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Published: August 13th 2008
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Byron Bay beach
surfers in the water Our next stop was Byron Bay, mecca to the backpacker world, a very spiritual place full of new age travelers, old and young hippies, surfers and lots of backpackers. The Aboriginal Australians were first to feel the pull of the area, apparently they told stories of an enlightening place with healing powers and spirituality. It is also home to the most easterly point on Australian mainland.
When we arrived and stepped off the coach we could see the difference instantly to the last towns we had stopped in, this was no ordinary place, it was a tourist resort. They knew what their main income was (tourism) and were not afraid to flaunt all they could. With travel shops and gift shops, there were people bustling around offering free vouchers and advertising trips, food and accommodation to the new arrivals, us. We picked up a few flyers and looked for our hostel board, grabbed our bags and made our way to the little mini bus.
The hostel was a little out of town but a good distance for a short stroll. Clean and well equipped, nicely laid out rooms around a court yard, it felt like a good chilled out
Byron Beach
the weather wasn't great relaxing space. We soon made ourselves settled and decided to take the opportunity between the rain to recci the town and see what we could find.
A great little town lay ahead of us, so much diversity, we had timed our trip well and it was great to be in a place like this for a weekend. I always think places change at weekends, a different feeling in the air and a lighter atmosphere, everyone is enjoying their ‘free time’ without the hustle and bustle of weekday business. I have always thought that you get a much kinder feeling for a place visiting during a weekend. This applies to towns and cities, as I am not silly and I know it is always better to go to big attractions, theme parks and tours during the week, they will always have that same feeling but you will get more out of the experience.
As we were walking past, another coach pulled up and more backpackers and travellers descended into the crowd of awaiting leaflet-iers and tour reps. It was a much more of an amusing spectacle of a circus from the outside, then it was when we were the
Byron lighthouse
i love the way the light shines through the sky prey. Most of the hostel staff and leaflet touts were backpackers themselves, trading time for accommodation or money off tours. If you can stand the rejection, repetitiveness and boredom then it can be a great way to stay cheaply in a town like Byron. Of course there are other backpacker jobs if you can guarantee to stay for at least two weeks, hostels may give you board in exchange for a few hours a day cleaning, doing maintenance and driving.
We made our way past the bus stop and into the main shopping centre and through to the beach. The sea front car park was full of ‘combi’ campervans and old battered cars with surf boards tied to the roof, this was character, a real proper surfer town and although it was quite cold and the sea was choppy from the passing storms all along the coast hundreds of little black dots sat on their boards waiting to catch a wave.
We left the surfers to their fun and headed off to find the markets, hundreds of arts and craft masters travelled to Byron each week to sell their products and even more flocked to view, browse and
occasionally buy something. After my chocolate coated banana in Coffs Harbour Alice knew what she was after and soon found herself a chocolate coated mango and gave me at least three hours peace and quite whilst she made her way through it.
There was wooden crafted tables, chairs, and bookcases, people offering tarot cards and palm reading, bands playing and hair braiding the lace was alive with life and culture. Although there was an air that they many were alive due to other substances as well and mixed amongst the crafts lay a few bongs and wooden crafted smoking devices, yes the market was a chilled out venue but not all from natural highs.
Chocolate mango in hand, and down her top, we made our way back to the hostel to relax and chill for a while. The next day we had great plans, but so did nature and we had to settle for a trip to the cinema and chilling in the hostel out of the rain. We did however fix up our skype connection and make our first interactive call home, although it was mostly waving, shouting and laughing it was good to see the parents
having fun with new technologies.
We woke on the second morning to the peaceful sound that the rain had stopped, pilling in the mini bus we took a trip to watch the sunrise over Byron from the lighthouse, the best views in town. Of course we were doubly excited as we may see our first migrating whale as well as reaching the most easterly point. We reached the lighthouse just as the sky was reddening, the clouds had lightened and the light reflected beautifully off each layer. The wind blew hard and the walk to the end point was a little precarious in the wet but well worth the view, although the photo’s didn’t quite do it justice.
Before we left Byron to head up to Brisbane we were told a story that linked so much together. The land around Byron is in high demand and worth a lot of money and the local council knew this, a few years ago to improve the area they moved local people out by offering travel tickets, when they moved out they cleaned up the area and sold it to high bidders. Now the locals can not afford to live in
the town and major movie and tv stars have mansions along the peninsular. As the day progresses more and more homeless gather in the town and can be quite verbally abusive to travellers. This at first can seem quite threatening but once you realise why they gather their story is quite sad. They feel sold out and in many ways they were although nothing in life can ever be that black and white.
We soon got back on the Greyhound and were heading north again. Crossing the border into Queensland brought bigger built up towns and soon we were in the holiday resort of Surfers Paradise, Australia’s Costa Del. We stayed on the bus!
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