byron day 2

Read 'Byron Day 1' here.

Natalie and I slept in on Sunday morning. By the time we dragged our lazy selves out of bed, showered and got changed, the sun was directly overhead and we were starving. We decided on brunch at a funky looking cafe where we saw many gorgeous people hanging out at the day before, hoping to get some eye candy. We spent an hour there and found everything about the place disappointing - nil eye candy, nil service, bad coffee (the chai latte I had was scaldingly hot and way way way too sweet), burnt pancakes - except for the very pretty ceiling fans we couldn't stop looking at.


We were secreting coveting one of these pretty black swirling things - the only saving grace of the cafe that was so lacking in every other aspect that we didn't bother taking any note on what it was called.

It was to be a seriously stressful day of doing absolutely nothing. We took a whole stack of magazines, books and newspapers to the Beer Garden at Beach Hotel overlooking Main Beach and hovered around for a long while on bar stools in the sun waiting for the more comfy chairs with back and arm rests in the shade to become available. The moment we secured one of these corners, we stayed glued to the semi-reclined deck chairs for four hours studying every single article in the mags and dissecting every piece of news in the papers while occasionally sipping our cappuccino and chai latte.

In the evening, we took a long long long long walk on the Cape Byron Walking Track on an impulse. 7km of just walking in near complete silence as we tuned our senses to Mother Nature while weaving through the dense coastal rainforest.


We were glad no suspicious creepy-crawlies got in our way during the trek.

As we approached Cape Byron Lighthouse, the sun did its steady descent behind us, threatening to disappear into the ocean any time. Several times, we stopped and turned to gasp at the glorious colours before trudging on in the opposite direction, determined to get to the most easterly point on the Australian mainland to recce the spot for our grand wake-at-4am-to-catch-the-magnificent-sunrise plan the next day.


Natalie catching her breath before going up yet another flight of steps along the track. It is also possible that she could be waiting for the slowcoach me to catch up with her.


A one-minute stop to catch our breaths became a five-minute long gasp at the colours created by the setting sun.



Everything was shrouded in hues of pink for a brief moment. Beautiful.


The sun is setting just behind the coastal cliff on the left, hence the golden rays surrounding it.

We had enough of bashing through the woods on our way to the eastermost point and took the beach route back to Main Beach instead. Same stunning views, different perspectives.


The light was gone in a fleeting moment of seconds. Beauty is shortlived.


I had wanted to capture the boy skipping his way down those steps, but that proved to be mission impossible without a tripod in such near zero light conditions.

We were two ravenous souls after the walk. Dinner was a repeat of the previous night: a bottle of wine and seafood paella for two in the oversized couches on the verandah at the Balcony Bar and Restaurant - just because we can. We made friends with two young ladies from the UK who sat next to us and had a rather nice girlie session of munching, drinking and yakking.