Cape Byron - January 2007

Bushwalking attire - Byron style!

The last time that we did the whole east coast summer holiday thing was way back in 2007, this road trip actually has turned me off Christmas on the east coast of Australia ever since. Half way home on our road trip down the coast I said to Sam that next Christmas we'd go somewhere with no people. As soon as we arrived home I rang the other woman in my life, Ali my travel agent, and booked us into a trip to Patagonia and Antarctica for the following year. You know what? It was one of the best decisions that I've ever made.

This little stroll saw Sam and I parking the troopie at the eastern end of Byron Bay. After a short beach section we climbed the small headland between Clarkes Beach (the main beach in Byron) and Wategos Beach (what looked like the beach to be seen on in Byron). Descending onto the sand at Wategos Beach I was right at home among the other punters in my special Byron Bay walking attire, the Hawaiian shirt blending in perfectly. After a short stretch on the beautiful beach we climbed again, this time up to Cape Byron. Cape Byron is known as the eastern most point in mainland Australia, so on meeting the side track out to the tip of the point it would of been wrong not to go down and check things out. As you would expect the the view over the turquoise ocean up and down the coast was extensive, although unfortunately we didn't see any dolphins frolicking in the surf which sometimes feature here. Interestingly (well for me anyway) this isn't actually the eastern most point, that spot is actually 300 metres south at the base of some large cliffs and is virtually inaccessible.

This isn't actually the eastern most point of mainland Australia, but it's very close.

After out little side trip Sam and I continued on the the famous lighthouse, my main memory of this place was the amount of traffic in the car park cruising around trying to find a spot to park, obviously the walk up is too much for a lot of people. So with the amount of people around it was no hardship to leave the lighthouse today. Heading down the access road out of the lighthouse reserve we picked up a pretty rough walking track that headed past a hang glider area before striking out in a south westerly direction through the rainforest to once again arrive back into the back blocks of Byron Bay. A few minutes further down the road and we arrived back at the troopie after a very easy but still interesting stroll.

The Dirt.

We walked around 4 kilometres on this easy stroll today. This walk would be suitable for most people although the track back down the back of Cape Byron was a little on the rough side back in 2007. Byron Bay, even back in 2007 was super trendy and chocka block with beautiful people, there is a reason for that though and that is that it's a beautiful spot with a warm sub tropical climate, great cafés, restaurants and shops. The beaches are what do it for me though, the warm turquoise water and fine white sand all look pretty good for a bloke from Melbourne, just keep an eye out for Great Whites! Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I used some of the wizened old oracle of everything bushwalking back in those days, Tyrone Thomas notes. The walk was written up in his 1993 (yep the notes are old) book 50 Walks Coffs Harbour Gold Coast Hinterland.

You won't be lonely at Byron Bay over Christmas.

The track down the back of the cape was a little rougher back in the day.