Byron Bay

We started our journey to Byron by catching a train at Sydney Central Station at 4:12pm on Friday. We were expecting to be on this train for a little under twelve hours before changing trains at Casino for the bus to Byron Bay. It turned out that the journey would take a little longer than that after a lightning strike left us stranded in a siding in Sydney's northern suberbs for an hour and a half. To be honest, we were rather glad of any delay to our eventual arrival, since the bus was due to deposit us in Byron at around 6am, several hours before the reception opened in our hostel.

After a long night of not much sleep and a short coach ride to Byron Bay, we wearily trudged the last mile or so to the hostel, arriving completely knackered just before 7am. We fell asleep on a bench outside and woke up when our host, Ellie, opened up the reception a few hours later.

After eating breakfast, checking into our room and having a kip, we ventured into town to explore. On our previous trip, we avoided spending much time in Byron, having been advised that a previously idillic haven for hippies and new age types had been over-developed and turned into an expensive tourist trap. This was confirmed as we walked down a main street of bars, restaurants and overpriced clothes shops. That said, Byron is an awesome place to come on holiday, especially if you like surfing.

After finding the cheapest lunch that we could (ten dollar burger and chips), we hit the beach, which was lovely, even if the sea was rather cold.

After dipping our toes briefly in the bitterly cold Pacific, we retreated to the grassy bank next to the beach. This was lovely, until a really scary spider crawled onto my shorts. I was asleep at the time and freaked out when Hannah woke me up. Luckily, I managed to get rid of Mr Spider and calmed down again.

After that, we retreated back to the hostel and, knackered, went to be sans dinner.

On Saturday, we visited Tallow Beach, the other side of Cape Byron from Byron Bay. We had been advised that it would be dangerous to go in the sea and, as we approached the beach, a sign reiterated this advice:

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The beach was lovely, if a little deserted compared to the main beach at Byron Bay. In the distance, you can see Lennox Head, which we visited last year:



There was a great view of Cape Byron Lighthouse in the distance, not that you can really tell from this picture:



On Monday, we checked out of the hostel, did a spot of shopping in town and prepared to board the coach to Brisbane.