The Farm and Beaches of Byron Bay

The Farm and Beaches of Byron Bay October 12, 2009

Filed under: Travel,Uncategorized — coliely @ 10:12 am
Tags: beach, Broken Head, Byron Bay, farm, goat

This weekend, we spent our nights in a little cottage located on a 300+ acre farm near Byron Bay. We chose this location, because of a gorgeous beach we happened to come across a few weekends ago called Broken Head. Unfortunately, the Holiday Park, which is a couple minute walk from the beach, was full due to the NSW school holiday. So, I found a little farmstay about a 10-minute drive away from the beach called Byron Bay Farmstay. We arrived Friday afternoon, after losing an hour due to the discrepancy in Daylight Savings between QLD and NSW, and were greeted by a goat in the driveway. He was a very outgoing goat and ate anything you gave to him. There was two other goats as well, but they were not as forward as the first goat. We arrived at Cabin #1 and found the water was from a lake down below formed by a dam on the property. Of course, they had other drinking water. A rain barrel with water collected from the gutters of the cabin without any filters. We tried a little of the water, but ended up bringing our own water for most of the trip. We were looking forward to a warm, sunny weekend on the many beaches around Byron Bay and maybe a little tourist shopping. Unfortunately, most of the weekend consisted of rain. We really need the rain, but why is it always the weekend? We did get to the beach a few times in between rain clouds. . . The first night, we were kept up most of the night by the shutters on the side of the cottage. But we did sleep ok the rest of the time, in the same room! Apart from the beach and farm, we also went to the Byron Bay Lighthouse and saw a couple of falls. The Lighthouse and surrounding water was picturesque. I was imagining myself living up in the lighthouse, especially on windy and stormy nights. Luckily, the lighthouse is an absolute brick and probably one of the safer places to hibernate during a storm. After quite a bit of driving around, we also did one hike and looked at another falls. We were at the visitor information center for the NSW hiking area and many of the roads were not paved (or sealed as Aussies say). I asked the guy at the info center and he said that it was only an easy 10-min drive on the gravel. Given that it was over 12km to both of the falls on gravel, it took much longer than 10min. No large potholes or anything that requires 4wd, but quite a bit of gravel and rough riding. It also took up a bit of time, so we only did one hike to Protestor’s Falls. Protestor’s Falls is called such because of a stand-off between loggers and protestors. The protestors stayed 5 days and ending up winning the battle. Today, it’s an old growth national park with mostly sub-tropical rainforest. The hike was exciting and very beautiful, of course I’m a sucker for the rainforest with the lucious ferns and dark hues of green. Well, that sums up most of our trip. I do have to add one tidbit of information. Andy loves the beach and now says “be” and points to the beach. And his favorite thing to do is go into the water, where the waves break pretty low, and run squealing from the waves. Of course, what he loves best of all is when the waves lap up on him, while he is doing the squeal-run. “EEEEEEE”