Byron Bay was the next and final stop on our “Tour de Plages” up the New South Wales Coast. Since our train and bus combination didn’t leave Coffs Harbour until late afternoon, we weren’t in Byron Bay until after 8:30 pm. Normally we try to stay close to the main attractions, or at least on decent public transit lines. However, Byron Bay is expensive and has lousy public transport, so we ended up a very hilly thirty-minute walk from both the bus station (“Byron Bay Interchange”) and the downtown core.
With the late arrival, unfamiliarity with the roads, and the hills, there was no way we were walking with our luggage. So, for the first time in ages, we actually needed a taxi to our apartment! But Greg had called ahead, so the taxi arrived just as the bus did. After a quick ride, we were into our apartment and settled for the night.
We haven’t generally said much about the apartments we’ve stayed in – partly because they haven’t been that interesting, but also partly because they’re privately-owned. But this one was a bit unusual, so here are a few tidbits.
Our apartment was in deepest high-end suburbia. We later learned from Karen’s family that Byron Bay is considered both a party town for younger people and a retirement destination for rich folks from Brisbane. The property we were staying at is hidden in the trees, but just down the hill from the house with the red roof.
The apartment was a standalone unit, in what appeared to be a converted garage, at the top of a very steep driveway and beside a large house.
The property was very densely treed, which helped keep things cool. It had a lovely patio adjacent to the driveway where we ate our breakfasts when it wasn’t raining. And the apartment was air-conditioned, which was pretty-much a necessity as daytime temperatures were in the mid 30s (that’s the mid 90s for our US friends), nights were not much cooler, and the humidity was very high. After running the air conditioning at night we’d wake to find the outsides of the windows completely covered in condensation.
Many of the mailboxes in the neighbourhood were charmingly eccentric. We particularly liked this one, across the street, which appears to have been welded out of an old milk can.
On our first day we decided to walk a loop up to Byron Beach on the north shore, then into town for a meal, then grab some groceries, and then back to the apartment.
This is the view facing north from the lookout in Arakwal National Park, the same spot the first photo in this entry was taken from. The Cape Byron headlands are on the right, Byron Beach and Clarkes Beach are in the centre, and the town of Byron Bay is left foreground. (An aside: Australian’s don’t seem to like apostrophes in their place names, so it’s “Coffs Harbour” and “Clarkes Beach”, rather than “Coff’s Harbour” and “Clarke’s Beach”. Oh, and “Coff’s” is actually a corruption of “Korff’s”, but that’s another story.)
After a bunch of up hills and down, we made it to Byron Beach. That’s the Cape Byron headlands behind us. If you look very closely you can just make out the Cape Byron Lighthouse above the left side of Karen’s head.
We walked along the beach, then cut into town where we had an entirely-decent meal at the Miss Margarita Mexican Cantina. Of course, we had to try the margaritas, which were also pretty good.
Watching the folks on the street it was pretty obvious that Byron Bay is a serious beach town: about half of the twenty-something women walking through town were wearing flip-flops and string bikinis, and the guys were wearing board shorts and no shirts.
From Miss Margarita we walked to the grocery store, where we found a couple more new-to-us chip flavours. The Herb and Spice was pretty good; the Hoisin Duck was surprisingly delicious.
This Australian Gecko, about as long as a little finger, was waiting for us on our return. Unfortunately it scampered off before we could properly say hello.
After a bit of a rest we decided to walk out to Tallow Beach for a swim, as it was closest to the apartment. Along the way Karen had to get a picture of these ponytail palms. We have some at our house: inside, in a pot, quite a bit smaller.
Australian beach signs leave little to the imagination! Spoiler: we were not attacked by sharks and didn’t die.
The beach, which is three kilometres long, was almost completely empty. We had a great time getting bashed around by the surf, and managed to get a rather incredible quantity of very fine sand in our bathing suits. Fortunately there was an outdoor hose at the apartment, intended specifically for dealing with that.
The next morning the forecast was for 35ºC, very high humidity, and winds gusting to 50 kilometres per hour. Clearly the perfect day for a long hike up and down hills around an unsheltered headland, so we decided to tackle the Cape Byron walking track. This is considered a grade 3 hike, with another grade 3 hike just to get us to the trailhead, so what the heck!
At Clarkes Beach there were quite a few parasailers making the best of the strong winds.
The views of the headlands were quite impressive.
Of course, there were lots of stairs along the way.
After rounding Cape Byron, we were standing at the top of the cliffs, just above the most easterly point in mainland Australia.
This is the tip of Cape Byron, viewed from the lookout in the previous photograph. And yes, we had followed the path out to the end of the point before coming back up to the main track.
Selfie with the Cape Byron Lighthouse, a little closer than the picture from the previous day but still above the left side of Karen’s head.
This is the view south down Tallow Beach, where we’d gone swimming the evening before.
On the way back we decided to take the Tallow Ridge track rather than walking beside the road.
The next morning was mostly rainy, so we stayed in the apartment and got a few things done. By late afternoon it had cleared up, so we walked into town for the Byron Twilight Market.
Dinner was an extremely good vegan Balinese combination plate from Ibu Bali, the stall with the grey roof.
The 28th was also mostly damp. Greg went for a run in the morning and we spent most of the day in maintenance mode, again. In the early evening we took a walk into town, where we had dinner at the Railway Friendly Bar in the old railway station.
On the way back Karen found another melaleuca tree in need of photographing.
The only reasonably-priced bus we could get out of Byron Bay (where by “reasonably priced” we mean “included in our rail pass”), wasn’t until 8:25pm and we had to be out of the apartment by 10am. Fortunately, our host was happy to let us leave our bags until evening; unfortunately it was another showery, hot and humid day.
We walked in to town and had coffee at one of the many cafes. Then (after a brief stop to buy some cheap umbrellas) we headed to the one place we knew would be dry, air conditioned, and welcoming: the Byron Bay Library.
After a few hours at the library we walked back to the town centre and caught the Byron Solar Train west towards North Beach Station. In dollars per minute this was probably the most expensive train ride we’ve taken in our travels, but it was very short and quite charming – the two cars are converted historic carriages, and the organization that runs the train is a non-profit.
From North Beach Station it was a reasonably short walk to the Stone and Wood Brewery where we tried ten of their beers (tasting size!) and had some very tasty Korean-style fried chicken sandwiches.
By the time we were done at the Brewery we had missed the last train back, but still had plenty of time to walk the 3.5 kilometres back town. It was raining on and off, so our new umbrellas were put to good use. Unfortunately part of the walk was past the Cumbebin Swamp
Nature Reserve, so we did pick up a few mosquito bites along the way. Oh, and make sure you slow for koalas – we did!
When we got back to town, Karen waited at the Railway Friendly Bar sipping on a non-alcoholic ginger beer while Greg walked to the apartment to reclaim our luggage and snag a taxi back. After Greg had had a ginger beer of his own, we took the short walk to the Byron Bay Interchange and caught our bus to Brisbane, where we were met by Karen’s cousin Rob.
