Australia - Yamba

Day 52 - Wednesday, March 14
I was originally planning to go straight from Sydney to Byron Bay, the first major backpacker/tourist destination heading north on the east coast from Sydney. However, on the recommendation of another backpacker I met in Sydney, I decided to make a quick stop in a town called Yamba, which is just a little south of Byron Bay. Yamba is a small sleepy surfer town. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great, so I didn't get a chance to totally appreciate it. But it is really laid back and much less commercialized that some of the other beach towns on the east coast. It has some really nice surf breaks and I was able to rent a board for the day for $10, which was nice and definitely cheaper than anywhere else I've seen in Australia. A little clouds and rain may have detracted from the views, but were no reason not to get out and try to ride some waves.

The key word being "try." I headed over to Turner's beach and spent the better part of the morning trying and failing to swim out past the whitewash and then trying and failing to surf the whitewash. I did make it out to where the waves were breaking a few times and did ride a few waves. But I'm pretty sure I came away with more injuries (all minor) than the number of waves I rode. Still, a good time. Here's a photo of me in one of my few moments where I looked like I knew what I was doing:

From Australia - Yamba, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane & Noosa

Okay; that's not really me. I'm pretty sure I never looked like that. But that is Turner's beach, where I collected some bruises and fell down a lot.

When I got back from surfing I had missed the tour of the area that the hostel did, but I had seen the receptionist draw the route on the map and knew that it was about a 3 hour tour, so I figured I'd just do it myself. Well, as it turns out, the tour was a driving tour in a van, and I was under the impression it was a walking tour and my map wasn't exactly to scale. So in effort to find the "blue lake" and "cliff jump" advertised as part of the tour and pictured below, I ended up walking about 4 miles to the neighboring town of Angourie:

From Australia - Yamba, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane & Noosa

I then, for what I'm pretty sure was the first time in my life, hitchhiked my way back to Yamba. Luckily the first car that drove by picked me up and I didn't get murdered. Hitchhiking is pretty common in NZ and Oz and generally considered pretty safe, so not quite the same as hitchhiking in the US. Safely back in Yamba, I checked out some more of the coastline around Yamba. Here's a picture from some cliffs looking out onto Main Beach:

From Australia - Yamba, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane & Noosa