Let’s walk to the Lighthouse

We awake to a lovely day. It's quite easy to walk to the beach from our camp and, early in the morning, we dip down onto the sand, that is nice and firm to walk on. The beach is pretty busy with surfers of all ages, enjoying the modest waves that must suit the sport. We cut up a slipway to a cafe for a couple of flat whites, before setting off on the 1.4km walk to Cape Byron Lighthouse, that was built in 1901. The lighthouse stands at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland and we thought it would be good to have visited on this trip the most southernly and most easterly points of this great island. The walk combines a stroll along the coastline alongside Wategos Beach, before dipping briefly through a rain forest, then up steep steps to a fantastic view of the sea, where Diane spots some dolphins. Finally we reach the lighthouse and, again, great views of the bay. Unfortunately, there is no-one available to take us up to the top of the lighthouse, so we head back and, blaming the warm sun coupled with the excursion of the walk, decide to have a drink at Rae's Hotel, Restaurant and Spa - I had no idea my sister (Rae) has a secret business down under, but I guess neither does she! They do oysters, so we have a half dozen with a side of fries. The local beer also goes down well, as we sit in the sun underneath a parasol overlooking the beach - can it get any better? Well, no, as all of a sudden the wind gets up and the rain crashes down, monsoon version. We are stranded under our parasol - until the waiter appears, umbrellas in hand, and rescues us, delivering us to the hotel's cave like bar. All we can do is have a couple of glasses of wine until the rain subsides - we think it has now got better again.

With the sun appearing again, we walk back, along the beach, into the town itself. Just off the beach, we spot what looks a lovely bar cum restaurant called Fresh Byron and plonk ourselves down in the chairs outside on the pavement and order a couple of glasses of cold white wine. Whilst we were sipping the wine and waiting for the sun to set, we saw a guy setting up his musical gear a couple of yards away on the pavement outside the bar. Was it the guy from the previous evening? He starts to sing......nope, wasn't him, but this guy is so much better. In fact, he played a 90 minute set and was brilliant. We blame him for ordering more wine and some food that we had not anticipated having when we originally sat down. The singer was Jack Botts, he was in his 20's and just plays at places along the East coast to make a living. He had just released his first CD of his own songs, so we thought we would support him by buying it. Having a son hoping to make it in the music industry, we know how difficult it is. We wished Jack all the best for the future and retired to our motorhome, some 12 hours after leaving it in the morning; what a great day!