Byron Bay is not named after the lordly poet as it turns out, but after his grand-pappy John Byron. He was a naval officer and navigator, and Cook named Cape Byron after him. Also, in 1765, while circumnavigating the globe, and on behalf of Britain, John Byron took possession of the Falkland Islands on the grounds of prior discovery. An interesting but irrelevant tangent. Lets get back to Australia.
Before being given a european name, this lovely spot did of course have an aboriginal name - Cavvanbah, or 'meeting place' - and in many ways it still is one.
It's must-do for tourists, which, begrudgingly, I suppose I am. Busy little place, and for good reason.
Here is the sign that greets you on the way into town. And yes, it is a notoriously 'hippy-fied' place. No doubt it had its day, but now it's rather exclusive and well-to-do. Average property prices come in at $932,000, which at the current exchange rate is somewhere around the £450,000 mark. Ouch. Think Wells-next-the-Sea as a good comparison - it has a thriving tourist industry, but it's all quite fancy-pants and nice. And I'll give it to them, the place does have a very pleasant vibe.
Byron Beach, on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Looks good don't it?
The town behind is a bustling cluster of streets, lots of shops, bars and cafes - the usual thing you'd expect from a tourist/beach hotspot. But it's all on a very personable scale. I'm not quite on my toes with this blogging lark and failed to take any pictures of the shops and restaurants - it just doesn't occur to me as a great photo opportunity, but I reckon you'll manage.
Anyway, just in case you were wondering where all the hippies had gone, there was this too...
I suppose there was a larger than average quota of dreads, and the odd smattering of guitar and bongo playing, but not so much that it felt like a year round festival. Oh, and there was a little parade of chanting orange people at one point. It was just a gentle background hippy hum, which worked for me. Mainly it was young backpacker types, getting some sun and surf and maybe a little of something else, you can draw your own conclusions...but that guy there without a shirt? He was REALLY enjoying the kids fire show.
Otherwise it is clearly now a very popular destination for ordinary folk and families, all of who are just looking for a nice relaxed time at the seaside.
The Cape of Byron is the most easterly point on mainland Oz. Sometime around the very early 1900s they put a lighthouse on it.
You can walk right down to the tip of the point. We didn't, but the view from the lighthouse was great.
I think that this is sort of what is called a 'point break'. You can clearly see, to the left (or north) of the point, nice rolling waves. To the right it's all churning, choppy froth. Nelson said you can often see what he called 'big fish' on the south side. And in fact there have been a couple of recent shark attacks, a bit further south, one of them sadly fatal. It's a sobering thought.
I did go in the water at Byron, and the waves don't look all that big in my picture, but getting past them was never going to happen for me. I had to be content with trying not to get knocked over, and pretending to be body-surfing when I did, along with the little kids. I'm happy with that, there are definitely no sharks that close to shore.
