On 2. January we finally started our East Coast trip, which I had planned and booked weeks before with two girls I met in Sydney. Our first stop was Byron Bay. We took the overnight bus from Sydney there. It was a little bit difficult to leave Sydney, after I spent 4 incredible months there, made so many new friends and had so many new and great experiences. On my previous trips I always came back to Sydney. But the anticipation to see so many new places was also huge.

Taking the long way

We arrived in Byron Bay at 9 in the morning. We were already a little exhausted after this long bus ride. Then we had to come to the hostel with our huge suitcases. Of course, we were too stingy to take an Uber, so we decided to walk the one mile to the hostel. It was already quite warm at this time of the day so it was much more strenuous. One of my friends had the bad luck that a roll fell off her suitcase. This made it impossible for her to pull the suitcase.

We have booked our whole trip through a travel agency, because it is much easier. Alone, we would probably have been far too overwhelmed.

When we finally arrived at our hostel, we were a little surprised how beautiful it was there.

Although we said in the travel agency that we did not want any expensive accommodations, but we still get some discounts through the agency and unfortunately they can only arrange the hostels with which they work together. We did not pay much money for the whole East Coast Trip and we had a very good accommodation.

The famous Lighthouse

Unfortunately we could not check in yet, because we were there very early but we could use the time to go to the beach and do our grocery shopping. We rented bicycles from the hostel for free and then drove to the village. Afterwards we had breakfast and then we could already check in. After we rested a little we got ready and headed for the lighthouse. We took the shuttle bus to the village and from there we walked up to the lighthouse.

The view on the way there over the sea was really incredible but the way was still exhausting. Such sightseeings as the lighthouse are only visible in pictures on the Internet and then finally standing in front of it is repeatedely unbelievable.

Before sunset we went back down to the city to get the shuttle bus, because we didn’t want to walk back to the hostel, as we were all already pretty tired. After dinner we went straight to bed.

We three are all Germans but we have decided that in order to improve our English we can also speak English with each other, but that doesn’t always work out so well. We always switches back to the German language.

Visiting the Hippies in Nimbin

After we were so tired last night we wanted to sleep longer in the morning, but since we had loud roommates it was impossible.

We spent the morning in our room and then went for breakfast around 12.

Actually we had planned to visit Byron Bay that day, but we met a guy from germany in the hostel that day who asked us if we wanted to go with him to the hippie town of Nimbin in his car.

So the four of us went to Nimbin. The place was much smaller than expected but it was still really interesting to see this town. There were many small alternative shops.

On the trail of Australia’s Wildlife

We did not stay there for very long, as we had found out that there is a small road nearby where koalas can be seen in wildlife. So we drove there and after a little search we actually found two koalas. Even a small baby koala. We drove a bit further along the road and saw a kangaroo.

Quite national parks and bushfires close to us

Before we went back to the hostel we stopped in a national park.

The view was beautiful. Since we were there in the afternoon and there were no more tourists, it was incredibly quiet and we could listen to the sounds of the rainforest. We were all a little bit scared because we were already there in the close vicinity of the bush fires. We couldn’t smell any smoke yet but Google Maps was already warning us that we were to close. Furthermore there were no more people expect of us.

Towards evening we made our way back to Byron Bay. After dinner we sat on the beach, watched the stars and the sea and ended the day like this.

Exploring Byron Bay

Our third day has started again with the fact that we have slept in. In the morning we first went to the beach with the guy from Germany and were also in the water for a short time.

In the afternoon we all went together to the village to have a look at it a bit. We went to some shops where we looked through, stood in front of the famous wall where Byron Bay stands and went to the beach.

Byron Bay is quite small, just a small village where there are many surf schools and shops selling surf equipment.

Back to the hostel we walked along the beach, walking with our bare feet through the sand and feeling the cold water is really fantastic. Being on the beach every day and feeling the sun on your skin is a luxury we won’t have at home, so we enjoy every moment here.

After a short break in the hostel we rented the bikes again before dinner and rode around the village a little bit.

Paddling with Dolphins

In the morning the alarm clock already rang at 4.45 am, because we wanted to watch the sunrise at the most eastern point of Australia, which is here in Byron Bay.

With the car we drove absolutely tired, because we have not slept more than 4 hours there. Already on the way we were a little sceptical about the sunrise, as it was quite cloudy.

We went to the Lookout Point and waited. And as it had to come we saw absolutely no sunrise. Relatively fast we drove back to the hostel, as we were all too tired. There we went straight back to bed.

90 minutes later the alarm clock rang again, because we had booked a Dolphin Kayak Tour, for which we were picked up at 9 am.

We got helmets, vests and a paddle and after a very brief introduction we went into the water. There were always two of us in the kayaks. We went out to sea in a group. The paddling was quite exhausting in the arms but was also a lot of fun.

We even saw quite a few dolphins, some of which jumped out of the water only 10 meters away from us. After 90 minutes the tour was already over. Until the end my friend and I actually managed not to fall out of the kayak. However, then we have tipped over when we were washed by the waves back to the beach.

Back in the hostel we thought about what we wanted to do in the afternoon. Byron Bay is very small and there is not much to do there. So we decided to go for a walk on the beach again.

Being sporty again

Our last day in Byron Bay began with an alarm clock waking us up at half past eight as one of my freinds persuaded us to join a boot camp offered by the hostel.

With several people we met on the beach and started the workout. It was fun but as I could hardly do any sports in Australia in the last four months, it was really exhausting. But at the beginning of our trip we decided to do a workout together every day. This makes it much more fun and so far we have done it every day.

After that we were already a bit exhausted, so we fell asleep again. The morning we relaxed a little bit in the hostel, as we just didn’t know what else to do in Byron Bay. In the afternoon we rented bikes and drove to Tallow Beach. The beach was much nicer than the one right in front of our hostel. There we enjoyed the sea and the sun before we went back to the hostel in the evening.

The next day we drove to our second stop along the east coast to Surfers Paradise. If you would like to know what we experienced during our time in Surfers Paradise. Please read my next blogpost Beach Days and the Q1 Tower in Surfers Paradise – Australia Travel Diary.