Keeping up with Beth

7pm and I was on another overnight bus, this time out of Sydney over to Byron Bay. This was the start of my east coast tour, which makes up majority of my Australia trip so far. I knew I had my YWAM trip starting the 22nd February, and I had a flight out on the 20th, but I wanted to visit the beaches and experience the east coast which everyone spoke so highly of.

So I had booked a 19 day tour, Sydney to Cairns. And I’d booked some extra trips along the way- very exciting ones but one of them I decided to leave last minute to tell my mother to reduce her worry… I don’t know if it worked.

That evening sat on the bus, I had had some great sightseeing experiences of 2 major cities in Australia and learnt a massive amount of the history of Australia specifically those 2 cities. I had genuinely enjoyed it but I hadn’t met loads of people who I felt to be significant on my journey. I thought that’s fine, I just have to live these experiences by myself. But it was getting boring, being around the same one person everyday- myself. I wanted to have some fun and be more than a tourist. To feel like I was fully involved in this traveller lifestyle for the short amount of time I was in Australia. Little did I know the coast was about to turn my trip right around.

I arrived back in the sun except in a small beach town called Byron Bay at about 9am. Hostels- like hotels, don’t tend to let you check in until around 2pm unless you’re lucky and they’ve already sorted your rooom. So after a swift 10 minute walk (The easiest journey I had had since I left England) I arrived at a sweet little surfer shack looking hostel. I walked up to reception, sorted all the payments and put my things in the luggage room and sat in the TV too for a few hours to relax and wind down. Unfortunately it wasn’t tat relaxing and I just had to distract myself with Netflix as I was very well aware I had been on a och for a good 14 hours and that isn’t the nicest feeling around. But eventually I was able to check in and found myself in my room, meeting another girl who had been in the hostel for about a week. We chatted for a minute the normal “what’s your name, where you from (we were both english), how long you in Australia? Byron bay? How long you been here where’ve you been’ etc before she went down to the beach and I got a much needed shower. I decided a beach day was a good plan with such strong sun, and it was only a 10 minute walk down the road. It seemed like the perfect way to spend a day in a beach town. And I was right. It was beautiful and sunny, with clear sparkling warm water. I went in with my GoPro, got some funny videos that have since stayed on my phone living in fear of being watched. I also did get some beautiful pictures of the beach which I believe made it to my instagram. It was the perfect start to an incredible weekend with Australia Day in the middle! Now one thing Australians clearly love is partying. They may not be the best at it… (please don’t attack me) But they do sure know how to have some fun! So being able to spend such an important say in the Aussie calendar with Aussies, and with a bunch of other travellers in a very Aussie beach town, you can bet it was a heck of a night.

So Australia Day hit, I spent my morning on a surfing lesson that was booked part of my tour. It was super cool, and I got the perfect weather for being down by the beach, but the amount of sun made the waves super crazy- which made me feel a bit better about my bad surfing skills. As ever though, being in the water and under the sun meant time flew by and before I knew it it was time to get out. I didn’t really get the hang of it too well, but would love to try again one day. I would definitely recommend giving it a try- it’s perfect Australia bucket list material and not too expensive if you look in the right places.

I made my way back from the surfing shop with a new hoodie (what else would you expect) and some pictures of me attempting to surf and got my party head on ready for Australia Day! The hostel had a very chilled out vibe, and similar to many other hostels ran events- and something awesome for Australia Day. They had a bbq and then entry into the bar down the road- with a free drink what more do you want? So I grabbed my ticket, had a shower, got dressed ready and sat down for a nice 3pm cup of tea. I was sat down the communal table with everyone else drinking. It was pointed out to me how British I was to be sat next to everyone in 30 degree heat, with them drinking cool beers and me just having a nice tea which I had been craving. I sat and chatted for a few hours and then everyone else turned up.

There isn’t really much to tell of the night, just that we all sat around eating, chatting and a having a few drinks. I made a few friends some of which I am still in contact with and others that I am not, either way, it was a good night!

The next day was my final day in Byron which was very sad. I had been told about the lighthouse and really wanted to go as it seemed like the main actual attraction other than the beach. Most other people had been, and they said it was a long walk- I would be better off driving. But I asked around to see who was hungover little enough to go on an adventure with me! Eventually someone agreed to go with me and luckily they had a car. So we drove up to the lighthouse, parked up and went on a half an hour walk. The weather was flawless again- I would expect nothing less by this point, and being so high up, there was the most gorgeous view of the sea going out forever. On the walk up to the lighthouse from the car there was a little glimpse of a beach the other-side from the main beach, and it was surrounded by trees and nature! It was so beautiful that any pictures I got don’t begin to show how beautiful it was. It was a perfect little stroll out- if you’re ever down thee make sure you go!

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent sitting round, chatting to people and a little bit in the pool. It felt like a holiday! I didn’t want to go the next morning, but with a glimpse of what the trip had in store, I was excited to adventure to the other beautiful places of east coast Australia.