Byron Bay just before lunchtime.

Our first stop was the Byron Bay lighthouse where we could see back over the town and people surfing below to one side, and away south along the coast to the other. We walked around the information centre, which had displays on the history of the lighthouse and some of the marine life that inhabits the area and then headed up to the lighthouse itself. From here we could see a couple of pods of dolphins swimming around and surfing towards the shore on some of the waves. In total there were almost thirty dolphins that we could see and we spent quite a while watching them playing around in the crystal clear waters below us.

When the dolphins had disappeared from our view we set off to see what else was about in the area. There was a path from the lighthouse leading down towards a rocky outcrop that is officially the most easterly point on the Australian mainland, which we walked along for a while until we saw the slope that we would have to walk back up again!

From the lighthouse we drove into the town centre for some much needed lunch in one of the many restaurants and then spent a couple of hours poking around the shops along the main street before meeting Olga and Roger. Then once again, it was time to start heading back to Palm Beach and to regain the hour that we lost this morning!