#headingoutwest

After a week in Sydney in the cheapest hostel I could get and a few nights partying with my roommates. I made my way up North with the hop on hop off bus (which wasn’t the best idea but more about it later). My first destination- Newcastle. I stayed 2 nights there and I probably could have stayed longer. I had a hostel in the east of the city next to the coast. Not that big but a lot to see anyway. It’s a harbour city and the receptionist of my hostel told me that it even has the biggest harbour of hole Australia. But the city doesn’t just impress with the port. They have nice beaches and a half island called Nobbys which are beautiful. You can have a nice view over it from a fort (Fort Scratchley) which is next to the beach. If you want to relax or just do some lengths you can go to the Ocean Baths and if you’re keen to do a bit of walking you should do the Memorial Walk along the coast. It is really cool and I would recommend doing it at midday/ afternoon. So, you can extend the walk to the Obelisk which is the highest point in the city and not too far away. It’s definitely worth to watch the sunset from there. I did watch it even twice though. On my first day, I did all the stuff around and on the second one I went to a kind of wild life park for free with two girls out of my room. The highlight was the koala feeding. They’re so cute.

From there I went on to Coffs Harbour. A nice city and I had a decent hostel (Aussietel), again for two nights. I spend my first day with having a look around the beaches with the jetty and the half island called Motton Bird Island. You have a nice look over the city and along the beaches from there and especially the sunset there is great. Another thing I did was walking around the botanical garden. It’s okay but not much different to others. The second day I met the two girls from Newcastle again and hired a car with them in my hostel. Actually, it’s a bit problematic to hire one as a 20 years old but luckily both the girls are 25 already so that wasn’t an issue then anymore. We had a daytrip to the Dorrigo National Park-which is a part of a world heritage area. The walk there was amazing there was even a waterfall with access from behind on our way. After our walk, we drove on to Urunga did a little boardwalk at the sea and then we enjoyed the sunset at Emerald Beach- a spot with heaps of kangaroos at the ocean. A perfect finish of the day even after one the girls got a $250 speeding ticket for being 15 km/h too fast. Compared to Germany it’s just ways too expensive. We decided to just forget about it. I left the next day but in the evening. So I still had time to lend a surfboard for free at my hostel. It turned out to be freaking hard without help and not a single surf class before.

My next stop was Yamba- a lovely small town. Unfortunately, I just stayed one day. I mean it was enough to have a look around and my first surf lesson in Australia. Actually, the first lesson helps quite a lot already. I would say that I got like every third wave in the end. Not always like surfing it to the end but at least standing on the board for a bit. It is good fun to surf. I think that I might do it again but it’s not one of my favourite sports.

After Yamba I made my way to Byron Bay. Probably one of the most famous surfing spots on the whole east coast. I stayed there again for two nights but I decided to not surf there. It’s so bloody full that I was afraid to hit someone with my board :D I had a look around before I checked in at the beach and been up to the lighthouse. So pretty much everything I did was chilling that day because there isn’t that much more to do that is for free. Byron Bay is a lot about partying what I didn’t really want. The other day I went to a tea tree lake where I was supposed to be able to swim but when I arrived after a 4 km walk I had to see that I couldn’t swim there. So I went back to the hostel relaxed a bit and have been up at the lighthouse again for the sunset. I couldn’t really enjoy my stay there.

So I arrived in Surfers Paradise the day after. It’s famous for the skyscrapers along the beach and the other thing what it’s famous for is the party scene. I probably stayed in the hostel that was the best for partying but didn’t really work out with my plans. It ended up with sleeping in a 20 bed dorm and people screaming and making party in my room until 3 o’clock and me having 3 hours of sleep that night. So how you can imagine I didn’t like my stay there at all but it was an experience anyway.