Byron Bay

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The first time the kag in a bag came out was at Byron Bay. But after a couple of days the weather cleared up. The first place we stayed at was the Dive Centre Inn, above a Dive Centre (the clue's in the name), run by one of the dive masters. Whilst staying there we pretty much just chilled out and checked out the town and the main beach.

The next place we stayed at was the much nicer, Arts Factory Village. This is where the famous Blues and Roots festival was born, which was on over the Easter weekend, when we were in Byron, so the hostels were full and the town was bustling.

We were thinking of chilling out with a few beers on the last night of the festival when this French dude asked us if we wanted to buy tickets to the last night of the festival for half price, so we did and managed to see Ben Harper on the main stage, accompanied by Jack Johnson for one of his songs, which was pretty cool, and it turned out to be an awesome night.

The next day however, we had to check out of the Dive Centre Inn and get on the Nimbin tour, with Jim's alternative tour.

Link to Jim's Tour Site

Hungover from the night before, we scrambled aboard the bus and headed to Nimbin which is a very strange place to say the least. It's basically like the coffee shop area of Amsterdam, and although it's not strictly legal, the police seem to turn a blind eye to people selling cookies and cakes on the streets and even in the museum!

After a walk around Nimbin, we headed out to Minyon Falls, a beautiful, high waterfall which we stood at the top of. You can see a picture of it on my getjealous page. Looking down at the sheer drop was yet another reminder of the thrillogy bungy jumps we would be doing in New Zealand. It was then off to Jim's Mate's Paul's house for some macadamea nuts and some watermelon.

Paul greeted us with a Jackfruit in his arms and showed us how to get at the fruit which tasted just like juicyfruit chewing gum. Paul is an eccentric hippy who escaped from the Vietnam war to live in Australia, and after the war was given the choice of going to prison in the USA or emmigrating to Oz. Obviously he chose Australia and claims to be the last convict sent to Australia!

His house is pretty cool though, it's set over a huge lake in the middle of the forest, with an outdoor decking area right on the lake where he spends most of his time chilling out probably, and I don't blame him, it's a very relaxing place.

After Paul's, it was time to head back to Byron via some lovely scenery, pick up our stuff and check in to the Arts Factory. This hostel has its own cinema, pool, hot tub and sauna and I'd recommend it to anyone staying at Byron. We watched two films in the cinema, which had the most amazingly comfy sofas/beds at the front. We saw an Aussie documenty called Bra Boys, narrated by Russell Crowe, about a Sydney surf gang, which I don't think is going to make it to England, but is definitely worth a watch if you get a chance. We also saw a late night viewing of Saw 3 (rubbish).

Nights out in Bryon always ended up at Cheeky Monkeys, which has a really good atmosphere and no dancefloor as such, people just dance on the picnic tables which is really cool, and also very difficult to stay on after a few schooners of Toohey's New!

During the days in Bryon we spent a while just chilling out on the beach, from which you could see the top of a shipwreck and dolphins swimming just off the shore. There's a really nice walk up to Cape Byron and the lighthouse where we caught some stunning views of the bay, as well as some pretty impressive surfing and an amazing sunset on the walk back along the beaches. Cape Byron is also the most easterly point of the Australian mainland.

For me, Byron bay is very similar to what I had envisaged a typical Australian coastal resort to be like, and we were all sad to leave when we had to catch the bus to surf camp.

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