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Published: July 15th 2006
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Main Beach, Byron Bay.
Perfect for sunbathing on, when it wasn't pouring with rain! Arrived in Byron on the 19th June to terrible weather - black skies, torrential rain and cool temperatures. This theme seemed to continue for the next 5 days so spent a lot of time inside my hostel reading. Good job the hostel was nice and there were plenty of friendly people to chat to!
On my second morning it was pretty overcast but dry so i decided to walk up to the lighthouse at Cape Byron. Its quite a long walk but the scenery is beautiful all the way up and takes you right along the coast. Near to the lighthouse, i stood at the most easterly point on the australian mainland(and had the obligatory cheesy pic next to the sign!). Had been told that this was a great place to spot whales and dolphins and sure enough i managed to spot 4 pods of dolphins swimming about near the shore and a humpback whale far out at sea coming up for air. Was so exciting and got this weird tingly feeling and felt so lucky to be here seeing all these amazing things. The views from the lighthouse were pretty good too considering the weather conditions. Just as i
Surfing - lesson 2
Come on, nearly standing, just don't fall off.(You'll have to take my word for it that this is me!) was getting back to the hostel it began to pour with rain and continued for the rest of the day so i think i timed it just right!
I decided that it was time to join in another aussie tradition and have a surfing lesson. Well, i had such a fab time but was pretty shocking (although i managed to stand on my board once, at which point my instructor gave me a big hug and said "i'm so stoked for you" (i thought they only ever said that on neighbours!)!! Took me a while to pluck up the courage but decided that i'd have another go and if i still couldn't get it then at least i'd given it my best shot. The next lesson was even more fun than the first and more successful, even managed to ride my 9ft Thruster (!) into the beach a few times.
Had some fun nights out in Byron Bay. One night we went to a place called 'Cheeky Monkeys' which is famous for the dancing on tables.It wasn't until we got there that we found out why...the tables at the back are the dancefloor (they're covered in that antislip
Surfing - lesson 2
Yipee, I did it. I'm riding the wave :) steel with little squares)! We thought it would be rude not to follow the tradition 😊 Also watched the Australia v Italy match in a bar one night (it didn't start til 1am over here but the bars are pretty good at staying open for the matches). There were four of us (2 brits, 1 american and 1 german) and we all ended up with green and gold stripes on our faces & cheering on the socceroos just as loudly as the locals!
Think i've now been bitten by the surfing bug (and got over the trauma of having to wear a wetsuit in public!) so had another lesson here in Noosa. This surf school had a completely different way of teaching. We had a wicked instructor who was rather camp and kept calling everyone sweetie! He told us the first rule of surfing is to try to look sexy because it'll help your style. Have hired a board a couple of times and headed out on my own. Took a while to get used to catching waves on my own and not having someone holding onto your board, pushing you onto the waves and telling you when to
Settler's Rise Vineyard
What a great view to have while sampling several wines stand up but I got there in the end and had a good giggle getting there 😊 However im now looking rather black and blue from plenty of falling off and being battered by a huge 9ft piece of solid foam!!
I decided to check out the weekend market at a local town called Eumundi. Its quite a famous market over here and its massive (500 stallholders). The towns population is only 400 but they have 15,000 people that flock to the markets on a Saturday and Wednesday! Spent a few hours wandering around and checking out all the different things that were being sold and sampling lots of yummy local produce.
Went on a tour of the Hinterlands on Wednesday. First stop for me was 'The Ginger Factory' (everyone else went to the markets at Eumundi) where i had my own personal guided tour of the factory because no-one else was there yet! They produce and process 50% of the world's ginger; every February they harvest 270,000 tonnes of ginger risomes which are washed, skins removed and stored in huge containers of brine(which keeps the ginger in perfect condition) and then processed throughout the following
year. Next stop was Montville which is a pretty little town which reminded me of a picturesque village in England with lots of old buildings and little shops and cafes. The selection of shops was a little random though - a german clockmakers, 'Beetlecrushers' which sold cane toad products, a witchcraft shop, a Christmas shop, an irish&scottish shop...!Then we headed to Settler's Rise Vineyard and Winery where we sampled some lovely wines whilst sitting on a deck in the sun with amazing views over the valley. Finally we headed to Mary Cairncross Rainforest and had a guided tour through some of it where we learnt lots about the more unusual inhabitants and plants. Just outside the entrance to the rainforest there were also some amazing views of the Glasshouse Mountains which looked even more stunning because it was getting a bit later in the day and the sun was on its way down. All in all, a busy but fun and fascinating day where i learnt lots, ate and drank yummy things and met some great people.
Noosa has a national park which is absolutely beautiful and packed with wildlife; people occasionally see koalas up in the gum trees
but so far i haven't been lucky enough. But have spotted lizards, kookaburras, black cockatoos, spiders and lorikeets. There are several different walks you can do but my favourite has been the coastal path which has access to some lovely little bays and has amazing views all the way along. Will probably try and go koala spotting again before i leave!
Have been here in Noosa for a while now; partly because i was waiting for Kathy (a girl i met in Byron Bay) to catch me up as we intend to head up the east coast together and also because i have well and truly fallen in love with this beautiful place. Today we were in decisive moods and booked our bus to leave and booked onto our Fraser Island tour so we'll be saying goodbye to Noosa on Monday morning 😞 but heading to Rainbow beach and Fraser Island to spend two nights camping on the island and driving around in a 4wd with 8 other people 😊
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Neil
non-member comment
Wow!!!
Blimey, you have done so much already, any one would think you've already been away for a year! Am glad you are fitting lots in and that you have met some great people to share it with. It is always good to read what you have been up to and the places you have visited. Great photos also, the sunset looks great! Take care and stay in touch. Neil