Day 16: 24/6/13
I stayed in bed as long as I could this morning but check out was at 10 so it wasn't too long of a sleep in. I stored my luggage and then wandered down the town for some breakfast. I stayed ages in the cafe reading a book- I'm sure they were tempted to throw me out!
My only aim for today was to do the walk up to the lighthouse. I was told that its quite a long walk so I had all day to do it. I went on the track by the beaches an coastline. There were different lookouts on the way. The first one was near a load of surfers so I spent ages watching them. They spend the majority of their time falling off- I don't know why they do it! The track stopped at Wategos beach which is where we had had the tea with the kayak group yesterday. There was a lookout near that too and you could right out over the rocks near the sea. It's amazing how nosy I am and once it's anyways safe at all Ill be out to see what it looks like! There was a big clinb then up to the main lookout which is the most easterly point in Australia. Of course I had to take pictures at all of these lookouts and one with the sign! The lighthouse was next along the track. It was built in 1901 and needed a constant lighthouse keeper. Now it's still fully operational but it's automatic and only needs maintenance now and again. Inside they had various artefacts from inside the lighthouse and pictures of the lighthouse and Byron bay on display. There was a tour of the inside of the lighthouse starting a few minutes after I got there. We got to climb up inside it and go up to where the lens is that throws the light and go out on the balcony at the top. There was a women there who was obviously afraid of heights but her daughter who was about 8 thought it was the best thing ever! It was quite funny! The guide who showed us around was full of information and stories. They used to have to change the kerosene in the lamp and wind up a wheel that would spend the lense every hour and a half. Life is much easier now! Apparently it cost 8,500 for the lense back in 1901 and the building itself along with the cottages for the lighthouse keeper only cost 10,000. So the lens is very expensive! You could see how it's made up of little glass crystal segments. The building itself is made of concrete that bricks that they made here apparently and they didn't use any scaffolding or anything to build it- they just went straight up! I don't know how they'd get the too bit done without scaffolding as its all metal at the top and works like a big lantern. It was interesting up there, but more importantly the views were really good!
After the lighthouse you could see nice views of a beach on the other side of the headland. Along the track there I spotted something in the water too. It looked like a whole load of dolphins! They were jumping around the water which was pretty cool! It was hard to make out clearly if they were dolphins or not but they weren't whales so they were either sharks or dolphins, but I'd guess from the size of them and the way they were playing around that they were dolphins! That made up for not seeing them yesterday!
The last bit of the walk back towards Byron bay was through the rainforest then which was nice because it was so different to the beach views. I went to the shops for a wander then and I bought some postcards. Then I bought some pizza and went down to watch the sunset again. I had noticed yesterday that lots of people bring food and drink and it's a good idea as it takes about an hour for the sun to go down fully! I said I wouldn't take any photos of the sunset this time as I had loads from yesterday but then it was really different today and I had to give in and take some! There was a nice little dog playing in the sand too which made for good photos!
After that I just went back to the hostel and dossed around until it was time to get the blog. I rang Shane aswell and he seemed to be in good enough form. The bus came shortly before 8 and we have a 13 hour journey ahead of us. I watched a DVD on the laptop and then I felt sleepy so I thought I would try to sleep while I get the chance!