Newcastle e Byron bay - MyAustraliainfo - Information about Australia

Newcastle - Byron bay

May 30, 2001

Today I left Sydney to go north up the coast heading towards Queensland. First stop Newcastle., I do not know why I chose this  town perhaps for the name as it is easy enough to remember. It is not far from Sydney, it's about 3 hours by bus. It's a quiet town with a huge port and an industrial centre.  I walked quite a long way before I reached the Hostel which is a little bit out of the centre.. Tomorrow I will go to the beach.  I watch TV all evening with movies in English and for me this was really strange as I couldn't understand much....

May 31, 2001

Another long walk this time along the scenic road  along the coast, from Bar beach (which is not a bar but a beach) to Newcalstle beach and then again Nobbys beach, a succession of cliffs and beautiful big beaches. It's chilly but there are surfers as always, and at Newcastle beach there is a large pool overlooking the sea with several people in the water, yet it is not even hot!. I walk around center until evening. Newcalstle is a very quiet town in the evening, in fact there is not much happening at all.. I am sure that in summer in full season it is quite different. On then 2nd of June I will leave Newcastle for Byron Bay one of the most famous tourist destinations in Australia.

2 June 2001

I'm on the Greyhound bus Pioneer traveling to Byron Bay and I'm thinking to myself in Australia are there really kangaroos? I have been here 10 days now and have not seen any kangaroos. Of course there will be without doubt kangaroos in the  zoos, but I did not come to Australia to see the animals in the zoo. However, I  hope that one of these days I'll see some.. The journey is long enough about 10 hours.  I arrive in Byron Bay at 9.30 in the evening. The hostel in Byron Bay is really nice, there is also a small swimming pool, and many young English back packers. Whereas in Sydney unlike Byron Bay, there were more  Asians tourists.

3/4 June 2001

I headed to the centre of Byron bay and it is a beautiful little resort town. There are plenty of people, young and old, who are traveling with a backpacks and staying in hostels. There is really a sense of holiday culture here unlike other places I've seen so far. I met for the first time, since I am in Australia, an Italian traveling like me, a guy from Milan who seemed a bit strange and had just arrived from Thailand. Today I will concentrate on doing excursions along the main beaches, that is Clarks Beach, and Wategos beach, it was really worth the effort to see such a wonderful beaches. In the morining from the beach not many metres from the shore, I saw some dolphins (or sharks?) who were going about peacefully. Endless beaches, the guide is telling me that I am looking at more than 50 km of uninterrupted white sandy beaches. I have arrived at the tip of Cape Byron that has a breathtaking view, the extreme eastern tip of mainland Australia with a nice quiet beach called Little Wategos beach. Nature here is pure and clean, a perfect beach with the usual surf.  I go for  a lovely walk of about 3.5 km in amongst the middle of nature, between trees, flowers and lots of birds. Yesterday, Sunday, there were many people around, today Monday it is much quieter, there are only local residents and backpackers running aimlessly around like me, from the centre to the sea and from the sea to the centre, and so on ......