Skip to main content

Hippies, hipsters and bogan beaches



The folk in Byron Bay live on a different astral plane to me. My plane either uses jet fuel or mathematics. Theirs? Not quite sure, which is why I don't exist there.

The drive from Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay was very pretty with some bucolic scenery along the Clarence and Richmond rivers.

These were also the stretches as yet unbypassed by the motorway and as such, slow and limited by roadworks.

The level of effort in rebuilding the road for fast travel is most impressive, as visible from the new stretches. Yet it is a pity that the same cannot be said of the railway.

Back when I was at university I would head back from trips to see the family in Central Queensland by catching the bus from Brisbane to Murwillumbah across in NSW, then the XPT train to Sydney. I remember passing Byron Bay and the bar at the station was still loudly alive despite it being the middle of the night.

Sadly, the line now only goes as far as Casino and the derelict Byron Bay yard is now the domain of bin chicken ibis.



A little further up there has been a rail revival with a private solar powered rail motor travelling a couple of kilometres between Byron Bay and a resort, but the fact that there is no rail service from the capitals to this town is testament to a lack of country rail vision on the part of NSW. This hippy backpacker town is one that would surely attract train riders.

The town is crawling with hippies and hipsters, yuppies, and puppies, backpackers and ferals from Australia and beyond. There's a market by the beach where sarong wearing oldies gyrate to young tattooed folk singers and I feel entirely out of place as we lunch on Persian and Mexican wraps.



We intend to continue onwards to the Cape Byron Lighthouse at the Australian mainland's most easterly point, but decide it's too far. Instead we join the beautiful people at the beach.

Watching the pale blue waves crash against the long sandy shore stirs memories. I can imagine walking along here alone on a beach devoid of other visitors.



We are not alone. Just hot.

Heading back to the car we continue our journey to Surfers Paradise, crossing the border into the Queensland.

Our hotel is stylish and modern, far trendier that the motel we left. The Gold Coast is thronging with people. Locals and tourists on hired electric bikes. There is a market along the Esplanade, selling the same old hippy junk as at Byron.


Alex and B have a swim in the crashing ocean while I watch on, nursing my stinging cuts.



When we head out for dinner later the Japanese and Korean restaurants have queues, the Chinese much emptier, but we end up eating western fare while the moon rises above the sea, giving the clouds in front golden outlines.




I'm tired of driving and I look forward to catching the trams that run outside the hotel instead. It's time to relax.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IKEA Museum

We have a packed itinerary today. Flat packed and assembled with an Allen key. There are patches of snow on the ground that weren't there the previous evening. We are a bit sad to leave the Duxiana after the comfy beds and the breakfast of cold cuts, fruits and hot waffles. I tried the Swedish caviar on my boiled egg. It was... Interesting. I was very disappointed to realise that, after talking it up for months, I had forgotten the Disgusting Foods Museum in Malmö yesterday. Too late now. We catch another Oresundstag train, for a bit over an hour. Past yesterday's Lund, past increasingly white fields and towns to Älmhult, home of IKEA. The conductor warns us that the train will split in two so we have to move carriages forward. Unfortunately, there we no spare sets of chairs for all of us. The IKEA Museum showcases the history of the furniture company, along with temporary exhibitions. One of these was "Hacking IKEA," about using IKEA ob...

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site .  I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch.  The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It...