The most easterly point of Australia and all the Hippys

Before I get into telling you about the wonderful time we had in Byron Bay I must mention the small town we visited on the road to Byron, Brunswick heads. A very quaint town beside the water and approximately 20 minutes drive from Byron. If you get the chance, please visit it. It is a very mellow town, with a lovely vibe and the Mexican pie from the bakers was amazing.

Byron bay was definitely one of my favourite places we visited on this trip, (so much so I forgot to take a lot of pictures!!!) it was a super hippy, surfer town. Lots of wacky colours (do the Aussies spell colours with a u?) vintage shops, and crazy dudes but it was so nice. It is also home to Chris Hemsworth’s family mansion (we considered searching for it but it seemed to be amongst the rainforest and quite secluded – very, very sad times).

There were plenty of odd people going around Byron Bay, (hippy and all) I heard one man say “they get stuck here”. That seemed like a kind of harsh thing to say but, it seemed to be true. It was potentially the first place in Australia I saw homelessness. That’s not to say it was by any means grotty, as it was a wonderfully vibrant place with some lovely bars and restaurants. The beach(s) were also amazing as well as the walks.

We actually did the most walking of our whole trip here. Our campsite was slightly out of the town centre (around a 30-minute walk, which was very do-able at 11 am in the late morning sun, however not so do-able at 7 pm). We walked into town and took in the sights (the beach) and walked down to the grass next to the beach. We were treated by the weather and as we were spending multiple nights there we took the chance to relax and actually enjoy it. I feel as though driving around has limited us, we have spent so much time in the van whilst its been sunny and whenever we’re out of the van it’s raining, cloudy or too cold.

So besides from Byron being very colourful and a great place to dog spot, it was an amazing place for food. We ate at a Mexican restaurant – Miss Margarita, where I had a burrito bowl and Iain had a chimichanga. We have a small obsession with Mexican food which has grown due to the sheer amount of Mexican restaurants we have come across. After this, we took a walk to the lighthouse, which was perhaps a longer walk than we anticipated.

The walk itself was quite lovely, we did not have to walk along the beaches which were pleasant, however, we did walk past a few secluded beaches which appeared to be wealthier areas of Byron, with large houses looking over them. The lighthouse was next to the most Easterly point of Australia, and the views at the top were amazing. All you could see was rainforest and water.

The rainforest in Australia is way denser than I ever thought. I thought that Australia was mainly dry, desert land as it is such a hot country – especially in the outback, but, I was extremely wrong. Green bush surrounds the cities and houses, even in places that haven’t seen rain in months.

This is where we racked up our steps, all 30,000 of them. We walked to the lighthouse, back from the lighthouse to Woolworths (to eat the worst dinner we had the whole trip, microwave Indian – nothing on the M&S microwave meals) and then from Woolworths to the campsite. Impressed? You should be.

Our second day in Byron wasn’t as hot, being from Scotland I should think that 20 degrees are boiling, but I feel the cold very easily and I can confirm 20 degrees is not hot. We took this opportunity to drive around the surrounding areas to Bangalow, Minyon falls and Federal.

Bangalow and Federal were two very small towns, around 15 minutes outside of Byron. They seemed to be on the wealthier side, where people don’t wear shoes but drive fancy cars.

The last place we visited was the Minyon falls. This was maybe one of the scariest drives we have ever done as the road was once again pretty shocking. But this time not only was it rough, bumpy and a dirt track. It had potholes and a large drop down the side of a cliff – quite scary when you’re in a van that skids on everything.

Apart from the drive, the Minyon falls were amazing, but unfortunately there has been a drought in Australia for the last 6 months and there wasn’t any water. I can imagine how powerful it would have been with water, the noise and vision as the cliffs on their own were incredible. What was even more incredible, was the colour of the rainforest – all vibrant green even though there hasn’t been any rain.