Thursday 15th July

Having had a great time in Queensland, Evie and I almost missed our bus that would take us over the border and into New South Wales: to Byron Bay. With some quick thinking from me and a class of school boys near by, we had three of them carrying two cases weighing about 20kg each down a large flight of stairs, having asked their teacher first of course who was more than welcome to help “our English cousins”.

The journey was a good one, taking just under two hours we actually arrived early in Byron despite the late start! Our accomodation was the Byron Springs Guesthouse which was about a 20 minute walk from the town centre. It’s a really nice place to stay, the rooms are nice and simple, but stylish, the perfect thing for a couple of nights.

Having not had any lunch, we headed into town for some afternoon tea, settling on the Bohemia Cafe as we were tempted by their American-style chocolate brownies, which were delicious. This was followed by a stop at tourist information about whale watching excursions, as the humpback whales are currently making their way to the warmer north, and we booked ourselves on one for Saturday morning for $70 each with Byron Bay Eco-Charters.

As Byron’s not a big place it didn’t take long for us to find Main Beach, which we had a leisurely stroll along for about an hour, witnessing some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen. Just the combination of the warm colours combined with such a breathtaking beach, and it provided good photos for me!

Sunset on Main Beach, Byron Bay. Photo by me.

When looking for somewhere to eat I will now always follow Evie’s rule of going for a place that’s in the first street back from the main one, as we had a lovely fish and chip supper at the restaurant Mongers – the tempura battered koki is delicious!

Oh and it was Freddie the puppy’s first birthday on Thursday, blimey that’s gone quickly and he’s enormous!

Friday 16th July

After a late start we finally got moving at around lunch time, heading into town and having lunch at a lovely cafe called Mokha. In typical holiday fashion we spent our waiting time by writing postcards and planning what we were going to do that afternoon.

Our next stop was at a gelato place where we bought our fuel for our afternoon adventure, the long walk up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse. It was quite steep with lots of steps but it was a great way to walk off lunch and our gelato! And it was worth it in the end purely for the views of both the lighthouse and Byron.

Byron Bay Lighthouse. Photo taken by me.

We walked down a bit further on where we made it to Australia’s Most Easterly Point, where we spotted a big smiley face in the sand on Little Watego’s Beach so of course we had to explore it! We ended up walking along both Little Watego’s Beach and Watego’s Beach where we were amused at the plants that were stuck to the rocks that squirted water out when you squeezed them.

Smiley Face on Little Watego’s Beach. Photo by me.

By the time we made it back to Main Beach it was Happy Hour, or two hour, time at the Beach Hotel – which was recently named in the top 10 best places to drink on your travels around Australia in Alpha Magazine. We took advantage of the $3.50 per glass of sparkling wine as our reward for our very long walk. We also had dinner there, to help soak up the alcohol for the stumble, I mean walk, back to our lodgings. We managed to pick up a discounted bottle of Jansz which is a sparkling wine from Tasmania that Evie said was lovely, she wasn’t wrong!

Saturday 17th July

An early start, for once, as we had to be at the bus stop for 8.30 to take us to Brunswick to go humpback whale watching! We went about 8km out to sea in order to see some and we did but they weren’t very jumpy so we didn’t see much of them, was still fantastic to see them though on their way north to the breeding areas. The skip on the boat was saying that he’s never seen them move so fast before! We managed to see some dolphins on the way back too which was nice.

Humpback whale. Photo by me.

Lunch was had at the Byron Beach Cafe which was gorgeous. We had some lovely chicken burritos which were green and then some mini wagyu beef burgers. It was all topped off with the gorgeous views of the beach, where there was some kayaking races going on.

Later on we saw a playful dolphin by the shore riding on the crest of the waves with some children, that image being pretty much the perfect end to a great weekend.

That evening we said goodbye to Byron Bay as we got the sleeper train down to Sydney, where yet another adventure was about to begin…