I am slowly but surely making my way up the East Coast. I have taken about 2 weeks to get to the mythical backpacker town of Byron Bay (more to come on that at a later date). A lot of people will leave Sydney and go straight to Byron or have one stop enroute. I have enjoyed not being tied to a schedule. I am travelling with Greyhound and have a pass that takes me to Cairns. I can get off at any stops on the way and it is a good way to meet other backpackers. Most people on the East Coast will stick to the towns that Greyhound drops them off in. I've gone to a little bit more effort and got local buses and hostels to come and pick me up to take me to some places a bit off the typical trip. I've only had one problem to date with Greyhound. To guarantee a seat on a particular service you have to call 24 hours beforehand, otherwise if there is space on the coach you can get on. I arrived at Newcastle to catch the coach to Port Macquarie and the Greyhound driver was yelling at a group of 4 guys and a girl for not pre-booking their trip. He was behaving completely irrationally and phoned the Greyhound centre where they told him to let us on the coach. After this initial reaction he was then sweet as pie with us. On my next trip from Port Macquarie to Urunga he was the driver again and remembered me. I had pre-booked this time and he was happy as larry, chatting away with everyone and cracking jokes.
My first stop from Sydney was Port Stephens. Port Stephens isn't actually a place but is a name for the body of the water. It took me a while to discover this as I couldn't find Port Stephens in the guide book. I stayed at the Samurai Beach Backpackers, which isn't actually near a beach but is in the middle of a forest. It is a very nice hostel with cabins amongst the forest and an outdoor kitchen in the middle. The staff were really helpful and friendly. I hired bikes with a group of Swiss guys and cycled around the area. We went on a dolphin watching tour for only $15. My only complaint with the hostel was that when we decided to hire the bikes the hostel staff encouraged us to hire the new $15 for the day bikes. However, I found with mine that the saddle kept coming loose and moving around so you couldn't sit on it properly and one of the peddles broke off. When we got back to the hostel the staff said that they had had nothing but problems with the new bikes and that they were poorly made, which begs the question why they encouraged us to hire them in the first place.
From Port Stephens I headed on to Port Macquarie. I stayed in Oozie Poozie backpackers, possibly the nicest hostel I have stayed in on my travels. It is about a 5 minute walk out of town, the facilities are good and clean though not brand new, and the staff are good but not particularly friendly. However, what set it apart for me was that it was quite a small hostel with a common area in the middle. It made it very easy to meet people and because there weren't many people staying there you got to know everyone really quickly. Port Macquarie is on the coast with a river running through it. There are several beaches stretching down the coast and the town centre has had a bit of money spent on it. There are a couple of tourist attractions with a Koala Hospital and a coastal rainforest centre. They also have a reserve of local flora and fauna which you can wander through with a colony of Flying Foxes. There was a German guy staying at the hostel, who on his first day in Port Macquarie decided to do some cliff diving. He saw some Australian guys and climbed up, without checking the water below, he jumped off and the next thing he remembered was waking up on the beach with paramedics around him. He thought he was back in Germany. He even got a mention in the local paper.
After Port Macquarie I headed up to Bellingen in the hills near the Dorrigo National Park Rainforest. It is a very beautiful area. The hostel is considered to be the 'most pleasant YHA in Australia' (Rough Guide). From the veranda you have views stretching across the valley to rainforest covered hills in the distance. Bellingen is a pretty little place with historic buildings preserved. I spent a couple of days there relaxing and had a dorm room to myself. On my last day I went hiking up in the Dorrigo Rainforest for the day. It is a really pretty area and woth a stop-over if you have the time.
My next stop was Coffs Harbour. I stayed in the Aussitel backpackers. The hostel feels a bit dated and in need of repair but the facilities are clean. The staff were friendly and organised things for people to do. There were a nice crowd of people there so I ended up staying for a few days. It is a bit of a party hostel, especially on 'Punch night'. Punch night involves drinking Goon laced with some spirit, usually vodka. Goon is cheap boxed wine that seems to be as much part of the backpacker East Coast experience as the beaches. Coffs is strange in that there are two town centres. One is next to the beach and the other is further inland. There is a coastal estuary lined with Mango trees leading to the botanical gardens. I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach and swimming off of Jetty beach.
From Coffs Harbour I went to Lennox Heads a small town on the beach about half an hour south of Byron Bay. It is a very pretty little place with a seven mile beach stretching into the distance. I stayed in the YHA in town which is a small hostel with a nice atmosphere. Close to the hostel is a lake stained by tea tree leaves. I had a swim in it and while refreshing I can't say it had any medicinal effect.
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