Saturday 6th January – Farewell Brisbane, Hello Byron!

We checked out at 930am, taking a bus and train across to the north side of the city to pick up our last Australian camper from ‘Spaceships’.  This is the one we booked because we’d run out of other options….  But we were pleasantly surprised.  We were handed the keys to a shiny silver Toyota Estima called ‘Cyber Punk’ (no idea, I think they were running out of names) in good condition and with only 89,000km on the clock.  There were no seats in the rear, instead there was a white ‘crate’ installed which opened on 2 sides and contained the fridge, etc.  A board on top of the crate extends out of the boot to create the bed with a canvas tarpaulin segment that clips onto the raised tailgate and wheels providing us with some privacy.

We drove back towards STS to collect our rucksacks but stopped first at a supermarket to get groceries and the train station to get a refund for our Go cards (awesome).  We said our final farewell to STS… sad times, I don’t think I’ll be staying there again though!

As usual, it was later than planned when we left for the 2-hour drive to Byron Bay, especially when that was in New South Wales so the clocks leapt forward an hour too! After the issues we had trying to book accommodation here only a few days ago, we were still concerned whether we were going to find somewhere to park up. We headed to Glen Villas park and tried our luck at reception. All non-powered sites had sold out for tonight, but there was one option for us…. A tiny ‘shack’, unpowered but for $80 a night.  The shack consisted of a little hut with two vinyl mattresses on the floor that we pushed together to make the bed and a light… oh, and fly screens! But it did give us more space than just sleeping in the car. 

Cyber Punk parked outside our little shack

We set up and made a quick dinner of chilli and rice before heading into town.  This is another place that I harp on about whenever discussing the favourite places I’ve been to, so I was worried that it may have lost some of its charm.  Luckily, I needn’t have worried.   

Straight away, I remembered why I love this place so much – there was live music everywhere, in the bars and on the streets, no chain restaurants, quirky little gift shops and surf shacks - and no bad vibes at all!  Yes, it’s hippie-esque, but I don’t mind being a temporary hippy when the time and the place is right!  We headed to the beach where there were groups of people drumming (that’s going too far in my eyes…) and chilling out.  We spotted a few people wandering about with massive colourful headphones on and traced the headsets back to a camper van providing a silent disco on the beach until midnight.  You could dance for as much or as little of the evening as you liked but we were worried the ‘phones would sell out, so we hired a couple of sets for $10 each.   

I wanted to go back to another place I recognised from 21 years ago – the Railway Bar.  The price of the beer there was extortionate, but they had an awesome live band playing so we stayed for their set and drank one pint slowly.

After that, we decided we should make the most of our disco investment.  We headed back to the beach via a ‘Bottle-O’ to purchase a six-pack to take with us.  How rare is that to find somewhere in Australia where taking alcohol onto the beach is allowed?  I was worried that the music on offer wouldn’t be to our tastes, but we had an amazing time dancing with complete strangers. 

 
The DJs played out on three separate channels which had a corresponding colour on your headset, which meant that you connected with people dancing to the same track and could compare ‘moves’.  We didn’t stop dancing until midnight and didn’t want the night to end as we danced in the waves and the sand.  Some of the musical highlights for me included a mass group singalong to ‘Teenage Dirt-bag’ by Wheatus and I went crazy scatting to Snow’s ‘Informer’!  As we walked back to our shack I must admit that the world was spinning a little.  What a night - We love you Byron!