After a relatively non-inspiring drive north from Sydney, mostly to a backdrop of urban sprawl, we arrived at our first resting point, Port Macquarie. We spent the evening battling for kitchen space at our hostel (the absurdly named Ozzie Pozzie Backpackers) before settling in for a much needed quiet night after the excesses of Sydney.
Before heading to the beach the next day we stopped off at the breakwall where visitors have been adorning the rocks for many years with pictures and poems. Although most are pretty shoddy, a ten minute stroll along is quite entertaining. The beach, however, is the main reason to visit Port Macquarie. We found ourselves a lovely cove and spent a very pleasant hour or so soaking up the sun (whilst sensibly lathered in factor 30+) and splashing around in the beautifully warm water.
We continued up the coast to Coffs Harbour, briefly stopping to enjoy the sweeping views of the coastline from the Captain Cook Lookout at Nambucca Heads. We decided that it was high time that we tried to locate our inner surfer dude so we duly signed up for a surf lesson. This turned out to be an excellent deal, as unlike most of the large group lessons available, we lucked out and ended up with a private lesson. My efforts were much more successful than in Bali and by the end of the lesson I was pretty much standing up every time I caught a wave, albeit for not very long. Rich and I even managed to ride the same wave in at one point.
Back on the road again and on to Byron Bay where we had the luxury of staying two nights. Byron is the kind of place were travellers plan to stay for a couple of nights and somehow find themselves still there months later. There were certainly quite a few long timers at our basic but chilled out hostel (Belongil Beachhouse) situated right on the stunning Belongil Beach. Whilst Byron is no-longer the alternative hippy hangout it used to be, it has retained considerable charm. Out of the places we have visited in Australia so far, its the one I where I would have most liked to linger further. We spent most of our short visit on the beach, opting for the less strenuous body boarding over surfing given my aching muscles from the previous day. We also managed to fit in an excellent yoga class at one of the plethora of studios.
We said a sad goodbye to Byron, but thankfully not the coast, as our next port of call was Cabarita Beach a little further north. The beach was gorgeous, but with even more aching muscles thanks to the yoga, and an extremely strong rip current, my efforts at body boarding were somewhat lacklustre. It was, however, a great spot to watch some seriously good surfers attempt to perfect their jumps and spins.
We knew we had entered Queensland, and the Gold Coast, from the sudden sight of high rise towers and the proliferation of fast food joints. Our first view of Surfers Paradise was from Coolangatta – the Blade Runneresque skyline appears to rise out of the sea in ominous glory. My first impression was that the gorgeous sweeping white sand beach and crashing waves were enough to make up for the backdrop of high rise apartments and hotels. Despite it being a Saturday, the beach wasn't too busy. The currents and surf were very strong (possibly something to do with the cyclone which is apparently making its was towards the Whitsundays), but it was excellent fun for body boarding.
However, all my initial good feelings were destroyed after I let Richard persuade me into a night out on the town. We turned down the offer of a “we guarantee you will be the drunkest you've ever been” bar and club crawl organised by our hostel and ventured out alone. After much hunting we finally found a decent enough restaurant (Marmalade Cafe), but from there things went downhill. By 11pm I had seen several girls vomit on the street, a guy being pinned down by two bouncers outside a club, a fight inside a club, and a couple of people fall out of shopping trollies. Rich tried to persuade me that it was an interesting anthropological experience but when the fire alarm starting going off in the club I decided it was time to go. It was with some relief we left for Brisbane.
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