We arrived in Byron Bay with very high expectations. So many people rave about how they loved their time in Byron Bay and ended up staying far longer than they planned to.

Our Greyhound bus came in relatively late on the first day and we only had 2 nights to enjoy Byron Bay. We got to our hostel and were pleased to see that our 2 beds in our dorm room were the only 2 that were occupied. We just crossed our fingers and hoped that this would stay the same throughout our time there. The hostel was obviously designed for partiers, as when we arrived there were quite a lot of people feeling sorry for themselves asleep on the sofas in the common area. Bear in mind, it was about 4pm by this point. We got our beach blanket and books and headed down to the beach (2 minutes out the back of the hostel) and relaxed on the beach for a few hours. What happened next was quite surprising… we hadn’t seen it in a while… it rained. We had planned to go for a walk that evening to see the sunset, but the rain kept on coming, so we stayed in, made food and then went for a walk around the town after the rain had stopped. Saw this funny sign too! haha.

Byron Bay centre is really lovely. There are lots of little boutique shops, restaurants and cafes that you can enjoy. We found a frozen yoghurt bar that was open after dinner and enjoyed some frozen yoghurt topped with fresh fruit. Yummy!! We decided to head to bed and get up early the next day to do the lighthouse walk.

What we have learnt recently is that however long someone says a walk will take, add about 30-50% more. As many of you will know, Simon and I are really quick walkers, but for some reason everyone underestimates the length of the walks in the area they live in. We set off early on the lighthouse walk, expecting it to take us until lunch time (there and back). We got back around 2pm, but it was a beautiful walk.

It takes around 30 minutes to get out of the town and to get onto the coastal path and I think we ended up taking a detour that we didn’t need to take down to a viewpoint. I’m glad we did though as we saw some Humpback Whales again and got to watch some of the surf schools.

(The whale is the splash)

We carried on our way along the coastal path and ‘bumped’ into the most Easterly point of mainland Australia. We had no idea that we were near to this and were pretty chuffed with ourselves when we saw the sign. On our way we stopped, saw some lizards and did some seated dips… as you do!

The wifi is really good here.. so you’re going to get some bonus shots of some wildlife on the way.

The next stop was the lighthouse itself. The Cape Byron Lighthouse was built in the 19th Century and is a pretty good looking lighthouse. We saw some more Humpback Whales from this viewpoint and enjoyed the shade the lighthouse offered us. It was a VERY VERY hot day.

We walked back the opposite way to Byron Bay and along a path which lead us to see turtles, a pod of dolphins and even more Humpback whales. We were truly spoilt with our wildlife this day. And then… around the corner… was the most beautiful beach we had seen in our time in Australia. We were both getting a little bit fed up of beautiful beach after beautiful beach (I know… spoilt Brats aren’t we), but this one really was something magical. Simon didn’t want to leave, he was captivated by it. See what you think for yourselves.

(Humpback – hopefully quite clear)

(Pod of dolphins in the middle)

Once we returned to Byron Bay we found a lovely cafe called Byron Fresh, ordered some cold drinks and some baked goods and set up with some semi decent wifi for the afternoon. This is what Byron Bay life is meant to be like. Chilling out and enjoying an iced latte. To top it all off, an excellent musician played for about an hour. His name was Austin Thomas and he played covers but also some originals, mainly about backpacking and traveling the world. We really enjoyed his music during our relax. https://www.facebook.com/pg/austinthomasoriginals/about/?ref=page_internal

The next morning we were going to be leaving Byron Bay and to end Byron Bay in the way it’s designed for, we relaxed and did some New Zealand research on the last morning. Simon has been obsessively reading the Jack Reacher books recently, so enjoyed some more time to read that.

So… our views on Byron Bay. I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed by Byron Bay. I can see why people may end up staying for a while, maybe even to work, as it is a very laid back town. By Byron Bay we had started to be a little more conscious of money and I think if we’d had a little more to play with in terms of drinks and eating out then maybe we could have enjoyed it even more. You will start to notice a coastal walk trend over the next few days as it’s the most enjoyable free activity on the East Coast. The timings of our buses meant we didn’t get a huge amount of time here and to be honest we wanted to make the most of an empty dorm room (yes! It stayed empty the whole time) and watched movies and sorted out photos. There is a day trip to the town of Nimbin, from Byron, which we would have liked to have done if we’d had another day here, and more money,  but both are limited at the moment.