In the Pink

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Day 61

I had a strange dream this morning, I was looking down a road but I could not see anything as the sun was too bright, I then awoke when I heard Andy adjusting the inner fly screen panel, he said that when he woke up he saw the sun was beating directly onto my face so put the panel up so that I could be shaded from the sun. It was hot already, however still not as humid as the Sunshine Coast. The weatherman said that it would be 31 degrees today. Waking up in the trailer again was brilliant!

We were supposed to be moving on today, with an en route visit to Byron Bay, we had been there before with our friends Gary and karen, it was a place that we all loved, with its wonderful lighthouse that was completed in 1901, the magnificent views and the walks. However we decided that if the campsite was available for tonight we would book in for another night as we would still visit Byron Bay, but come back here for a relaxing evening rather than head off toward Glen Innes.

After a shower, I checked with the camp office and sure enough the site was available so I paid for another night, the days plan coming together and we did not have to rush to pack everything up and leave.

Byron Bay was exceptionally busy. It is still the height of the season here, the traffic was queued up getting into Byron town centre. We drove straight through toward the lighthouse, passing the park that we stopped at 2 years ago, past that point onwards you could not get a trailer up that road, so it was just as well we did not leave the camp site.

There were traffic lights up the road, now these were here 2 years ago on our last visit. An environmental disaster had dislodged the boardwalk and some of the road, but it had not been fixed yet. The road was busy and people were already finding spaces on the rough road edges to park. We drove on up to the light house, but the queue there for the car park was long, we drove back down and fond somewhere to park on the side and walked back up to the light house.

We slapped on the factor 30 and armed with our hats and cameras off we went. Oh yes and with some water for the walk. Andy was considering putting his boots on, but his thongs (flips flops) protested as we have worn nothing else for 8 weeks.

Byron bay, is a surfing Mecca, its absolutely full of hippy types, looking for “The lifestyle”, hey we even saw pushbikes that had a rack on the side to hang a surf board in.

The walk up is all ocean side, you have the most stunning, of the beach and the sea all at about 200ft above sea level, and the sea is so turquoise blue.

We got nearly to top and stopped for a while and saw a Manta Ray just gliding along in the water, we have a pair of 10x50 Nikon Binoculars so get a good look, but there is nothing better to scan the sea than your eyesight. when the was gliding along 3 dolphins swam straight over him, then about 5 minutes later 6 sharks in a pack swam the same course and we believe them to be nurse sharks. There were loads of people surfing and swimming in the water completely oblivious to the wildlife around them (particularly the sharks).

It was the most awesome time at Byron bay, but funny to be without our friends. We walked to Australia's Most Easterly Point and then on down to Julian Rocks (The point) so close to the ocean you got wet with the sea spray.

We chatted to a couple of Norwegian girls who were over on holiday.

The animals we saw whilst a Byron Bay we ,6 Manta Ray, 6 Nurse Sharks, 1 Giant sea Turtle, 7 dolphins and a mountain goat, yes we said mountain goat.

Boy it was hot, and we got an ice cream, for a kiosk and it was home made by a company called in the pink, which has won an award for being in the top 10 Ice cream makers in Australia.
I have to say I was good.

We went back to Byron bay at 6.30 to see the sun set over the lighthouse.

There were quite a few people who had come to see the sunset, bringing, picnics, drinks etc.

It was quite a poor sunset due to the cloud structure, but the lighthouse light came on at 7.30 and as it got darker started to look just fantastic.

While we were there we found out that you can rent the keepers cottages for holidays, there are 2 of them one sleeps 6 and the other sleeps 4, that will be for another adventure another day.

We had parked the truck in the car park at the top but had to move it at sunset as the ranger wanted to lock the gates, we moved the truck down the hill and stood for ½ and hour until is was dark just to see the beam of light projected by the lighthouse, it truly looked amazing.

We drove back to Brunswick Heads where we were camping an as it was quite late grabbed a pizza on the way back as neither of us felt like cooking anything.

To finish the evening off we Skyped Ruth and David as we managed to convert them to Skype, they have family in other parts of Australia that are also on Skype, Ruth said that they had been "meaning to do it for ages", Ruth was delighted and it worked so well.

Finally Tea then bed, shattered from a busy day.

We break camp in the morning heading to Glen Innes about 300 Clicks way, until tomorrow weary bloggers.

A&C

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Photos

Byron Bay Scenery
Looking out from the road where we parked up.

Andy takes a rest
view of Byron Bay in the background

Beautiful Bay
Nothing to say... just gorgeous.

Lighthouse
Completed in1901

Julian Rocks
A good walk down in the sweltering heat.....

Watego Beach
Very unlike Bournemouth Beach in the summer.

Crashing
Waves crash against Julian Rocks, this guy in the frame is not suppose to be there, because of conservation of the area. I was hoping that he would get wet.

Walking Back Up
After our walk in the sweltering heat.

Julian Rocks Explanation
Read the photo. We will ask questions later to make sure you are paying attention.

Comments

[kaz]

Pushbikes
Pushbikes with a rack on for surfers - now thats cool! I remember seeing a guy with a park bench on a push bike in Vietnam! We cycled back from a friends house on New Years Eve - successful until I got into the driveway and fell off - a relaxed fall (now I wonder why that was port cider wine - but no champers!) and no injuries! Going to see a band on Friday and will have to cycle back from Cowplain over Portsdown Hill...Fantastic blog write ups and photos and keeps me occupied on my days off of work! It makes me feel very restless though. Have fun Love Kx