Day 5 - On the Road Again to Byron Bay
Trip Start
Dec 15, 2005
1
6
86
Trip End
Apr 02, 2006
On our way north again. We were going to stay at Coff's Harbor today but after much searching around town for a hotel with broadband and no luck we decided to head on up to Byron Bay. There was nothing really special about Coff's Harbor other than some nice beaches. It was a long drive. We spent pretty much all day driving. We finally arrived in Byron Bay and whoa, what a great town! New Age capital of Australia I'm guessing. There are more backpackers and hippies here than Hawaii and it reminds me of Marin County, California. I'm also reminded of a Southpark episode where Cartman tries to get rid of all the hippies before they take over the town. The shops are funky, cool and melts right in with the surfer crowd. My kind of place. We actually are staying 15 minutes outside of town in Brunswick Head which is still a New Age kind of town but more grounded, less backpackers and more families. We happened to be staying here on the one night a year that they have a large festival/carnival and fireworks. We had great Thai food and watched the fireworks and meandered around the open market. Incense, sari's, and hemp oil filled were all offered for those last minute Christmas gifts. We are staying at a cheap funky motel owned by a very nice couple. We hung out and had drinks with them and another couple who just moved here from Queensland. He is a carpenter/ surfer and she works for a bank. Then there was Phil. Phil works for a mobile phone company and drives 1400km a day in his beefed up satellite signal car tracking cell signals around Australia. He gave us his number and 'pleaded' with us to call him to get together when in Brisbane. Seems Phil get a little lonely on the road all day, which is understandable. It's late and we are calling it a night.
