Love is all around

After a chilly night I was up early for a run along the beach. Stunning (again). I shared the beach with a few dog walkers, some other joggers, swimmers bunch of surfers in various degrees of hippyness. There was an early morning smell of weed, girls in flowing patchwork dresses, dreadlocks, some yoga, a sitar and a naked old lady. I really could have done without the naked old lady. She was just getting changed after a swim and just didn't care one jot who saw her.

We all ventured into town for an hours look around and started in the rainbow shop where there were hand knitted rainbow slippers, head dresses, dream catchers, hemp hats, tie dyed t-shirts and beads galore. Emily did buy some bracelets but drew the line at tie dye. There were plenty of people without shoes, many whiffs of BO, unkempt hair, buskers and dreadlocks but all in all it was quite a pleasant town with a nice feel about it.

Next we ventured up to the headland to walk to the most Easterly point in Australia and to see the Byron Lighthouse. Emily wasn't impressed that we didn't park closer but it wasn't a really long walk. 90 minutes at most although a lot of it was up hills or steps. We climbed up to the fisherman's lookout to admire the view back across Byron Bay and then walked further around to Wategos beach admiring the large houses with infinity pools, amazing decks and even more amazing views. I suspect the prices of these houses are in the millions. As we reached the Eastern most tip of Australia we were greeted by several Humpbacks breaching continuously off the coast and then within a few minutes we had a large pod of maybe 30 dolphins playing in the surf. They were taking it in turns riding the waves into shore. They moved steadily along the coast and you could see the flying fish jumping out of the water ahead of them.

We finally made the Lighthouse much to Emily's delight as she had had enough of walking at this point. I marched ahead to get the car before parking ran out whilst they had an ice cream. (Not fair.)

Next we hit the beach although by now the wind had blown up quite a lot and it was an Easterly blowing right into your face on the beach. There were only really kite boarders in the water until we hardy Brits went in for a dip. It actually wasn't to cold in the water once you got in but it was a bit chilly getting out in the wind.

We finished the night off playing cards and dominoes before actually eating a dominoes (pizza). Oh and I managed to snag some tickets for the Brisbane Lions v Gold Coast Swans on Saturday at the Gabba in Brisbane. Apparently that is Aussie Rules football. Best I learn the rules. All in all not a bad couple of days here. Off again in the morning to Brisbane.