The three of us (Amy, Katie and I) arrived to Byron Bay at about
11am and spent the first day wandering around the town, checking out the beach and having coffee at one of Byron's many, many cafes. Byron seems lovely, very hippy, very young and traveller but also with lots of homeless people unfortunately. We stayed at one of the two YHAs in Byron Bay and it was nice enough, pretty average really.
We spent the evening listening to some live music at a local bar. The band was surprisingly good but we were pretty much the only people in the bar which was apparently quite unusual but did spoil the mood a little.
The next day the three of us joined some others in our hostel to do a walking tour up to the lighthouse. The walk takes you through the woods up quite a steep hill up to the lighthouse, around the top of the hill and back down the other side along the beach. All in all it was about 4.5 kms and took us about 3 hours stopping a few times to hear about the local wildlife and stuff like that. On the way up the hill we saw some dolphins splashing around and a some hang gliders taking off which was cool. Two of our group apparently also saw a shark which I'm very jealous of, but I missed it.
The view from the top was really lovely, along the beach and over to the mountains, and the walk was definitely a highlight of our stay at Byron Bay. By the time we got back down Becki had arrived from Brisbane and had met up with one of her friends from Uni (Carrie) and her travelling companion (Liv) who happened to be travelling Oz and be in Byron Bay at the same time as us. We met up with them on the beach and hung around there for a while and then went back to the hostel for dinner.
Amy was the next to part ways because just after we met back with Becki she was off to get the bus to Sydney. She's staying in Adelaide for the weekend with her great Aunt, so wanted to go to Sydney a day early to make sure she could see all the sights.
After dinner the three of us that remained met up with Becki's friends again at their hostel - the other YHA - and went for a few drinks.
The next day we were up ready for check out at 10 and spent the day walking around the town, eating ice cream sundaes and sitting at the beach with our bodyboards. I also made a brilliant brie toastie for lunch which was a highlight of my day.
In the afternoon Becki left us once again to travel back up to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast with Carrie and Liv so we were left just the two of us for the overnight bus to Sydney. We had dominoes for dinner which tastes the same as it does in England but somehow costs only £5 ( about a quarter of the price) and then got on the bus at about
6pm ready for our long night. The bus was fine, not as comfy as the sleepers in Asia, but Kate and I both had double seats to ourselves which made it a bit better. I slept on and off for pretty much the whole journey and then we arrived in Sydney an hour early
at 6.20am which is where I will start my next post.
