Yet another travel-blog entry. A mate of mine took me to Byron Bay, which is about 2-3 hours south of Brisbane. For readers who have been to Hawaii I would compare it to Haleiwa on Oahu. While we were there during the winter months, I'm sure the summer months would bring heaps of visitors. Fortunately not many people go to the beach here during the winter so the place was pretty quiet and easy to get around.
The first picture was taken at a place that sold the famous IQ lights. I first saw them when on vacation in Italy with my sister. They had some other lights for sale as well, and only set up shop after dark. Brilliant marketing move if you ask me... lights sell better at night.
I also took a stroll down the beach and played with the extended exposure setting on my camera to get a picture of the lighthouse, which is the brightest light you can see in this next picture. You can also spot a few stars in the sky. Don't know that I've ever been able to capture stars. The lighthouse is on the eastern-most point of Australia.
There are chock-a-block of beaches in Australia. "Of course, it's an island continent you tourist!" you say. Ah, but here's proof. This section of beach is named Tallow Beach and is what you see when you are walking up to the lighthouse and look to your right.
Of course, those of you who know me know about my intrigue with fish. Have you looked at the web address for this blog? So getting a chance to see my first whale was pretty awesome. There was a small pod of whales swimming along the coast that we could easily spot with the binoculars. Unfortunately my camera wasn't as good, but still a few noteworthy pictures were captured.
Dolphins were there too! The swam with porpoise. (What goes better with fish than cheese, eh?)
We finally did make it up to the lighthouse, which is still kept in immaculate shape. Such a striking view with steep cliffs. I chose this picture because you get more of a sense of how steep the cliffs are, but the sky isn't as blue as it is in some of the other pictures I took of the lighthouse...
...like this picture.
I already mentioned that the lighthouse sits on the eastern-most point of Australia. If I wanted to drive back to the States this is as far as I'd get. Well, I could probably get a little further with a running start, but fishing the car out of the water is expensive. That also assumes I have a car, which I don't. So for now we can just pretend that I drove here in an attempt to return to my fatherland, but was destined to look over the vast ocean of water between us and remember the good times. Wow, how romantic. Actually, I was more intrigued by the whales. WHALES!
They put a mock compass on the ground just to further emphasise the point. Yep, this way is east.
After some more eating and shopping and sightseeing we went to another beach. How can you not relax in a place like this? So peaceful. And for the record I didn't get into the water. I'm sure the water was probably warm enough, but cool breezes once you get out were too much.
That was my quick get away to Byron Bay. A great place to check out if you ever find yourself in Australia. For a great salad check out the rocket, pear, and Parmesan with sherry vinaigrette dressing at the Balcony. For a great dessert get the apple tart at the Arts Factory Buddha Bar. Hunkering for a tastey kebab, try Bay Kebabs. After that just see the sights. Good times, mate.