6 | Byron Bay

Byron Bay... What can I say?

The biggest hippi town I have ever been to. There was a guy shaking pineapple morakkas whilst hulahoopping at the same time singing "every day is a pineapple day" wow just wow!

The world renowned blues festival was on at the time we rolled up into town so it was apparently a lot busier than usual with the likes of Tom Jones and Lamar pulling in the crowds. Compared to to Sydney however it was incredibly quiet.

We decided after settling into our hostel to head to the main street and to the beach. The main strip if you could call it that had a few restaurants and bars but was mainly unspoilt due to developer restrictions with no high rise buildings being allowed to be develop, which to me is a good thing. The main car park next to the beach was full of VW vans and Hippies playing bongos and drums late into the night. You could feel the "chilled vibes" of the place.

We went for food and had a night out at Cheeky Monkeys, one of the main places to experience on the to-do list in Byron. It was a great night out where we danced on the tables for hours.

On our second day we went kayaking on the sea which was pre-booked with our Loka package. The sun was beaming down on us with clear skies stretching out across the horizon. You could see the sand on the sea bed even when we were around 1km out with the water at least 20m deep. Although we did not see any turtles, dolphins or sharks it was still a good 2 hours spent gliding out over the water. Unfortunately coming back to the shore our kayak flipped over in the waves hitting Matt on the back of the head in the moment of chaos that caused him to lose his Ray Bans, which are now been looked after by the fishes in the bay.

The lighthouse which marks the most easterly point of mainland Australia is one of the main attractions of the town. We set off in our small Loka group up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset along the coastline. Although the weather did not look great, we thought we would be okay, how wrong we were.

After making it to the top of the cliff after a 40 minute walk, we could see the storm clouds and lightening in the distance closing in. Babs who was afraid of lightening decided she did not want to stay any longer so I took the decision to go with her as I had jogged up to the lighthouse earlier in the day and enjoyed the views.

We got down the steepest parts of the decent before the rain and thunder hit us. I have NEVER experienced rain like it before. Babs took shelter by going up the drive way of the nearest house, so I followed. She asked if I could speak to the people living there because english is my first language and dutch is hers. A guy named Dougie came to the doorstep and warmly allowed us to stay in his porch after taking pity on us. It turned out that he worked in NZ in the oil industry but owned the house for around 9 years in Byron. After 10 minutes passed, the deluge did not ease so he kindly offered us a lift back to our hostel. No matter where I have been in the World, acts of human kindness never cease to amaze me.

Dougie you are a hero my friend!

#Beach #Nightlife #Hiking #Accommodation #Tour