Lee's Travel Blog

We arrived in Byron Bay in the afternoon and when we got out of the Greyhound, I thought: “Too bad, why do we only stay here for such a short time? Byron Bay is a small village between Sydney and Brisbane. I would like to quote two sentences from my travel diary to describe Byron Bay:

“Byron Bay is a beautiful place. Very alternative, but just the right amount. Everywhere you look are hippie-shops that want to sell you clothes that you wouldn’t normally wear in your life. But exactly in this place they are not special, they are quite normal.”

“Unfortunately we have to leave Byron Bay today, but at some point I want to return to this place or even settle here”.

You see, Byron Bay totally gripped me with his “easy-going” atmosphere. Although Byron Bay doesn’t offer that much, I fell in love with this place very quickly. I will explain to you in the article with the personal impressions of Byron Bay exactly how it came to be that I took this place so into my heart.

First we walked to our campsite, which was a little outside of Byron Bay. We barely arrived when we changed our clothes and returned to the centre. First we got a sandwich in a nice little sandwich bar and walked along the main road of Byron Bay. On the main street every second shop is a bar or an alternative shop that lives the Healthy lifestyle. My mouth was always watering with all the delicious food I saw, e.g. açai-bowl, bagels, sandwiches in all variations and many delicious smoothies. Next we walked to Main Beach and sat down on a meadow in front of the beach to listen to a man singing and playing Guitar. I read that it’s perfectly normal for musicians to promote themselves on the street. So we listened to the beautiful music and watched the romantic sunset. Somehow this day was indescribably good, although we hadn’t done anything special. Unfortunately I was so dreamy that I completely forgot to take pictures.

The next day we rented two bicycles and drove back to Main Beach. There we left our bikes to walk along the Main Beach towards the famous Lighthouse at Cape Byron.

The way led first through the beach and then through the tropical flora of Australia. The trail was very easy to walk and nothing compared to the Prince Henry Cliffwalk. On the way I suddenly saw something black shimmering in the sea. I called to Sureya: “Look at the sea, I think I see a humpback whale! But Sureya said, I only imagined it. At some point she understood that it wasn’t a reflection of light or waves. We ran up the stairs as fast as we could to get a better view of the sea. And lo and behold, they were indeed my favourite animals, a group of humpback whales. We constantly heard their heavy bodies clapping on the water after they had jumped into the air. (The photos are quite blurred as we were very far away from the sea.)

After half an hour we finally arrived at the famous Lighthouse of Byron Bay. Somehow it was nothing special but nevertheless the Lighthouse had a certain flair. The view from there to Byron Bay was simply fantastic. We had an iced coffee in the cafe to cool off a bit because Byron Bay was the first place where it was really hot. Of course I used the small break to get my camera out again and to take some pictures.

After we drank the coffee, we felt, especially me, an enormous hunger. We walked back towards the center to have lunch. On this day I tried an Açai Bowl for the first time. It is a kind of ice cream, consisting of açai berries together with fresh fruits and muesli. The bowl was like a taste explosion in my mouth. It was very tasty and very fruity. If you ever see that, I advise you to try it! After this very tasty lunch we walked back to Main Beach to go swimming. The sea was quite cold but that day it didn’t bother me because it was very hot outside the water. The cooling was just in time. There is not much to tell, because we just lay there lazily, enjoyed the warm sun and jumped into the sea from time to time to cool down.

In the evening we wanted to get to know Byron Bay’s nightlife. As soon as we were in the center we saw again dozens of singers playing on the street. Everywhere was a very cosy atmosphere, which was very pleasant. Our first destination was the Railway Friendly Bar. The Railway Bar was an old train station which was converted into a bar, because the station is no longer used. We were by far the youngest, but that didn’t bother us. We were just lucky that a band was present and made live music. The band was pretty good, so the audience was completely satisfied and sang along.

Then we went to the Byron Fresh Bar, which I personally liked better. There was also a live band there that created some atmosphere. But as soon as we sat down they stopped playing and packed their things, which I thought was a pity, because it was only 21 o’clock in the evening. The bar closed around 22 o’clock, so we decided to go home. Instead of taking a taxi or the bus, we walked home slightly drunk.

The way was possibly a bit dangerous, because it was not illuminated and we had to light the way with the mobile phone torch. At each branch we thought it was a snake. Nevertheless I always risked looking up to observe the starry sky. The moon seemed huge to me on this evening and I still wonder today whether it was due to alcohol or whether the moon was actually closer to the earth on this day.

The following day we rented bicycles again to drive to Broken Head Beach. We didn’t want to lounge on the Main Beach again and be a bit undisturbed as the Main Beach was already quite crowded. Broken Head Beach is about 20 kilometres away from Byron Bay and was suggested to us by the Tourist Information Centre. Although it was always up- and downhill, the way was not really exhausting. The Way was really very relaxing, and so we saw also the suburbs of Byron, where it was less touristy. Broken Head Beach was in my opinion less beautiful than the Main Beach in Byron, but in fact we were almost alone at this beach and enjoyed a bit of togetherness on the beach. Funnily enough I told Sureya that I would love to see a whale again and we actually saw a whale on the horizon playing with the waves during the day.

We took a bath later and went for a walk on the beach at the end. While strolling we noticed how many jellyfish were there, because we found a jellyfish every two meters. Only then I realized that it was a miracle that we were not stung in the water. Now it also dawned on me why almost nobody was bathing. We decided not to go into the water anymore because we didn’t know if the jellyfish were dangerous. In the afternoon we drove back and had another look around in the center and also went into an alternative shop twice. But I didn’t buy anything.

In the evening we went back to the center to have a last drink in Byron Bay.

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