Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 31.

Arrival and my experiences at Byron Bay and its environs.

After a few days spent in Brisbane, the Greyhound Bus journey to my next stop was a short one, but it involved crossing into New South Wales. At this point, there was no more of the Great Barrier Reef. Instead, the Pacific Ocean remains open water right up to the Americas. It was also after this crossing that I began to experience a change in weather, from warm and sunny to a fresher feel, along with rain.

Byron Bay was my next stop after Brisbane. The name originated from the name of one of the crewmates of Captain Cook's HMS Endeavour, Vice Admiral John Byron, the grandfather of the more famous poet, Lord George Byron.

The coastal town with its clifftop lighthouse marks the most easterly point of mainland Australia. The location also serves as the ideal venue for outdoor leisure activities. For example, surfing was popular, and on my arrival, I saw that it looked like a surfing club out on one of its meetings. As I stood near the lighthouse, I watched a paraglider fly majestically over Tallow Beach, south of Cape Byron.

However, I refrained from swimming in the sea. The rolling waves might have looked inviting to the surfers, all of them wearing wetsuits, but the sea didn't look inviting to me at the time. Instead, I combined hiking with hiring a bicycle from the hostel I stayed at.

The name of the main beach making up the Bay was just that - Main Beach. As I headed eastwards towards the Cape, there was a stretch of sand, an extension of the Main Beach, known as Clarkes Beach. On the northern side of the rocky cliff, an isolated strip of sand is Wategos Beach, which reaches the tip of the Cape, the most easterly point of the whole of Australia. The coast then takes almost a 180-degree turn before heading directly south. This east-facing long strip of sand is Tallow Beach.

Hence, Cape Byron is a peninsula, an area of land jutting out into the sea. Looking down on it from above, it has a resemblance to a dog's snout, turning up its nose in snootiness. On the bike, I rode over eight miles (13.2 km) south from the hostel to the Seven Mile Beach, a long and deserted strip of sand backed by unbroken forest. At one point, the cycleway terminated at a car park. Here, I locked up the bicycle and continued on foot through the forest to the beach. It was here that I felt that I was the loneliest man in Australia!

Stock photo of Cape Byron peninsula.

It was at this short trail where I spotted a female spider resting on its web. Fortunately, arachnophobia isn't one of my traits, and I approached it to snap a picture. Why? With its legs fully extended, it was almost the size of a man's extended hand. But to anyone who thinks that I'm some sort of fearless hero, I have always felt uncomfortable in an elevator, after nearly becoming trapped in one between floors at a hostel in Singapore.

I strolled along the Seven Mile Beach. However, by 1997, Aussies were already measuring distances using the metric system, as with continental Europe and the rest of the world, except North America and the UK. Yet, to rename this coastal strip, Eleven Point Two-Seven-Kilometre Beach, is quite a mouthful, and I doubt that any name change will ever be on the cards!

Looking towards the south, the sky looked threatening. And I was right to feel worried. I was dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, and with a bicycle for transport, over eight miles of road separated me from the comforts of the hostel, and indeed, the heavens opened while I was still on the beach. To the north, towards Byron Bay, a forested promontory jutted out to sea. This was Broken Head, a stub of a peninsula separating Seven-Mile Beach from Tallow Beach, south of Cape Byron. The drenching I received on the homeward ride was as if I jumped fully clothed into a swimming pool. Yet, this was the first time I had ever ridden a bicycle south of the Equator. And like in the UK, traffic here in Australia drives on the left.

However, I was amazed by the contrast between Seven-Mile Beach and, say, Port Douglas, 1,940 km or 1,205 miles north along the coastal road. Port Douglas, a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, was bustling with life. Catamarans left the town's harbour and returned in the evening, the palm tree-lined esplanade was crowded with visitors and locals alike, and the atmosphere was enhanced by an outdoor music band delivering free entertainment to the public. Furthermore, the weather was gorgeous. The bright sunshine under a cloudless sky made the whole environment so much cheerier. By contrast, where I was standing, I was entirely alone on a deserted beach. There were no boats, no catamarans, and no harbour to moor them, no shops where I could buy some refreshments, and the sky was overcast, dark and threatening. Yet I didn't feel downcast or discouraged. This was Australia. At least during its winter, I was less likely to get sunburnt or even risk skin cancer.

