It is no secret that I like to step off the hamster wheel of city life now and again, even if only just a few days. My trips to Mudgee will attest to this. The 3 and half hour drive leaves enough distance between me, and the madness that is the Sydney CBD. As we come up through the mountains, pausing in Bilpin for a slice of home made apple pie, then drop down into Lithgow, and onto the final stretch into central New South Wales, I feel an immediate sense of zen. Something not even daily sessions of meditation with “Calm” can replicate.
The latest decompression trip was a return to beautiful Byron Bay, last visited in 2015 at the back end of our East Coast road trip. Memories of that last visit, those that I still have – post the marathon Sunday session we had, remain stuck in the mind as “that time in Byron we woke up amongst the detritus of the previous night’s kebab takeaway.”
This trip was to be much more civilised. I had promised myself. In January 2015 we had just finished a long road trip, with long stretches of driving each day. We couldn’t allow ourselves to over indulge on the evenings before. For what I would hope are obvious reasons, we moderated our alcohol intake. This was, until we dropped off the campervan on the outskirts of Brisbane, on New Years Eve, and proceeded to spend the next couple of weeks rampaging through Brisbane, Surfers Paradise, and then Byron Bay, like teenagers on spring break.
To reinforce the fact that this trip was to be more sedate, we booked Airbnb accommodation in the village of Suffolk Park, some 6kms south of central Byron, and a short 25 minute mini bus transit from Ballina airport with Easy Bus Byron. The selling points were the proximity to a wide stretch of beach, Tallows, the fact the village had a pub, a cafe with great coffee, and a couple of push bikes giving us easy access into Byron.
We were dropped off along Broken Head Road, and being a little early to check in, we crossed the road with our hand luggage, to the pub, the Park Hotel. Being in this part of the world, a lot of the pubs are similar, in that they are mainly outdoors. Fully covered, as it does rain a lot, not just here, but in the whole of Australia, but the rest of the pub is open. Byron Bay is only about 70 kilometres from Queensland, and this tells in the humidity. Byron feels tropical. The day we arrived felt particularly humid, and the best solution for this is always an ice cold Stone & Wood Pacific Ale. I was now definitely on “Byron time”, and ready to kick back.
Our accommodation was just what I had pictured, a small, self contained cabin, up a short drive way off the main road. The only clue we were in the right place was the number 244, stencilled into the white, metal post box by the side of the road. Up a steep incline, seemingly into the wilderness, we came across Quambi, our home for the next 2 nights. We were met by Subi, a very friendly Staffordshire Bull Terrier, who often popped in to see us through our stay.
Byron is almost at the most northern part of New South Wales, and Cape Byron, hosting a wonderful lighthouse, is the most easterly point of Australia. And over the years it has become a haven for visitors. It started off as a place the attracted those seeking an “alternative” lifestyle. What you might call hippies. People who chose to drop out of conventional life and live differently. Nearby Nimbin has been described as lots of things, including “an escapist sub culture”, and has always been closely associated with cannabis, which is openly traded, despite being illegal. If Nimbim is the young upstart, Byron is the big sister. Slightly more grown up, but still rebellious.
My impressions are that, reassuringly, not too much has changed on the surface of Byron since my first ever visit in 1994. Cheeky Monkeys still regularly entertains drunken backpackers late into the evening. The Beach Hotel still holds its piece of prime real estate, over looking, yes, you guessed it, the beach. And walking down Johnson Street, you can still get your cold beers from the Northern, and the Friendly Railway Hotel, pubs which don’t seem to have changed with the years. Byron still feels like Byron. People care about each other. Hitchhiking is still a thing. I saw a few by the side of the road, thumb stuck out, successfully getting rides. And I was given a guilt trip in the pub when I had the temerity to ask for a plastic bottle of water. Byron has been waging a war on plastic well before the current global push to minimise our use of it. And rightfully so.
But what is obvious, is that there is now a lot more money in Byron. It no longer caters just to hippies. With local residents such as the actor Chris Hemsworth, his reported new neighbour Matt Damon, and Aussie singer Natalie Imbruglia, all calling Byron home, the bars and restaurants have had to up their game. Porsches and Audis share the streets with decades old campervans. Boutique hotels rub shoulders with the many backpacker hostels. And the Balcony Bar does a “Bottomless Bellini Breakfast”. A far cry from the vegemite on toast of my backpacking days.
Beautiful Byron is a place where you can’t fail to immediately relax. You sense the slower pace of life as soon as you disembark the plane. The three days we had there felt like much longer. We packed our days with long bikes rides, along the many, flat, bike lanes in and around Byron. We had some great food out at The Three Blue Ducks, on The Farm. Cycling the 13kms back we called into the excellent Stone & Wood brewery, sharing a paddle of their finest beers. To walk off the excellent lunch we had at Mez Club, the margaritas, mai tais, and mango pina coladas, we took longs walks on the amazing, wide expanses of beaches that line the northern, and eastern coast of the town.
Waking on the third day, to the sound of tropical rain pattering on the roof of cabin, we looked at each other and said, “shall we just stay”.
