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This is to be our full day of sunning in Byron Bay, in our slightly expensive holiday park. We began with eggs and baked beans ("English style" baked beans these were, apparently. Not that we could taste the difference).
It's a baking hot day even by 10am, totally sapping our energy to do anything more than read in the shade. However, in order to earn our beach slobbing, we plan to visit the lighthouse at Cape Byron, Australia's easternmost point.
We stop for coffee first, along what appears to by Byron Bay's main strip. The clientele, as suggested by our shop in Woolies last night, are unlike any we've seen in Aus so far. It's still the 60s here, with hippie/boho chic (or not so) the order of the day. We've seen a lot of hammocks, crystals and "mind, body and spirit" type books in the shops. Nevertheless it seems genuine, and there's a friendly and laid back atmosphere. It's all chill man.
Up at Cape Byron, we luck into a spot near the top (avoiding a long and sweaty walk up the hill at midday) and the lighthouse is idyllic. Painted a blinding white, and set against the green grasses, perfect blue sky and sea with crashing waves, it's absolutely beautiful. We see dolphins surfing in the bay below us, turtles surfacing, and the view stretches from the bottom of the Gold Coast to the north, to to the south. There is information about the aboriginal heritage of the area in the old main light keepers's cottage, and a cute little museum at the bottom of the lighthouse itself. This contains various quirky exhibits including a table of semaphore flags used by ships to signal (one is translated as "on fire"...), rubber stamps (the volunteer is kind enough to stamp me with one, at Foxy's insistence) and the former gaslight, before it went electric.
Culture time done, we head back to the beach! Via Woolies and laundry. We bake on the beach for bit, before cooling off in the sea. The patch we've chosen today has a lot of sandbars, meaning we walk a long way out but are still only up to our calves! The waves and the current are strong, so we're sensible (attention, mothers) and just play catch and splash about for a bit in the shallows.
After lovely hot showers (we're making the most of the facilities, now we've paid for them!) we prepare our kangaroo steak and veg for dinner on the BBQs.
After dins, we sit outside Jucy playing (safely and responsibly: attention, mothers) with the citronella candles. We're hoping if we light enough of these, the mozzies might leave us alone...
A quick stargaze on the beach a few minutes walk from our site, and bed.
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