The accommodation I stayed at whilst in Byron Bay was Jeff's Backpackers' Hostel, a YHA-affiliated hostel, where, like all the others, I shared a dormitory. Nearby, a superstore kept my stocks supplied for meals prepared in the member's kitchen.

For the Index to link this album to the main Biography, click here for Weeks 88-92.

Photos of Byron Bay and its environs.

Main Beach leading to Cape Byron.

The peak in the far distance is Mt. Warning, 1,150 m. high.

Byron Bay Esplanade.

Another view of Main Beach.

A surfing club at Clarkes Beach.

The coast turns rockier as I approach the Cape.

Approaching Cape Byron. This is The Pass. 

Rocks off Wategos Beach.

Around the tip of the Cape.

Watching the surfers in action.

A Romantic setting on the Cape.

Another romantic view.

Pandanus Trees resemble the pineapple variety.

Clifftop view of Wategos Beach.

Massive Cape cliffs.

The tip of the Cape seen from the clifftop.

Byron Cape Lighthouse.

A paraglider flies above Tallow Beach.

From the lighthouse, a trail leads into a nature reserve.

The trail cuts through virgin forest.

Evening sunset at Byron Bay.

The next day, I hired a bicycle from the hostel.

Broken Head is a nature reserve a few miles south.

This is Kings Beach in the Broken Heads area.

Byron Bay was the only place where I saw these Pandanus.

The Rocky coast beyond Kings Beach.

A trail links the car park to the beach.

I snapped this spider from the trail.

The forest gives way to grass as I approach the beach.

Broken Heads as seen from Seven-Mile-Beach.

Looking south along Seven Mile Beach as it starts raining.

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Next Week, Coffs Harbour.

Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 30.

Arrival in Brisbane as it was in 1997.

So far, since setting foot in Australia in 1997, each of the first five Queensland stops from Port Douglas to Hervey Bay has been a gateway to an offshore island or a group of islands. Hence;

Port Douglas > Low Isles Coral Cay.

Cairns > Green Island Coral Cay.

Townsville > Magnetic Island.

Arlie Beach > Whitsundays Archipelago.

Hervey Bay > K'gari (Fraser Island).

I indeed visited Green Island directly from Cairns before I sailed north to Port Douglas for the Low Isles. But the above list shows the geographical locations of each site set in order along the coast of Queensland. Also, except for the Border Island of the Whitsundays, the sky above was almost cloudless throughout.

After staying at Hervey Bay for three days, I moved on to Brisbane, the largest city in Queensland and the State's capital. This is the first Australian stopping point where I stayed on the mainland. This was partially due to my lack of knowledge of the locality, a disadvantage for a lone backpacker. An escorted group or one well-knowledged would have been aware of Moreton Island, a forested sandbank very much like K'gari, which would have been a 75-minute ferry ride across Moreton Bay from Brisbane. Once arrived, I could have enjoyed snorkelling over some shipwrecks.

Or would I?  

Photos of the shipwrecks show that some of them were above the surface, especially during low tide, and the ugly piles of rusted metal out at sea would have been an eyesore, at least to me, anyway. Yet, tourists, mainly in groups, flock there to snorkel among the marine life that flourishes around the wrecks. How would I have felt? I really can't say, as at the time I was unaware of the island's existence. Swings and roundabouts, perhaps.

Brisbane is also close to the border with New South Wales. After crossing the border, I began to experience unsettled weather, especially at Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour.

Yet, Brisbane had a variety of weather while I was there. After all, I visited during the Australian winter, although at this part of the world, winter didn't mean snow or frost. Rather, it was less warm and with some rain. 

