Byron Bay-Beautiful, stunning and good fun!! A very beautiful beach with the most awesome waves and a very personal nice small town!!!

Tuesday 10th November 2009, Byron Bay

After a very long 11 hour journey struggling to sleep in a semi reclining seat we eventually arrived in Byron Bay at about 8:35am. We were picked up at the bus stop by the hostel and taken straight there. The hostel was called Backpackers on the Beach and it was pretty much straight onto the beach via a small path leading straight from the garden!! The hostel also had a pool but unfortunately it wasn't very desirable so we didn't use it.

Because we were so early it was a bit too early to check in so we dumped our bags and then headed onto the beach and walked along it to the town. The town is basically made up of one main long street so we had a walk along there before picking up a coffee and a Danish and taking it back to the beach to eat our breakfast whilst watching the surfers!!

We went back to the hostel about 11am and checked in. Once in and sorted we both had a shower and a bit of a de-fluff before putting our bikinis on ready for the beach. We had some lunch before heading down to the beach and spending the rest of the afternoon sunning ourselves and watching the amazing amount of surfers! The waves were so big and the current was seriously strong, a littler scary at times but great fun for playing in, although having to stop our bikinis from being dragged off by the waves wasn't as wonderful,but its all part of the experience!!!!

We returned from the beach at about 7pm, showered and then walked back into the town to use the internet and go to the supermarket. Dinner tonight was stir fry veg and noodles with honey and soy kebabs. Very nice! We had an earlish night tonight as we both fairly tired and the idea of curling up with our books was far more appealing than anything else!

Wednesday 11th November 2009, Byron Bay

We were up today about 10amish and after throwing the swim wear on it was on to breakfast.After breakfast we went into town where we then spent a couple of hours updating the blog!! It was long but we were pretty far behind so it needed doing!

After this it was back to the hostel for some lunch before hitting the beach!!! And this again is where we spent the remainder of the sunlight hours for today!! It was so stunning it was hard not to!! It was also today that we learnt, unintentionally, how to perform back flips whilst being in the sea! You guessed it we were playing in the big waves again and were flipped over at the same time as being dragged under!! The trick is NOT to panic!! I will admit it was a little scary, but it didn't put us off doing it again!!

Tonight we had signed up for the $5 BBQ at the hostel as well as $5 Sangria night. Bring on the cheap food and drink!!! The BBQ was available from 7:30pm, it was just a sausage, a burger, a bit of salad and some bread but for only $5 it was pretty good!! The Sangria came out about 8pm and there was a lot, at one point it seemed never ending but it did end of course but not till about 9:30pm. Let's just say we got our money's worth! There was some fire spinning entertainment as well which was good to watch. We spent the night talking to Teresa (a Scouser) and Damien (a Kiwi). After the hostel shut up at about 10:30pm/11pm we headed into town to one of the clubs for a bit of a dance and a free drink!! We had a good night and it wasn't too late by the time we got in!

Thursday 12th November 2009, Byron Bay and Nimbin

Today we had booked on a tour to go to the town of Nimbin. Nimbin is about an hour and a half outside of Byron Bay. We were picked up by Grasshoppers Tour Company at about 10:30am and along with about 30 others we went to Nimbin for a day. Nimbin is popular for its alternative lifestyle and for its weed!!

It actually took us about 2 hours to get to Nimbin because they stopped at a bottle store on the way and then a toilet stop as well. Now we like a drink but the idea of drinking at 11am in the morning was not appealing but to a lot of the lads on the bus it really was!!! Because of the hippie lifestyle of Nimbin the bus was decorated in hippie colours, multi-coloured!!

We actually only got to spend an hour and half in Nimbin but too be honest you don't need much more. The town centre is one street which takes no more than 5 minutes to walk all the way along. We walked the distance, had a look in a few of their shops, places such as Bring a Bong instead of Billabong and Happy Herbs. And we also went in the town museum which is a little bit strange but funky as well. It takes you through the history of Nimbin starting with the Aborigines and moving through until today. There are quite a few combies within the museum as well as lots of newspaper articles from the past about the Cannabis industry. It was worth a look. This little lot took us about half an hour so we spent the rest of our time in Nimbin drinking coffee in the garden area of The Rainbow Café and people watching. Nimbin is a bit of a strange place with lots of slightly strange/different people occupying it!! Did we get offered the good stuff?-YES, Did we buy?-NO, because were good girls as you all know!!

From here it was a half hour drive to a place called Chennon, which is just a small little hamlet with a pub. Here we had lunch which was a BBQ. Burgers, sausages, salad and bread. Very nice but it took a life time to be ready!! After having lunch it was back on the bus to our next stop which was only about 15 minutes away, this was a waterfall with a nice little swimming hole. I swam, Caroline decided not too as we only had 20 minutes and she didn't want to be wet for the drive home. It was very pleasant and not actually that cold. We arrived back in Byron Bay at about 6pm.

Tonight we used the internet in town and decided to get a take-away for tea. Naughty but Nice!! We both had pizza and really enjoyed it. Once back at the hostel we joined Teresa and some others for a bit and then headed to bed with our books at about 11pm.

Friday 13th November 2009, Byron Bay-Surfers Paradise

We checked out today at 10am and after having some breakfast we headed to the beach to take some photos before leaving. Now this is typical, every day we had been here it had been gorgeous sunshine but because we hadn't wanted to take any valuables down to the beach we hadn't taken any pictures till now. So you can imagine how annoying it was to discover that the sun was not shining today and so the lovely beach photos we should have had are actually very cloudy beach photos with a big layer of mist hanging over the sea!! Not funny!!

So with disappointment and a slight unhappiness at leaving we went to the bus stop too catch our bus to Surfers Paradise. The bus was meant to leave at 11:55am but it was delayed by about 40 minutes so it was about 12:30pm before we left Byron Bay.

Byron Bay is definitely somewhere we will both be returning too in the future. It was lovely and we were sad too leave but as were on a bit of a schedule and our accommodation was already paid for in Surfers we had too and plus at this point we hadn't been to Surfers, so we might love it as much……

Follow us on to find out if we did!!!