Byron Bay and around

For our first morning back in New South Wales state we'd been recommended a visit to Bangalow market where we could browse some fun stuff and pick up some bits for lunch, which sounded great and luckily it was being held on this Sunday...except it wasn't! We realised when we arrived at the empty field where it would have been held that January had five Sundays instead of four, so we'd missed the market by a whole week!

Thankfully our detour was still in the direction of our second stop for the day, Byron Bay. We drove straight to the lighthouse, following a very narrow road until we made it to a teeny car park perched on the cliff edge, but as we were right at the lighthouse we were happy with the one hour time limit imposed there.

A short walk from the car took us to the base of the lighthouse with incredible views back over the sandy bay and in the other direction the expansive ocean. There was a small museum at the base of the lighthouse which we enjoyed but sadly there were no tours for us to go up the tower. Instead we walked a little of the coastal path that leads back to Byron. We didn't get very far before we saw a pod of dolphins swimming 50m below the cliffs where we were standing, and despite the height we were at they were so clear against the turquoise blue coloured sea. We watched them for a while and also saw a ray of some kind, so it was quite the experience.

By the time we'd walked back to the lighthouse our hour was up which was fine although we realised we hadn't followed the track far enough along to the most easterly point of Australia - we knew we were coming back though so weren't too concerned...

After a short drive back to town we parked the car (and yes, we paid this time!) and went for a walk around the town. Overall it felt much like a lot of the towns that line Australia's coast, with snazzy boutiques and health-conscious cafes everywhere, so we made a beeline for the beach and this worked out well for us. We bought a sharing platter of fish and chips as takeaway and then sat watching people milling about on the beach and park area as we tucked in, which was brilliant!

Again we were limited by the parking limit for the car so had to leave Byron at that point. We travelled south back towards where we were staying in Ballina but stopped before we made it back in an area called Lennox Heads, home to a huge stretch of golden sandy beach and a large lake that backs onto the sand dunes. Of the two the lake is much more popular, for a few reasons.

All of the East coast has varying levels of dangerous aquatic life but Lennox Heads has a lot of jellyfish and sharks, so like almost everyone else we chose to relax at the lake instead. It's large enough that you couldn't swim from side to side easily and therefore it has plenty of space for the number of people there, including leafy shade at the edges. But what's so special about this lake is the water itself and is also the reason for Lake Ainsworth's nickname of Coca Cola Lake. A number of the trees around the water are tea tree and they leech oil into the water, staining it brown and giving it a slightly oily feel to it. Once you get used to not seeing anything more than 30cm away from your eyes and the very strange colour of the water it's really fun and felt great on our skin.

We swam a few times and lazed in the shade while drying off and even after a short walk on the beach we were drawn back to the lake. We popped back to our hotel to collect some food and then went back to the lake in time to watch the sunset as we ate our dinner, which was an awesome way to end a day exploring the area.

We made sure not to have a late night as we planned a very early start the next day, but even so the 4.30 alarm was not welcome. Why so early? We were going back to Cape Byron and the Lighthouse to see the sunrise. Being the most easterly point of Australia means it gets the first sun of the whole country and we couldn't miss the opportunity to experience that!

We'd been told that a good place to start the walk would be from 'The Pass' where there's a car park with lots of spaces and also it isn't too far from the viewpoint and lighthouse. We got there at about 5.30am and found that there was LOADS of parking - great - but the reason was because the parking restrictions started at 6, meaning we had to wait til then to buy a ticket before we could begin the walk along the track. This wouldn't have been a problem except that the track would take 30-40 minutes at a fair pace and the sun was due to rise at 6.15! Now I'm not one for dramatics but I may have suggested we give up at that point...thankfully Beth pushed me onwards and we ended up practically running up the hill tracks to get to the viewpoint and although it was quite cool at that time of day we were both reaallly hot and sweaty but we made it in time to welcome the day as the sky lit up beautifully! We spent an hour or so walking about and up to the lighthouse, all the while with the sun rising and changing the sky. We found it incredible that apart from a handful of other tourists the only other people around were joggers and a class of teenagers with their teacher, having a lesson in the shade of the lighthouse - what a classroom.

Once we'd cooled off, enjoyed the sunrise and taken copious amounts of photos we followed the path back to the car, passing a few surfers making the most of the early morning waves. We went the short ten minute drive to the centre of Byron for a good breakfast, both of us having really good eggs benedict, then feeling refuelled we took to the road once more.

Near to Byron Bay is a national park called Broken Head, with dense forest clinging to a coast of rocky cliffs and sandy bays, and we wanted to relax on a beach and swim in the sea and this is one of the safer places to do that. We drove down a rough dirt track deep into the park until a sign indicated we'd arrived at Whites Beach, and as we got our bag together to go down the 200ish steps to the beach a couple of other people left, meaning that when we got to the sand we were the only people there, with the hidden cove to ourselves! Even though Beth told me a story of a recent shark attack in the area I wasn't going to let that stop me from cooling off so while she stood ankle deep splashing the water over her shoulders I enjoyed diving under the waves. Of course my eyes were darting everywhere just in case...

A few other people had turned up at this point and joined us in the water, until the tide turned and started carrying hundreds of blue bottle jellyfish with each wave and onto the beach. They seem to appear at almost every beach and we've since found out they give a very nasty sting, so our caution was justified!

We had planned one more stop for the day so it was time for us to leave our (near enough) private beach and drive north to Cudgen Creek, near to the town of Kingscliff. This was another of Beth's finds and proved to be one of our favourites. Where a river meets the ocean a swimming creek has developed, with sandy beaches, shaded trees and crystal clear water all in aces. We went straight into the water when we arrived and werre surrounded by fish in there, thankfully none dangerous or scary...although Beth chose this as another time to tell me that dolphins had previously been spotted swimming up the river and past people. Awesome, right?! Wrong - they were being pursued by a shark! Our swimming was decidedly less eventful than that but it really was a beautiful place to relax for a couple of hours, and of course to eat our picnic.

The final leg of our journey was a further hour north to Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. We arrived just as rush hour kicked off and we left the car behind to go explore some of the CBD (Central Business District). We walked around Kangaroo Point park and down to the river where we hopped on a ferry to take us over the river to a marina type foodie area, where we found a restaurant slightly back from the water to eat at.

As we finished it was starting to go dark so we went back onto the ferry to cross the river back to where we had been before, and this was just as the sun began to set and the city began to light up for the night. Although the ferry crossing was probably only 10 minutes long it was really great to see the different perspective being on the water at that time, and as we were enjoying the balmy evening so much we walked along a boardwalk suspended over the river's edge for a half hour until we reached a sheer staircase up the cliff to the park we'd explored earlier in the afternoon.

By this time we were completely exhausted so collapsed into bed before leaving early the following morning to head to the airport ready to fly up to our next stop, Airlie Beach.Leia mais