Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Nora writes:

Our next stop was Byron Bay in New South Wales.
We heard many different things about this place - some say it is very touristy and full of backpackers others say it is really nice...

...only one way to find out...so we went there.
We both liked it - it is a real surfing spot and you can see a mixed clientel around - hippies, elderly people, families, etc.

at every car park in byron bay there are signs 'no stopping from 1am - 5am' --> a nice indication that no campers are wanted...
...we cruised around to find our free parking spot for the night and decided to stay up at the lighthouse.
...and we were lucky as we werent disturbed by any rangers.

the next night we chose the same spot but at 6am some rangers woke us up and gave us the option to pay 200 dollars fine or pack our stuff in 3 minutes and leave...
...guess wot we did.

however, we only drove to the next car park where we saw about 15 backpacker vans - all were woken up by the rangers but didnt really care and stayed...apparently rangers never fine you in byron bay, they just come every morning between 6 and 7am and wake you up and ask you to leave. some of those guys spent 5 days there already...

...we also tried to surf in byron bay. i put emphasis on TRYING to surf as we didnt really manage. the waves were massive and our skills not really good enough for these conditions...

...after a few lungful of water and some stung of blue bottle jellyfish which were everywhere in the water we decided to give up... never mind, we will be back and improve our skills one day...