After a very long bus journey we arrived into Byron Bay at about 9.30am feeling cramped and tired. We were met off the bus by someone from the hostel where we had booked to stay which was nice as we didn't fancy trekking anywhere with our bags. We had booked into a double room as a treat for Dave's birthday and also to allow us to chill out and recover from the bus journey. The hostel turned out to be really nice as our room and another 4 bed dorm were in their own self-contained brand new apartment with kitchen, bathroom and TV - luxury! We chilled out around the hostel for a while, doing our washing and stuff and then went out to check out Byron Bay. Although it's quite small here it's really cool with loads of great clothes shops, gift shops and ice-cream shops. The beach is beautiful with big waves where we saw loads of surfers. Whilst we were looking around we saw a few travel agents advertising trips to Fraser Island and the Whitsundays, which are the 2 things we really want to do on our way up the East coast. After an hour chatting to one of these travel agents about all the options and prices, we took their quote back to our hostel (who also book these trips) and managed to get an even better price complete with free T-shirts, free internet and a free meal each! We paid about 700 dollars each (about 300 quid) for a trip to Fraser Island, a trip around the Whitsundays on a catamaran and a 4 day trip around Ayres rock. After booking the trips we spent the afternoon on the beach, reading. It's autumn here now so it was a little chilly but Dave braved the sea anyway. At about 5pm it started to get dark which was accompanied by the screeching of thousands of brightly coloured birds that flew in a huge flock from tree to tree and then dissapeared. The sunset was also accompanied by a guy on a drum at the side of the beach who was beating it faster and faster as the sun got lower. The drummer was encircled by a group of people, some dancing and some who looked really stoned! One old geezer was swaying from side to side with a glazed look on his face - he had probably just got back from Nimbin (a druggy town near Byron Bay). Once the sun had gone down it got really cold so we went back for hot showers and some pasta which we ate watching TV.