We arrived in byron bay late at night....a bit of a calamity as mike thought we'd booked one hostel and laura knew we booked the other, we wondered the streets at night with our packpacks in the rain looking for our hostel. A couple of helpful girls walked us to the hostel.. We knew we were gunna like it from then onwards we just had a good feeling about the place.
That morning we hired surf boards...the surf was up, with a nice off shore breeze holding them up nicely....unfortunately we are not surfing pros as we discovered we were battered royaly by the waves. we both managed to stand up a couple of times...then fall off. we were pretty tired and bruised after our day of surfing/ drowning...happy to have an early night.
The next day we had to move to the other Byron YHA, Cape Byron. A bit of a result as we had our own double bed in the upstairs loft type part of a six bed dorm!! We had a day of boogy boarding that day much easier than the surfing and let our upper limbs recover a little from the previous days battering. That evening we made friends with our room mates Liam and Tom by bribbing them to be our friends with Mikes pancakes. One thing led to another and a few pancakes led to a case of beer being necked at the hostel then onto the beach and a drunken trawl round the bars trying to sneek into a club but even with Lauras amazing stealth mode failing miserbly to get past the bouncers without paying!! We finished the night off in classic ozzy style with a few meat pies and not so classic ozy style a cake fight on the streets ned kelly style. A top night with our new buddies!!
The next day we had booked onto a tour to Nimbin a hippy town.. The bus pulled up a little late to find us two very hungover and not ready for a bumpy hot ride on the 1950's wagon!!
Nimbin was a classic tourist trap. With a few of the old hippies its famed for but heavily diluted by lost unhappy souls, junkies who probably need sectioning, crims looking to get some tourist dollar for 'cookies' and weed.......all a bit disappointing really not quite the hippy free love feel we were expecting!!
The ride home made the trip worth while however getting a nice BBQ and stopping at a waterfall where we could cliff jump and swim at the bottom of the falls....... it was quite magical when it started to rain while we were swimming on the warm fresh water!!
When we got back to base we had a night out in cheeky monkeys where we met up with Liam and Tom and some of the others from the tour. Cheeky monkeys- what a place. $3 brought you steak and chips that put weatherspoons value to serious shame!! Happy hour and the hula competition.....Gotta love cheeky monkeys!! Of course once happy hour finished off we trundled on a bit of a pub crawl around the Bay - loads going on and a great atmosphere!!
Sadly, we had to leave Byron Bay and the next day we took our battered and hungover bodys to the greyhound.
Surfers paradise is a bit of a misnomer. Its far from paradise. A bit more Benidorm really, not really set up for backpackers the YHA being a long way from the shops and bus terminal. We did take advantage of the beach that was only across the road though. The place would probably make a good holiday for an australian wanting the resort experience with loads of shops, bars and restaurants and high rise hotels. We also had our first night in seperate dorms which was ok for loo but a BO filled night for Mike sharing with all (unshowered) weirdos!! Slept with one eye open!!
We gladly left Surfers the next day and headed to Brisbane. Only a 30 minute trip as the clocks went back on this trip!!
Brisbane YHA is phenomenally good. A new well oiled machine. Mike and Loo back together in their shared dorms and life is all good.Its a clean and friendly place full of life! The place had a roof terrace with POOL and amzing views of the city!!
We went to sleep that night happy with the world and very, very, very excited at the prospect of the next few days of luxury on Moreton island courtesy of Shazza!!
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