Byron Bay - 7th March

In the morning while making some breakfast we bumped into three girls from Vancouver who were on our Great Ocean Road trip. It was nice to have a catch up with them and exchange some stories. We headed to the beautiful beach which was around 10 minutes walk away. 

The weather was lovely, however after an hour or so at the beach it became cloudy and even rained a little bit. We decided that it would be nice to have a walk around the shops. There was some really cool stuff which we would have loved to buy, but again couldn’t afford it or carry it. Amanda did buy a handbag from a Bohemian 70s style shop. While walking around we got chatting to a travel agent who ended up booking some trips for Fraser Island and the Whitsunday Islands for us. These trips will be explained when we actually do them, but they are both considered a ‘must-do’ while in Oz! This made us super excited for the next few weeks. The trips were pretty expensive but we got a good discount for booking more than one trip. Also an upgrade to a private room on our Whitsunday boat trip.

By now the sun had come back out so we headed back to the beach, however instead of getting all sandy again, we laid on the grass on the beach side and chilled for a while. The atmosphere and people in Byron Bay are really laid back and funky. There were a group of people next to us on the beach with two small dogs off their leads rolling around fighting each other, while the people played and sang along to the guitar, not at all threatening, even though we haven’t seen this anywhere else. You could just tell that everybody was really relaxed. We sat and watched some pretty sporty looking surfers heading out for a practice.

On the way back to the hostel we bought some wine (not GOON!) which we enjoyed with a stir fry – one of our favourite meals to cook and eat here! This got us in the mood to head to some bars. Our first stop was across the road from the hostel called Cheeky Monkeys. Our hostel had given us a wristband which entitled us to a free drink. We did not know however that it also entitled us to a free meal!! Second Tea... bring it on! We both had a Thai curry which wasn’t that great. It was the full moon party in the bar so everybody was covered in luminous paints. There was a good party atmosphere but we both felt a bit old (how depressing!). It probably would have been better with a bigger group of people. We headed further down the road to a bar called ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ which was very different – live music and a chilled out atmosphere. We wanted an atmosphere somewhere between both bars so headed to the next place – Woodys. Exactly what we wanted as there were pool tables, good music playing and a great atmosphere. A few drinks later we were both feeling slightly passed our best so called it a night. It was fun to let our hair down for a few hours and not worry about spending too much money (even though we probably did!).