Byron Beach Vacation Day 2: Byron Bay proper: Whales, wallaby, and a monstrous fish

The first thing we did Saturday morning was take a walk to the Belongil beach across the street from our hostel (the Byron Bay Beach Resort).  It was a really beautiful morning: there was a 70% chance of rain in Byron on the forecast, but the morning, at least, was clear.  We walked a bit, but not all the way into town.  (The receptionist had told us when we checked in that you can walk to Byron Bay along the beach, but only when the tide is out, and we did this on Sunday, actually.)

On Belongil Beach looking south toward Cape Byron

Taking silly pictures as we do.

Astro boy...?

On Belongil Beach looking north

It was fun to see all the people out and about, especially with their dogs.  Surprisingly, everyone was pretty well-behaved.  Along our short beach-walk we saw this monster of a fish washed up on the shore.  Somehow, I think it's a little terrifying, teeth and eyes and all.

Should have put a hand in there for scale. (That footprint in the background is adult-sized.)

We headed back to the hostel to prepare for our day and it was already beginning to cloud up, so after a little hemming and hawing we decided to take the Berlingo into town with the bikes in the back (instead of biking in from the hostel) so if it started to rain we wouldn't be stuck anywhere.  We drove down to Apex Park and biked along the multi-use pathway toward Cape Byron for the much-recommended Byron Lighthouse walk.  It really looked like rain for a bit, but the skies cleared when we arrived at the start of the lighthouse loop.  Windy, though--very windy, so even though the sun was bright and the air was a warm 72° F, it was still a bit cool.  So windy, actually, that the kayaking dolphin tours we were tentatively planning on attending were cancelled all weekend.

Looking north from Apex Park

 

 

Perhaps some kind of Garcinia tree; unknown.

The lighthouse walk up along the coast of Cape Byron toward the lighthouse was really neat and incredibly picturesque.  We walked out on what we thought was the most eastern point of mainland Australia (turned out we were wrong and did it again when we found the sign.)  We joined the crowds in whale watching and saw a handful on their migration north.  It was cool... really cool.

 

 

 

 

Whale watching on the most eastern point of the Australian mainland

 

It's a whale.. just trust me on this one.

And if the whales weren't enough, as we continued on to the lighthouse we saw a wallaby just on the other side of the path, ignoring all the noisy people.  Wallabies, along with pretty much every other marsupial, are adorable.

Whale watchers

People watcher

Can you spot the wallaby?  (Most people didn't.)

The Byron lighthouse is kind of weird looking, actually... it was crowded with tourists, but all we could think of is that it looks like a White Castle restaurant.  Despite all the tourists and the various amenities at the lighthouse, there wasn't a place you could buy ice cream.  Our entire trip... when we would have bought it, ice cream was no where to be found.  But we were always walking by ice cream or gelato joints in the evening when it was much too cold to even consider it.

Surfer's beach south of Cape Byron

The second half of the lighthouse loop, going away from the point, was much quieter.  The forest was thicker, further away from the coast and quiet but for the sound of the wind through the trees above us.  We only encountered three other people on that stretch of the walk, so otherwise it was just us on a quiet little forest bathing trip.  We heard a strange bird call and looked up to see a raptor (perhaps a letter-winged kite) perched in a tree with a live fish in its talons. It flew away before I could get a picture... too bad.  It would have been awesome.  But I did get a picture of one of the numerous brush-turkeys we encountered.  (There are already too many pictures on this post, so not pictured here.)

I really love the wavy lines of the trees.

It was midday so we headed back into town for lunch (or a reeeally late brunch) and stopped in a place called the Bay Leaf, and came across the most incredible, unusual thing: brewed coffee on a menu!  (Right after I finally get around to saying you can't find it anywhere, see  Thursday, June 26, 2014)  I ordered a flat white per usual but Reid went ahead and ordered the MoccaMaster.  My flat white came to our table in five minutes.  We waited another fifteen for our meals.  The coffee finally arrived about five minutes after that.  (We were watching them try to figure it out.  We had no idea it would be such an ordeal.)

Lunch/brunch was tasty and the vibe of the place was really enjoyable.  We sat on the open windowsill and there was a little girl going in and out beside me for the duration of our meal.  They were playing Queen on the stereo.  It was a little more pricy than we were originally planning on, but it was good value for the money.  My vegetarian breakfast burrito came with a mountain of scrambled eggs on top.. and you know how I feel about scrambled eggs.. so I gave about half of them to Reid.  It worked out pretty well.  (Except for the MoccaMaster coffee, but that in itself was kinda fun.)

We didn't do a whole lot the rest of the afternoon: we walked around Byron, finally found Cafe Oska and got our bearings, stopped in a couple op-shops (opportunity shop; read: thrift store), and walked along the beach until we had to retreat.  (It was so windy it was painful.  Another moment that reminded me of our Okinawa trip, waiting on Yoron was that windy and just as painful.)

For dinner we went to the Byron Bay Brewery and restaurant, mostly enticed by their deal that if you spend $10 at the bar, you get a 2-for-1 main.  (A schooner and a middy took care of that.)  There was a Brazilian band scheduled to play at 7:30, so we waited around outside, but by eight o'clock there was still no sign of them, and rather than just watch incomprehensible rugby on the TV, we decided to head back to the hostel.  We were glad we didn't wait around too long, because we saw lightning in the distance on our ride home and the first spattering of raindrops.  It began to pour not too long after we returned.

The place was called the Buddha Bar, and there were all sorts of statues, inside and out.  This one, over the outside stage, is a little bit terrifying.