I stayed in the vicinity of the city centre, mainly around Queen Street, where all the major stores were lined up. The largest department store, Myers, had several floors, each specialising in its own type of merchandise. However, in 1997, the upper floor, known as Tops, had a miniature funfair, including a family roller coaster, along with a games room where snooker or pool tables were available. One of the aspects of Australian culture that the UK could learn from was that the "day's family shopping" need not have meant a couple of bored kids moaning as they trailed behind stressed-out parents. Rather, whilst Mum (or Dad) browsed through the store to buy what they needed, if the kids were young, there was the roller coaster, a small Ferris wheel, and one or two other amusements. For older teenagers, there was the game of pool or snooker, perhaps table football as well.

Before writing this blog, I conducted a thorough check on Brisbane, as it is currently available on the Internet. I wasn't too surprised how the city skyline had changed since 1997, especially as seen from across the Brisbane River. There are now more towering skyscrapers than in 1997, and like in Downtown Los Angeles between 1978 and 1995, the skyline has changed almost beyond recognition. Although the South Bank Parkland is also more developed now than it was in 1997, some of the features on it, such as the artificial beach, remained unchanged.

Present-Day Brisbane (2025). Stock photo.

Brisbane Botanical Gardens was another venue which caught my attention. One bit of good news is that the rosette flower garden, out of season during my time there, is still there to this day. Many of the palm trees were planted by man when the gardens were designed, but there were copses of the original forest before the park was designated.

However, there was one feature in Brisbane that not only caught my attention, but was the most visited area throughout my stay in the city. That was the Botanical Gardens Mangrove Walk, a boardwalk which passed through a mangrove enbankment on the Brisbane River. Sadly, today the boardwalk no longer exists. In 2011, a major flood destroyed the boardwalk along with some of the mangroves, and the authorities decided that the funds were insufficient to rebuild this delightful walkway.

The mangroves lining the Brisbane River gave me a good lesson on tropical life. Here in Brisbane, the trees were of a different species to those around Arlie Beach and northwards. Also, this particular species has roots poking out of the ground and exposed when the tide is out. A sign on display explained that these root stalks allow the mangrove to "breathe" when exposed to the air. Furthermore, the presence of these mangrove trees provides a habitat for small crabs, easily seen from where I was standing, and also proves that the river, even as far inland as the city centre, is salty, benefiting from the marine tides.

This goes to show that the closer to the Tropics the location is, the more varied the wildlife, both flora and fauna. Brisbane lies some 632 km, or just over 390 miles, by road from Rockhampton, an inland city midway between Arlie Beach and Brisbane. This is significant, as the Tropic of Capricorn passes through Rockhampton. South of Rockhampton, the Southern Hemisphere begins proper, with the winter weather becoming more manifest, so I noticed, the further south I travelled. Yet, such vegetation as mangroves continues to flourish well south of the Tropics, as I noticed, as far as Coffs Harbour, a coastal town, 1,016 km, or 630 miles by road from the Tropic of Capricorn.

My accommodation in Brisbane was at the YHA Australia backpackers' hostel on Roma Street, across the road from Roma Street bus and rail stations.`

Click here for the link to the Biography Index, where you can click on Weeks 82-87 part of will cover Brisbane.

Photos of Brisbane.

A first glimpse of Brisbane.

Queen Street

Anzac Square War Memorial.

A shopping mall, Queen Street.

Inside Myers Dept. Store, Queen St.

'Tops' at Myers features a miniature funfair.

Including this Roller Coaster ride.

Crossing the River on Victoria Bridge...

To the South Bank Parklands.

Posing through a fountain tunnel.

The Park had some lovely walks.

Parklands Main Street as it was in 1997.

The city skyline as it was in 1997.

The Park has that Tropical feel.

Another view of the skyline from the South Bank.

Near the artificial beach.

A nighttime walk in the Park. At the beach.

The City skyline from the Park.

The out-of-season rosette flower garden...

At the city Botanical Gardens.

The beauty of water.

No longer here, the mangrove boardwalk...

It was destroyed in 2011 by a flood.

How the mangroves look during high tide.

I was so intrigued, I just clicked away.

Cooler, wetter weather, and I dressed appropriately.

Trees growing out of the water fascinated me.

 Along the walk, the mangrove bankside seems endless.

At low tide, the root stems are exposed.

A remnant of a forest, Botanical Gardens.

These were planted by man.

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Next Week, Byron Bay, New South Wales.