After allowing our rumps to recover from the bumpiness of Fraser Island, the four of us set out to explore the east coast of Australia between Hervey Bay and Sydney. Stops en route were scheduled for Noosa, Byron Bay, Hunter Valley & possibly somewhere for diving with sharks…
First stop: Noosa. Arriving in the town centre late afternoon, we managed to bag ourselves a bargainous 2-bed apartment for 2 nights – air con, pool, bbq, washing machine, full kitchen (we used them all)… what more could you want for AU$99? Noosa seemed like a really nice, relaxed seaside town , but we’d come here for one thing – the waves . Only having one day we decided against surf boards and instead opted for their smaller and easier cousin – the body board. We spent pretty much a whole day in the waves before retreating back to the flat, satisfied and only a little sore from our exertion. We also saw a man standing on a surf board… with a dog as passenger – very weird & impressive! Here’s a video of my expert body boarding 🙂
Next stop: Byron Bay. We visited the Arts Factory, stopping for a coffee and, later in the day, for some beer tasting (they have their own brewery). Byron Bay has a lovely sandy beach with an inviting wavy blue sea. The sea, however, was misleading – in fact there was an immensely strong current running along the beach – so strong that it was like wading through a strong river. Any time you lost your footing or tried swimming, you were very quickly 10m down the shore from where you’d just been. We had some fun jumping in the waves though and then trekked back up the beach to top up our tans. As the sun began to sink behind the hills, we headed up to the nearby lighthouse for sunset. This is very nearly the most easterly point of Australia; it’s a little walk to the actual spot, but we figured we’d got close enough. As you can see, we enjoyed a sunset over hills and sea with lighthouse in the background.
To be continued…
More photos (& videos of body boarding!) from the whole trip @ Picasa
