A day in Byron Bay

As Paul’s friend Jan is running a shuttle service to Byron Bay, we thought it would be a great idea to visit the famous hippie town and most easterly point of mainland Australia altogether. Jan and Paul picked us up at 7 am from Chevron Towers – that’s waking up 5 hours earlier than usual. So we had a rather sleepy drive down to Byron (in New South Wales), with a 1-hour time difference because NSW is on a day light saving regime, whereas Queensland is not.

Byron is about an hour south from Surfers and the road takes you through some great parts of lush nature with rainforests on the border of Queensland and New South Wales, including the Nation Park of Mt Warning (named by Captain Cook who used it as a landmark to avoid Point Danger), a one-time active volcano. Also called Wollumbin or ‘Fighting Chief of the Mountains’ by local Aborigines, it began life 20 million years ago. Erosion of the 4000 sq km (massive!) volcano, stretching from Coraki in the south to Beenleigh (QLD) in the north, and from Kyogle to an eastern rim now buried beneath the sea, carved out the deep Tweed and Oxley valleys around Mt Warning now covered with lush green subtropical rainforests.

We dropped two guys off half-way to do some sky diving, which I would love to try as well while I’m here, and arrived in the center of Byron. Jan soon returned to Surfers to give a lift to some more excited tourists anxious to see Byron Bay, and we were left alone with Paul to begin our exploration. Keen on beaches rather than the town centre, we took a long-long stroll along the Main Beach up to its far end called Clarks Beach, which peaks with The Pass, a little ‘hill’ used as a viewpoint. On the way up we met some wild life on the beach. Have you ever seen these little holes surrounded by tiny sand balls piled around the hole, and wondered what they are? Something like mole burrows but smaller and neater. These are little crabs digging themselves out of the sand. As soon as we figured out what these holes are, we also came across one curious little crab that had come out to see waz up on da beach (H), and promptly became famous as a number of paparazzi (Ann, Kairi and Paul) lined up for a photo shoot. Talking about photos, I guess we took a couple of hundreds of them altogether throughout the day. Simply because every corner of the beach with Cape Byron on the background looked so amazingly beautiful and stunning. The Pass at the end of Clarks Beach unfolded a view that probably none of us expected to find behind the little hill. A bunch of professional and amateur surfers trying to take the biggest waves of the day, with a young girl being one of the bravest boogie-boarders of them all. It must take guts to go out there, just meters away from the sharp rocks pointing out of the sea, and glide down the powerful waves. I wish I was born in Australia and the waves were my childhood playground :-) Up on the hill we met some more representatives of the local fauna: a medium-sized lizard (10 times as big as the ones in Estonia), 5 black ravens sitting on the tree looking down at the surfers, and a few bush turkeys. Unfortunately no dolphins, no humpback whales (that pass nearby during their northern, June-July, and southern, September to November, migrations), and no sharks either, so we jumped in the water on Watego’s Beach – the next one from The Pass, as the heat was getting unbearable. Cut from the Main Beach by a little rainforest stretch, it was a perfect spot for a few-hour lie-down. We sat down on the beach and had a little chat about our travels so far, while Paul drew a map of Europe on the sand to mark the places where we had been on ‘Our Continent’. Sweet. Later when Jan returned from Surfers, we headed

back to the town center to have lunch at the famous Fish Heads restaurant right on the beachfront with gorgeous views and delicious fish dishes. Jan recommended a $16 seafood plate and we all decided to go for one, which was a great choice! Thanks, Jan! Loaded with fish and caprese salad, we drove back to Cape Byron to take a stroll up to the lighthouse, built in 1901. There’s a 4 km circular walking track around the cape from the Captain Cook Lookout on Lighthouse Rd, but we took a quick short-cut to where it stands ‘The most easterly point of Australian Mainland’, snapped a quick photo, and headed back to the car to drive down to the rockier stretch below the 7 km long Tallow Beach called Broken Heads, where a succession of small beaches dot the coast before opening onto Seven Mile Beach, which goes all the way to Lennox Head. The walking path from the parking to the beach itself takes you through a little rainforest grove. Shady and wild, where all the hanging tree branches seem like snakes from a quick view, I had to pluck up my courage to walk (or should I say run) through the forest. The beach was superb, almost empty, except for a few naked hippies, ‘cause clothing is optional on most beaches around Byron Bay. ‘Ann, don’t look up, there’s a naked man right in front of you!’ :-) Anyways, no long men watching (oops, whale watching!) as Jan’s shuttle took us back home at 6pm, but the night was still young. Paul and Jan came over for another evening of pool and barbie, and we celebrated the great day with a cool Wolf Blass wine and lamb and chicken fillets. That was one of the cutest barbies I’ve ever had, ‘cause we only had two wine glasses, one plate, one knife and a couple of forks for the 4 of us and we shared them friendlily :-)

Smell you later! (from Simpsons)