Posts filed under 'Byron Bay'
So I made it to Mt. Warning, even if I didn’t cycle here. I just couldn’t refuse the generous offer of a ride from Awbery and John yesterday! In the morning I cycled a mere 9 km from Brunswick Heads to Mullinimby where they were staying, and then we all drove out to Murwillumbah, Awbery, me, John, and his 2 young girls (they were heading to the Gold Coast for the Easter school holiday). We all went together to Mt. Warning and did a short walk from the carpark before they dropped me off at the campground and were on their way. After such a disappointing experience in Byron Bay, it was really great to meet such nice people as Awbery and John.
Yesterday afternoon I settled in at the campsite. There was another cyclist here, Erik from Holland, and he’s already cycled 2300 km from Melbourne to here, and is also heading north like me. We spent some time comparing gear and talking about maps and campsites. He left today, but I may run into him again on the road.
I decided to stay another day so I had time to hike to the summit of Mt. Warning, which, at 1156m, is the first place on the east coast of Australia that the sun hits every day. I didn’t exactly make it to the top for sunrise, but I had an early start at 7:45am up the road to the carpark and then to the trail to the summit. Took me 2 hours 45 minutes from the campground to get to the top. Great views from the summit but I couldn’t see the ocean due to the clouds. One thing for sure is that I knew I was in Australia hiking today and not New Zealand – on the trail I saw 2 carpet pythons! And later at the campsite I saw a monitor lizard (huge!) and then in the evening there was a red-bellied black snake (poisonous) slithering through the grass only about 10 meters from my tent! Lesson learned: always use a flashlight to walk to the tent at night.
Spent the afternoon repairing a big hole in my sleeping bag and organizing gear. There’s a really nice group of older folks here at the campground from the Gold Coast Campervan Club and they’ve been giving me food (fresh bread, wine, cheese) and they’ve been super-friendly and it’s been great. They are just having a ball, playing games at night by their campfire and socializing.
Tomorrow it’s back on the bike, heading up to the Gold Coast to Alan’s place in Currumbin, about 50 km from here I think. I’m looking forward to a cold stubbie at his place tomorrow! Let’s just hope the snakes and lizards steer clear of my tent tonight!
Rainforest plants
At the top of Mt Warning
Hey buddy where ya going?
April 13th, 2003
Yesterday was a full day of hard cycling and adventure after leaving Byron Bay… I was up early and on the road cycling at 7:30am, destination Nimbin, about 70 km in the mountains from Byron. Well, I think I headed directly over every big mountain in New South Wales to get there! Up, and up and up and up, it just wouldn’t give me a break. Luckily we had cloud cover and cool temperatures otherwise I would have been dead. Took a wrong turn at one stage and had to go back 3 km – it was one of the rare downhill bits where I thought to myself, man I’m glad I’m not going UP that!, only to realize I was going the wrong way and minutes later I was going up it. Ugh!
Sometime around 10:30am I made it to the small village of Federal, about 20 km from Byron, and stopped in the store for a drink. As I looked at my map trying to gather the strength to do another 50 km, the guy in the shop suggested that I stop fpr the night at Minyun Falls in Nightcap National Park, just another 12 km from Federal. He said that the hills’hadn’t even started yet,’ and that was all I needed to hear before I changed my plan.
So I bought some extra food at the store and soon I was off for Minyun Falls. He wasn’t kidding about the hills. It was uphill for the entire 12 km, and quite steep at that. Hard work! It felt SO good to finally get to Minyun Falls, and from there I knew it was only 2 km to the campsite. It was only 1pm, but I knew I was done for the day. I walked out to have a look at the falls, and on the way back, stopped to look at some kookaburras with some guy who was pointing them out to me. We got to talking, and he wound up inviting me for a drive with him and his friend up to Border Ranges National Park for the day. He said they could put my bike in the truck and drop me off at a campground later. Well I had nothing else to do for the day and wouldn’t be able to see that park otherwise, so I said why not.
So off we went, Aubrey, John, and I. They are both from the UK, but John was living in Byron for the last 8 years just before recently moving to New Zealand. We had a great day, first driving through Nimbin, and then up to the Border Ranges, where we walked through rainforests, saw 3,000 year old Antarctic beeches, spotted wallabies on the road, and even saw a huge dead python (road kill). It was loads more fun than I would have had in my tent in the rain all afternoon.
Last night they dropped me off here, just 8 km from where they are staying, and today they offered to drop me off at Murwillumbah, which is where I was headed after Nimbin. I wound up sneaking in the campground for free last night – no real bargain because the toilets and showers were locked, but I managed a sponge bath in the laundry room sink.
Man it felt good to FINALLY get to the top!
