Wow! We are 6 weeks in and still so much to do and see. We are now in Byron Bay, our first stay in New South Wales, where we will be for 2 weeks. We have a lovely 2 bedroom, 1 bath, beach themed condo right off the beach. Nice porch and lots of windows and doors to open up and let the fresh air in. We are walking distance to all the restaurants, shops, live music, parks, and markets. We have enjoyed a roof over our head and showers at our expense, though now that we have been out of a tent for 11 days I am beginning to miss it! We will be back under the starry nights before we know it. We have been busy with the many exciting things to experience here in Byron. One of our favorite things has been the beautiful Bushwalks along the Eastern Australia Coast. They call a Bushwalk what we call a small hike. The bushwalks we have done have all been along very scenic trails and not too difficult.
Noosa National Park was about a 3 mile trail right along the ocean that we walked before leaving Queensland. Dolphin Lookout was one of the points that we walked to and sure enough true to its name there were dolphins jumping! We had a nice view of the southern side of the Rainbow beach sand cliffs that we had just been to, so that was a nice reflective moment.
We saw our first Wild Koala which was fun. They are hard spot!
Cape Byron walking trail starts right outside our front door. This 3 mile trail took us to Australia's most eastern point. The trail starts through a pine forest that bridges above the path.
Very peaceful. It continues along Clarkes Beach, fairly flat trail so far. We then dipped way down on the trail to Captain Cooks Lookout point. Next we traveled up where we got a perfect view of Mt Warning,
the tallest mountain in the east (We hope to hike Mt Warning here in the next few days when we are sure the weather is clear for the 5 hour round trip).
After climbing pretty high we descended to Wategos beach, where Australia's favorite events were taking place; surfing,sunning,kayaking,and grilling on the barbie! We kept going as we were trying to get a little exercise.(we have been eating healthy but the bakeries with all their yummy treats are not helping!)
The next part of the hike was the steepest climb with a 360 degree view of the land and ocean.
I found myself walking more of this steep climb with my back to the trail and looking out at the clear blue water.
We were rewarded at the top with a final stopping point at the most eastern lookout. Whales were jumping everywhere. I never get tired of watching the whales.
We made it to the Lighthouse.
Even though we had seen the lighthouse before on our day trip to Byron, we came up to the lighthouse in the opposite direction making for a totally new experience!
We continued our trek around the lighthouse and back down. We had a great view of the next big hedges south, Broken Heads and Lennox, as you can see in the picture below. Lennox is our next point of destination after departing Byron Bay.
It was about a 2 hour walk and we were all tired. This was our warm up for Mt Warning!
Byron Bay has proved to have something for all of us here. Surfing for the guys, beach days for all of us, walking trails and yoga for Jenny and I, Live Music for all of us, Markets for the girls, Bakeries and Breweries for the guys(and the girls). We will write again soon on details of our Byron stay as we are still in the moment.
Love
kristen
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