OzExperience, New South Wales (north of Sydney)

OzExperience, New South Wales (north of Sydney)

On Saturday 9th of May, at 6:30am we left Sydney on the OzExperience bus. Luckily we had checked in at another hostel which was walking distance from the pick up location. Our first stop would be at a surfcamp, an hour away from Coffs Harbour. Coffs harbour was optional stop which we didn’t choose for. The surfcamp stop however, was a compulsory stop which could not be avoided. I think wouldn’t be a compulsory stop, a lot of people would not choose to stay there, as the accommodation was not great and quite overprized. The rooms where actually containers that used to be used for freight on ships. We booked for a private double, so we got an ensuite dorm room to our own. That was okay, except for the urine smell in the room. I think one of the previous guests must have pee on one of the bunk beds. Perhaps a weak blather? That was disgusting. This was definitely one of these accommodations ranked: ‘Happy-that-it-is-morning-to-get-out-of-bed”. Our stay included dinner and breakfast the next day as well, which was okay but surely not great. The only nice thing of the stay there was the surf lesson that we got. The beach was perfect for people who had never surfed before, making it a great first time experience. Both Marilou and I really enjoyed this a lot. I definitely would like to take some more lessons in the future to improve my skills. Before I do that, I’ll make sure to be in good physical shape though. I never knew that surfing demanded so much of your muscles.

The next day all my muscles were aching; even those I didn’t know existed. :-( Around lunch time our surfcamp experience ended when we left for Byron Bay. We heard a lot of good things about Byron Bay from other travellers in NZ who had been in Oz before. So we had some expectations. Our bus driver was kind enough to recommend us a hostel, which according to him had been voted best hostel in all Australia 2 years in a row. What he forgot to mention to us was by which standards. Based on this recommendation we checked in at the ‘Art Factory’ in Byron Bay. This hostel was very alternative place and if I’m not mistaken it’s owned by some hippies from the neighbourhood. The ‘room’ they checked us in was the so-called ‘Island retreat’ which was one these sturdy army tents near a lake, which could just fit a double bed. Our door was a zipper ad the door lock was a padlock. And to make the nature experience complete, they were water dragons swimming in the lake and bush turkeys sitting on the sundeck. So, this was definitely not the Hyatt hotel in Byron Bay that we had checked into! It couldn’t have been worse though, as one of the dorm rooms was an old school bus and another was a big tent, called the ‘space room’. I will spare you the details on Marilou’s face expression when she saw all this, but those of you who know her well, will get the picture.

Byron Bay itself was not a real big place. The main street was filled with tourist every day and it looked like the majority of the people working there were backpackers staying for a while there. The beach was nice, but the waves were different compared with the ones at the surfcamp. I hired a surfboard for a couple of hours to work on my surfing skills, but unfortunately I can’t say my surfing was a success that day. I definitely need to take some more lessons. At night, it was cosy place to have some drinks. Well, you probably wouldn’t expect different with all the tourists there. Our first night there, we had a beer at Paul Hogan’s (Crocodile Dundee) bar. Now, I’m not sure if he still owns the place as we were told he had some issues with the tax authorities. We couldn’t have done a daytrip to Nimbin, which is a town near Byron Bay where a lot hippie’s moved to in the 70’s. It’s also called the Amsterdam of Australia. But coming from Amsterdam, and not being interested in getting stoned, we passed for this trip. It was funny to see when the Nimbin bus dropped people back from the tour at night. Everybody would be sitting real tight and no one would talk or move due to all the ‘special muffins’ they had in Nimbin. Hehehehe. We spent there 2 nights in Byron Bay which was more than enough. Especially as the first night we couldn’t sleep as it rained real hard. This we could know as we were sleeping in a tent! So we were happy to move on to our next destination, crossing the State border to Surfers Paradise.