Hey thats a cool plant
Gotta love the rainforest
April 12th, 2003
I’ve been in Byron for few days now after a fairly uneventful 30 km ride down from Wooyung. It’s a bit different here in Byron than it was back in August of last year – much more busy for one, and chock full of very young backpackers, mostly British and Canadian. Is this a rude awakening to what backpacking in Oz is really all about? I fear the worst. I was sad to see upon arrival that the Share House, Tiny’s wonderful little retreat that made Byron so special for me last year, is gone – the house is now abandoned and grown-over. Tiny was well aware that the big backpacker factories were trying to shut him down, and I guess they succeeded. What a bummer.
I rode my bike around town looking for another place to stay, not knowing what to do really. First I checked out the Art Factory, but I was immediately unimpressed. It should be called ‘Backpacker Disneyland for Hippie Wannabees,’ complete with teepees, gamerooms, internet, restaurants, and a campground full of about 200 tents all crammed into the ‘jungle.’ When I asked to see the tentsites and the guy said sure as long as you leave a photo ID, I knew it wasn’t the place for me. So much for peace, love, and harmony.
In desperation I checked out another backpacker’s but decided against that one too. In the end I found a home at the campervan park by the beach for a hefty $20/night, but luckily after the first night I found someone to share the site and cost with.
Overall Byron has been disappointing. The place is still very beautiful, there’s no doubt about it, but the VIBE is all wrong. I’ve been at my tent site for 3 days now, and none of my neighbors have spoken or introduced themselves or even said hello!!! I?ve got about 5 Aussie guys on one side, and I have a young Canadian couple on the other who seem to be in the midst of relationship troubles. The girls in the bathrooms are busy putting makeup and hairspray on in the mornings just to go to the beach! Weird, I tell you. Plastic. As I said, the vibe is all wrong.
So my original plan was to hang out here for a good 10 days or so and then stay to see the 5-day Blues Festival, but now I don’t really think I want to hang around here for that long. Luckily I didn’t buy tickets in advance. Getting the most out of travelling is knowing when to stay and when to move on and this time round I’d say it’s time to move on.
Tomorrow I’m back on the bike again, heading north, via Nimbin, another ‘famous’ little hippie town.
April 10th, 2003
So I am back in Australia again, and today was my first day back on the bike as well. I’ve gotten REALLY behind on the journal since the Parental Visit in New Zealand, but those 3 weeks were so jammed packed with activities and driving and eating and catching up that I had absolutely no time for journal writing. It was a great time though, with 2 weeks of perfect weather on the South Island, virtually unheard of.
Some of the highlights include doing Clingman’s Dome on Fox Glacier with Dad, kayaking and sailing our kayaks on Lake Manapouri, doing the Ball Pass trek with Paul and our amazing guide Graham, and of course getting Tip Top ice-cream at Arthur’s Pass (or not!). I’ve got some excellent photos from those 3 weeks which I’ll have to add to the site soon.
So after all that, I flew out of Auckland on the 31rts of March, and arrived in Brisbane that night. Lucky for me I was able to catch a late bus from the airport down to the Gold Coast to stay with my friend Alan who I met up in Sapa, Vietnam over a year ago. He just returned from another 2 month trip to Sapa helping the H’mong Hill tribe people again, so he was fresh with new stories to tell. I’ve been relaxing at Alan’s for the last week, enjoying the beach, and adjusting to Australia. When my parents left NZ, I sent my backpack and hiking gear home with them and switched over to the bicycle and cycling gear that I had stored at my friend Rebecca’s house in Auckland for 4 months. So at Alan’s I reassembled the bike and took it off for a nice ride up to Surfer’s Paradise for a day to see how she’s handled the last several months in a box. And yeah, since I have the bike and all the gear, why not actually cycle with it? Much easier than carrying it around in a box!
Great idea. Left Alan’s today with a fully loaded bike, heading south to Byron Bay. I’m hoping to see some of the Blues Festival starting in Byron next week, so I’m wanting to get there early to get accommodation before it gets crazy. And it’s a good test for the bike and for me to decide if I want to conquer more of Oz by bicycle.
So far so good. Today I had a great ride, 50 km along the coast, despite a strong headwind. I’m camping in a motor park by the sea in the middle of nowhere and it’s very quite and I love it. I spent the afternoon laying on the ground reading my book and enjoying the sounds of all the exotic birds here – what completely different sounds from New Zealand. NZ was so small and Oz is just massive and there are so many differences between the 2 countries even though they are both Western cultures.
Anyway tomorrow I should ride into Byron and see how busy it is, then get into the chill mode and rest up before the festival.
Life is only what YOU make of it.
Distance: 47.81 km
Time: 3 hr 15 min
from Currumbin to Wooyung
April 7th, 2003
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