Byron Bay December 2000/January 2001

Next stop was Byron Bay, which is popular with both Australian families and ferals. Ferals are modern day hippies. They've opted out of almost all of mainstream society except the social security payments. Odd that.

It was pouring with rain as the Countrylink train pulled into the station over an hour late. Fortunately we had arranged to be picked up, so didn't get too wet. Getting accommodation in Byron Bay is always difficult during the school holidays and it's especially bad at New Year and Easter. I booked a B&B and the price was an exorbitant $155 a night for a double room.

The town was really busy, too busy really. There are three pubs in town and they all had bands on most nights. Finding a seat was pretty difficult and even finding a spare patch on the ground was hard at the Beach Hotel. The same was true when looking for somewhere to eat. We ate a couple of times at the Earth and Sea Pizza place, and even managed to get a table there on New Year's eve with only half an hour wait. Even the fish and chip shops were telling you to come back in 25 minutes to pick up your food. It was certainly a big contrast to sleepy Coffs Harbour.

We met up with some friends and they had a car, so one day we decided to go out to Minilya Falls. We drove up into the national park, parked up and started on the walking track through the forest. It claimed that the falls were only 2km, but it seemed a very long 2km. The track was also quite muddy and quite easy to lose at one point where it looked as if there had been a recent rock fall.

The actual falls were a huge disappointment. It's a big drop, but there was very little water coming over them. I was quite surprised considering how much rain there had been only a few days before. I guess it must drain away very quickly. The trip did have one saving grace though. One the way back we saw a koala, with baby, clinging to a tree right next to the track. As you would expect, no-one had remembered their camera.

I decided to scuba dive with Sundive, because I'd dived with them before and found them to be alright. I only recognised one member of staff from my previous visit two years ago, but they were competent. They had quite a lot of people acting as dive guides, presumably doing their DM course. I know they were trying to be helpful, but when your kit has been siting, ready in the corner for the last 15 minutes, it does get a bit annoying when the fourth person asks you if you've got everything.

The main dive site is the Julian Rocks marine reserve, which is only 10 minutes away. So both dive operators use RIBs to get out there. They load the kit onto the RIB at the shop and then drive out to the boat ramp to launch it. As luck would have it, the boat ramp is right next to a surf break, so they have to be pretty careful when launching because some of the idiot surfers completely ignored the warning horns.

Diving is done in proper buddy pairs. A couple of guides were available, but they made it quite clear in the brief that, if you lost your guide, you were to continue the dive with your buddy, which is how I think it should be. They were also perfectly reasonable on dive time and let you choose how long you wanted. Once you'd agreed they expected you to stick to it for safety reasons.

For our first dive we entered the water at the spot called the Nursery and headed out towards the Cod Hole, which is a cave swim-through in about 20m. I saw a very strange looking shark at the beginning, which I'd never seen before. Everyone else missed it so I'm not sure what it was. I think it may have been what they call a Gummy shark. There were wobbegong sharks resting in the sand gulleys on the way to the Cod Hole. As we got there four big jewfish swam out. Inside the swim-through there were loads of bullseyes. Outside was a particularly irate grey damselfish, which decided it objected to me placing my hand on the rock there and decided to try and bite my elbow. Other highlights of the dived included a moray eel and an octopus. Our dive time was 47 minutes and our maximum depth was 20m. Water temperature was 22°C.

On the second dive we did a spot called the Needles. There were loads of wobbegongs and about half a dozen stingrays. There were also a couple of turtles, including one that was about 5 feet long and was asleep in an overhang. The table coral was pretty good too, especially considering how far south we were. The depth was 11m and our dive time was a respectable 56 minutes.

On the second day's diving, I was buddied with a friend from home who I'd dived with quite a few times. When the boat went out to Julian Rocks, there were already another 4 boats there, so the guy asked us if we wanted to go somewhere else. Everyone agreed, so we headed a bit further out to a site called Mackerel Boulder.

None of the dive guides had done the site before, so they strongly suggested my friend and I went in on our own. We happily agreed and jumped in first. I explained to them that I might use my delayed SMB, though they said there was no need.

The top of the rock was in about 16m. The sea bed was 24m. It was a nice dive with some pretty sponges and anemones on the rocks. We also say a moray, the obligatory wobbies and a big, black grouper. With a couple of minutes no deco left, my friend and I sent up the DSMB and ascended, with a safety stop on the way. As I suspected we were the first in and the last out, which is how I like it. So when we got to the surface they were nearby and waiting for us, which is why I used the DSMB in the first place. Our total dive time was 45 minutes.

Our final dive was back at the Nursery and Cod hole. This time we went on our own, because I was confident I could find the Cod Hole without a guide. We got there before everyone else, so this time there were no less than 10 jewfish in the hole. This time there were several schools of fish, including Spanish flag, as well as wobbies, a turtle and a big, black bullray.

The diving in Byron was as great as ever. On reflection I wouldn't go there at New Year again though. It's too busy and too expensive. A couple of weeks either side of the main holiday period would be a much better idea.

Our next stop was Brisbane. The train line north from Byron terminates at a place called Murwillumbah, which is near the state border. You have to get a bus to Brisbane because it's in Queensland, where they use narrow gauge track. Rail funding is organised on a state level, which also has something to do with it. Countrylink's train was late again. This time it was more than an hour and a quarter late. Fortunately there is always the Railway Hotel to wait in next to the station.

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