We left Sydney and headed north to Byron Bay on the overnight Greyhound coach. The journey was long but what better way to reward yourself after a long, tiring journey than an afternoon chilling out on the beach. Byron Bay is an incredibly chilled out place and I really enjoyed my time there.
Diving Julian Rocks Nature Reserve
I went diving with Byron Bay Dive Centre to Julian Rocks Nature Reserve. I arrive at the dive centre around 7:45am for an 8am starts (I always prefer to be there early). After signing some paperwork, they got out dive kit for me to use. Very weird to not set my kit up but I guessed this was to speed up the process and maximise our time at the dive site. After getting into my wetsuit and putting my stuff in a locker, I was called over to double check my scuba gear was in working order before it was put on the boat for transporting. We then had a dive briefing. When everyone was ready, we jumped in the dive centre’s van to the boat launch site. The boat launched and we all jumped in, dodging surfers out into the bay. We were greeted by a few dolphins before we finally got out to the dive site, Julian Rocks.
Rolling backwards into the water from the boat, the dive began! We descended down the mooring line and when I got to the seabed, immediately I saw my first wobbegong. Wobbegongs were literally everywhere I looked. We also saw 2 turtles while diving (a 3rd on the surface after the dive). We could even hear the migrating whales singing in the distance. While the visibility wasn’t great and the current was quite strong, it was a fun dive.
Huge shoutout to the everyone at Byron Bay Dive Centre. Thanks for an awesome dive!
Edit 4th March 2024 - Sadly Byron Bay Dive Centre closed in February 2023. The only dive centre operating in Byron Bay is Sundive.
Hike to Cape Byron Lighthouse and the most Eastern point of Australia
The hike to Cape Byron Lighthouse begins on flat ground before getting pretty steep with lots of steps. Just as we were getting to the lookout at the most eastern point of Australia, I saw a whale breach in the distance. We rushed (as best we could after climbing 20 flights of stairs, no I’m not joking, my Fitbit told me so) to the lookout point to look for whales. We were absolutely rewarded 1million%. Whale after whale swam passed us, we even saw a number of them breaching in the distance. It’s whale migration season when the humpbacks leave the cold Antarctic waters for the warm waters of Northern Queensland. We also were rewarded with vast Pacific Ocean views. People were gravitating towards us as we excitedly point out the whales. We must have been at the point for over an hour just watching and waiting for the next whale to swim passed.
We eventually decided we need to move on and actually walk to the lighthouse. We had lunch at the lighthouse café before starting our walk back to the beach near the hostel. Again we were rewarded with fantastic Pacific views, we spent a few minutes watching the surfers below and spotted some dolphins surfing too!
The walk back is equally steep with again, lots of steps. It’s around 7.5km return (if you start at the Cape Byron YHA/Library area) and it takes around 3 hours if you don’t stop off for photos or whale watching. I did pause my Fitbit when we stopped at the lookout point and had lunch, so I guess all in all, we took around 5 hours. When we got back to the beach, there were 3 whales close to shore, one of which breached and tail slapped until it swam away. What an awesome day!
Unfortunately we were meant to go kayaking with dolphins but it was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas but this just gives me an excuse to go back to Byron Bay. We also got to experience the Byron Bay markets which were so cool, we could have spent a lot of money there. I will definitely go back to Byron Bay.
Thanks for reading!
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