Pushed off from Evans Head for the short trip up to Byron Bay today. All of us are excited about the prospect of staying at this almost legendary “Mecca” for surfers, hippies, alternative life stylers and just plain “groovy dudes and chicks”.
No need to go straight to Byron though as the trip is only about 80 k’s, so we take the scenic route through the Broadwater National Park to Broadwater and then across country to Lismore, which is back in the hills behind the coast. From here it’s N.E. towards Byron Bay.
Along the way we pass through numerous little towns including the village of Eltham and on to lunch at Bangalow about 15 k’s from our destination. Bangalow is a beautiful small “hinterland” town with old style shops with verandahs and lots of “knick-knack” and “new agey” type shops that are so typical of this area. It has a really nice calm feel about it.
Pete Murray the singer also lives here if that means anything to you!!!
The pub here also looks great, with 1930’s & 40’ décor. However, unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to sample the produce.
On to Byron after lunch and arrived by about 2.00 p.m. Luckily we were no later as there was very little accommodation available as everybody who is looking for caravan park accommodation seems to arrive in these places by about mid afternoon.
We secured a spot at the “First Sun” caravan park, just off the main street and right on Belongil Beach, which is next to the main beach. Our site by chance is directly above the beach with views towards the lighthouse to the east or along the beach towards the mountains to the west and north. The facilities at this park are probably the best that we have encountered so far, with an excellent camp kitchen & laundry facilities as well as showers, toilets etc.
The place is “backpacker central”. There are mixtures of accents everywhere which makes a welcome change from the “Grey Nomads” of which there are very few.
We can walk straight out of the park and be in the main drag or straight down the steps onto the beach. The older girls love it, with plenty of “eye candy” around and the younger girls just think it’s another place to stay that has a beach and a lighthouse….and it doesn’t get much better than that for them.
Turns out there is a big Olympic distance triathlon happening this weekend so the place is gonna get really busy.
The van park is not the cheapest one that we’ve encountered and so we had originally planned to stay only 2 nights. However we are having such a nice time and the weather and campsite is so agreeable that we have “shouted” ourselves another night of decadence.
Tomorrow we head off for the Gold Coast where we have booked a couple of nights at the Ocean View Caravan Park at Miami Beach.
Thanks to those folks who have posted comments on the blog, it's been great to read them and I hope you've enjoyed them.
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