We arrived in Byron after our mammoth day on the bus, which went pretty quickly as usual and I happily read the whole way without being sick! Major achievement! Though James wasnt too impressed as bus journeys were normally his time to read and catch up with me! We arrived in the dark and found our accommodation – somewhere we’d made sooo much effort to book with, as the pictures on the website looked super nice, millions of times better than the usual hostel and just in our price range. It turned out to be everything we hoped – millions and millions of times better than our usual hostel! The guy who runs it was waiting for us to arrive and showed us round and to our little 3 bed dorm! We shared this with a really nice German girl. This was all amongst a super clean, predominately white ‘house’ and just to top it off – it had a christmas tree with fairy lights! Very happy!! We settled in and were going to head out but met our roomate and the next couple of hours quickly disappeared! We headed out late to try and find some food to fill the whole – found a dodgey late night pizza place full of skoolies but was impressed with a seriously good fresh pizza! Bed then called….
The next day we had a lie in…. Amazing. We planned the rest of our Australia trip – moved flights – booked 4 more and now it was fully inclusive of a drive along the great ocean road! Sometime later we headed into the town, past lots of shops….. and the beach that was just a couple of minutes walk away. Very happy for a strong breeze which kept it nice and cool only to discover that a strong breeze meant being seriously sand blasted to the point of pain! We held out though as determined people who would not leave the beach just because it hurt! Eventually gave up around 5……
James has had a fish and chip bug since we got to austalia and we agreed on a treat tonight. He then proceeded to drag me past every fish and chip store in town to nice one by the beach where it came in white boxes where he believed the best fish and chips lay! We then ran back in order to keep it hot hot hot after already accepting, seeing the size of these white boxes, that it must be a pretty tiny fish to fit inside haha we were incorrect. There was not a small fish inside but 2 VERY small fish inside!! Anyway it tasted fantastic and was much appreciated, apart from the portion size!! Stayed up with our german roomie, her friends and a bag of wine! The next day we planned to walk to the lighthouse (half an hour walk) and get there for sunrise. That meant being up by 5am.
So we all got up at 5am and sleepily walked along the beach just as it was becoming light – it was beautiful, probably my highlight of the whole bit! By the time we got to the end of the beach (long beach) the lighthouse was looking pretty close and only a few more mins away. We headed off the beach and up a path only to discover that there was another whole bay between us and the lighthouse, and although it appeared to be sitting on the hill from our previous viewpoint, it actually sat on the hill behind! So another 30 minutes later, after walking along the road (shorter than the coastal path!) we arrived at the lighthouse! We were surrounded by beautiful views and stood on the most easterly point of Australia. Many more pictures were taken! By this time it was about 8am and satisfied with pictures galore and our effort to get there we headed back, guided predominately by our stomachs, which successfully lead us to people cooking a bbq on the beach selling bacon and egg sandwhiches! PERFECT! very surreal seeing lots of little kids walking back from the beach that early in the morning, surfboards in arms after a couple of hours down at the beach! Oh and also walked past a group of scottish men in full scottish attire practising the bagpipes and drums!! VERY surreal!! We were fast asleep back in bed by 9am and only stirred again past midday…. Sleep was just too good here, the mattresses were as good as home and always invited you to stay! We got up, got some more shopping, toothpaste to be specific, dinner for the next 2 nights and swiss roll…. yum…. we then headed to the the Byron Bay monthly market which we were apparently very lucky to be there for, and so felt committed to seeing it, before the beach. Lots of stalls where James wouldnt let me buy anything, especially 2 gorgeous white resin bowls……. ahh… anyway lots of stalls, almost all pretty hippy focused which we wandered round dying in the heat! Then we braced ourselves for the sandblasting once again at the beach, only for it to be deadly calm! (there had been a couple of hours SOLID rain the night before we got the fish and chips – and apprently where we are only has a few days rain a year! Haha we hear that a lot….) Beach was really nice after missing the afternoon sun and stayed there til sunset where I was 10 pages away from finishing my book! Temperature seriously drops after half 5 now we’re further south and so made a quick exit back to a hot shower, still very unaccustomed to the cooler weather….. Dinner was cooked, mediterranean couscous, chicken cooked in lime and salad, yum, one of the best things about australia is the really good self catering facilities meaning we can cook for ourselves most of the time which is actually pretty good. We continued working our way through our bag of wine and were sparko pretty soon after!!
We woke up about 8.30 on our last day in Byron, and went to the local laundrette to get some washing done before packing up!! CLEAN CLOTHES :D very happy, james wont smell so bad now for a couple of days! Sat outside to wait for a few pieces to dry in the sun which didnt quite make it in the tumble dryer and planned the remaining details of Australia. Headed back into town, via some shops for a boomerang, razor (still not got – james is getting hairy!) and a binkini! Made it to the beach late in the afternoon again for an hour of so before we got to cold and headed back to wash, cook and get ready for our 14hour bus journey to sydney. Looking forward to 14hours of chilling out actually with films, blanket and hoodie!
Pictures can be found here or on the ‘Our Photos’ link at the top of this page!
