Last month my time in Australia ended with a camping road trip in NSW, flying from Sydney to Byron Bay, then driving back stopping off at multiple destinations to break up the days. Despite coming back with multiple injuries - from insect bites to falling down a bit of a cliff, I had the best time ever and saw the most magnificent pulchritudinous views…
… & can only recommend buying insect repellent and being more cautious (not cocky) when climbing cliffs!
ps
Doing everything I can to procrastinate or escape from any form of revision, the past two weeks I have been experimenting with lightroom presets and finally feel like my content is somewhat finally where I want it to be.
WANGANUI
After picking up our Mitsubishi Outlander from Byron Bay airport, we began our journey to Wanganui. Our Outlander was hired from Europcar and primarily not wanting a SUV in the first place and wanting to save money, we were eager just use a small car. However we weren’t left with much other option as we were hiring a car over easter weekend which meant all small vechiles were fully booked. The Outlander however, was everything we could of every dreamed of, and in reality we wouldn’t of managed the trip without a 4x4 due to all the crazy waterfall locations.
Making a stop at a cheap outdoors shop along the way, we purchased our tent, camping chairs, sleeping accessories and any other camping equipment we would need for our road trip. When we arrived at Wanganui we were taken back by how jungle-esque our surroundings were, in pure shock at the beauty of nature. As well as being in awe of our first destination, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous at how we were literally in the middle of nowhere, and driving back to our camp at night could somewhat feel like the start of a horror film.
BYRON BAY - THE PASS
Waking up at 4am to see sunrise? I don’t think our road trip actually got any wilder that this, and I was completely fine with it. Originally heading towards Byron’s lighthouse to watch sunrise - but not anticipating how many people would already be at the top before us, despite us waking up super earrrrly, we then headed down the mountain to find The Pass. Besides the early morning surfers, there were pretty much no other people up on the viewing point which overlooked the beach and the edge of the cliffs.
After waking up super early to see sunrise at The Pass, we worked up quite the appetite and took a trip to Three Blue Ducks and had the most unreal, typical Ozzy vegetarian food. All food is freshly grown on site, with each dish produced with lots of natural flavours, and the aesthetic of the actual restaurant is pretty cool!
The following day we made our descent back towards Sydney, leaving at 3am to get to Emerald Beach for sunrise. Despite waking up early at 4/5am each morning, I found having one less extra hour of sleep harder than ever and felt super dizzy driving on a empty dark motorway. Not wanting to cause a crash, I pulled over and slept for a bit then carried on the journey. After sleeping on the beach for a bit, and not seeing one kangaroo (despite the beach being famous for the large masses of Roo's) we headed on to our next destination where we would set up camp. HAT HEAD NATIONAL PARK
Hat Head was the first place we paid to stay in a proper tourist camp site at around $30 each. I won’t lie, after a week spent showering using the cold showers at the beach, finally having access to a warm shower was more than heavenly. But it wasn’t the warm showers which made me fall in love with Hat Head National Park.
The trip as a whole had been full of unexpected surprises, but I think Hat Head was the most surprising out of all of them. This is purely because of the magical beach we managed to stumble upon. With no more than 7 people among the white sand beach, it was the tranquility and sheer beauty of our surroundings which made me fall in love with Hat Head so much. It was almost as if someone planted a jungle on a island from the Maldives and added some crazy cool rock pools to where the cliffs meet water. The beach itself is really hidden, with locals constantly removing signs on how to get the beach to stop it being ruined from tourism which I think is completely fair (despite being a tourist).
SEAL ROCKS
Our trip slowly came to a end as our last morning on the road was spent stopping at Seal Rocks before getting back to Sydney that afternoon. Soaking up our last bit of beach vibin sun, we spent the morning lounging around on the beach and going for a dip -it was the perfect way to end the last day of our camping road trip, full of waterfalls, jolly times and a few injuries along the way.
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