Day 9 - Wedneday 11th February

Day 9 - Wednesday 11th February

I was on the road out of Evans Head, certainly not the most exciting of places, just after 7am. The route soon rejoined the Pacific Highway where I saw this alliterative road sign:

The road is narrow and quite busy in the section leading up to Ballina (40km) - but the hard shoulder felt reasonably safe and the going remained very flat and easy. It was very humid though, rain seemed imminent and I wasn't at all confident of reaching Byron Bay, the day's destination, without getting soaked.

I arrived in Ballina, a pleasant enough town, at around 9am and after a quick photo stop at the "Big Prawn", I found an internet cafe where I enjoyed a good breakfast while checking the latest emails.

The rest of the journey, along the coast road via Lennox Head, was somewhat more undulating and I managed to reach the maximum speed of the trip so far (61.8km/hr - yaaay!) on a particularly long straight downhill. Managed to arrive safely in Byron Bay just before midday and checked into the Dolphin Shore Motel (below).

Then took a ride into the centre of town - it was brightening up now and the beach was getting busy:

Enjoyed a glass of the local beer, Stone Wood, at the Great Northern Hotel, a fine old traditional hotel on the main street (below)

I then took a ride out to the Lighthouse, 3km away, via a very scenic walkway around Watego Beach -

The Cape Byron Lighthouse, situated on the easternmost point of mainland Australia, was built in 1901. Apparently it's the brightest light in the country!

You get a terrific view from the lighthouse, this is looking south along Tallow Beach:

The ride up to the Lighthouse was quite hilly so after this I spent the rest of the day taking it easy. Byron Bay's a fun place, loads of good restaurants and bars, and a very relaxed atmosphere. Being a counter-cultural sort of place, cycling seems quite popular here, the place is full of inexperienced cyclists wobbling around on hire bikes. I still haven't met any cycle tourists though, after 9 days on the road.

Distance covered today - 90.5kms. Total for the trip - 969kms.