Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise
The sound of a didgeridoo echoes down the street; a group of bongo players accompany the sunset on the beach. In a nearby pub a guitar band starts to play.
At the palm tree shaded bus stop another coach pulls in; backpacks are pulled off, others are loaded on. Hostel reps crowd around the new arrivals, “do you have somewhere to stay?… yes they’re over there… hey Jim, these two are yours… what about you guys? yes yes, we have a pool”.
Byron Bay; the standard backpacker trail starts in Sydney and the next stop is here, about 12 hours by road up the coast at Australia’s most easterly point; and near the border between NSW and Queensland . Byron Bay is probably best appreciated in contrast with Surfers Paradise and the other Gold Coast resorts to the north, where no-one considered the implications of building skyscrapers behind an East facing coast (much of the pristine beach falls into shadow in the late afternoon sun). Still; the Gold Coast could be described as the ‘Costa Del Oz’ – it’s as much about nightlife as it is about sand and sea.
