January 13th Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay

We'd booked a taxi the previous day, so were ready at reception to get to the greyhound stop.As usual, we boshed our way to the front to make sure we could sit next to each other. A 'fleeting' five hours later we arrived in Byron Bay.

Our campsite was a few km's outside the main town, so we hopped on a local bus and asked the driver to take us to Byron Bay Holiday Park. Now I should have realized something wasn't quite right when he asked us if we wanted 'Byron Bay Holiday Park' or 'Byron Bay Holiday Village'…..aussies - not exactly original when it comes to naming things! We went with the former as that is what we had written down, 10 minutes later we rocked up to the campsite only to find that they had no recollection of a booking under the name of Evans. 50/50 chance and we picked the wrong one! So it was back in a taxi and off to the right Holiday Park, the taxi driver so helpfully explained that they BBHP was the first in the area and then BBHV called themselves exactly the same causing a lot of confusion, of which we had fallen prey to. No, our campsite had now changed their name to Beaches of Byron only they hadn't yet revised their website - frustrating all round!

When we finally arrived we hoisted up the tent and went and chilled by the pool for pretty much the rest of the afternoon.

January 14th

As always, we were up pretty early as the tent tends to resemble a sauna after about 7am.After some brekkie we caught the bus into town…….It was the same bus driver who dropped us off at the wrong site the day before so he let us get on for free as a way of apologising,

We wandered around the shops for a while and I bought a new hat and some sunglasses as I had broken my last pair (I sat on them…oops!).We also bought some more sunscreen….the thickest sunscreen you can buy I think, it doesn't really rub in, and leaves you looking pastier than Casper the friendly ghost!

Grabbed some sushi for lunch and ate that under a tree right on the beach, as it was baking hot.There was also the coolest VW campervan in the car park which Laura got her photo by.After another quick stroll through town we went to supermarket to get some food in for the next few days.

All shopped out, we waited for the bus back to the campsite and while waiting this Japanese guy started talking to me and asked me where I was from.When I said Wales, he had a puzzled look on his face.I said it was next to England, then in a Eureka moment he started chanting "Giggs! Giggs! Giggs!".He seemed pretty pleased to have met someone from where Giggs came from!!

January 15th

Today was a proper chilled day.We were up nice and early again, did some planning for our Whitsundays and Fraser Island trip, then spent a good few hours by the pool listening to some Ricky Gervais podcasts (we did get a few stares as we were laughing hysterically). After lunch we strolled down to the beach which was huge and pretty much deserted. We'd seen loads of blue bottles (jellyfish) on the shoreline and therefore were too scared even contemplate dipping our toes in the sea.

Spent the evening cooking up and feast on the BBQ - the sausages we had we actually made from kangaroo and imaginatively named 'Kanga Banga's'. They turned out to be pretty tasty actually.While eating dinner we caught wind that there was a Koala up in one of the trees toward the back of the campsite and we wandered off to have a look. Managed to spot him and so it was cool seeing one in the wild.

Spent a few hours on the internet and blog in the evening.The night security guard ended up chatting at us…..not going to lie, he was a tad weird.He was a bit of a 'greenpeacey' guy obsessed with saving the whales.He was telling us he's going on some ship in a few weeks in a bid to try and stop the Japanese from killing the whales.We didn't know whether to believe him or not because the next day he was telling us that he was also a chef and he wanted to get a Michelin star and son on.Basically we think he was a bit of a bull sh*tter!He also used the same joke on us two nights in a row. Anyway, you get the picture.

January 16th

We went back into the centre of Byron today to book our Whitsunday and Fraser trip.We did have grand visions of walking up to Byron Bay Lighthouse but after the hour and a half we'd spent talking to a very enthusiastic 21 year old booking agent we were slightly drained. We ended up relaxing on the beach and despite the blue bottle warnings, Paul 'water baby' urges were too strong and we finally went for a dip in the sea.….luckily we didn't get stung!

January 17th

Went to the beach again but like always it was baking hot so we spent a lot of the time by the sand dunes in the shade.We also spent some time finding some clams in the water.A family came up to us asking if we were looking for peepees.Obviously not having a clue what they were she said they were clams that can be found buried in the sand when the tide is turning.They were all pretty good at finding them.Laura and I helped out for a while but we only caught one tiny one between us then promptly gave up.

We BBQ'd up some more sausages for dinner and spent yet more time catching u with people on the internet. By the time we'd finished there was a huge storm brewing.The lightening was crazy and seemed to be flashing every minute or so. Just as we were getting back to the tent it started to pour down and so we made a detour to one of the picnic shelters to sit it out as Laura was too concerned about being in a tent…..with mental poles……that was pitched under a stonking great tree! We took some cracking (no pun intended) videos of the lightening and luckily after about 30 minutes it stopped raining so we didn't get waterlogged in our little old tent.