Murwillumbah

Murwillumbah (pronounced exactly how it is spelled Mur-will-um-bah) is a place that I hadn't really heard of until I reached Byron Bay, much of this is due to its intimidating spelling. It is a small river town located a little inland, halfway between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast. Oddly enough, despite its scant 7,000 population, it draws a decent amount of travelers. This is due to two things, the nearby Mt. Warning and the YHA in town.

I came here because I needed to kill some time until the wet season ends up North. While hiking to the lighthouse in Byron Bay, I saw a mountain in the distance. As happens whenever I see something towering about everything, a deep gravely voice, quite reminiscent of Clint Eastwood plays in my head, "I must climb that." I did a little research, consulted my travel guide and found that there was a YHA with shuttles to the mountain in Murwahambuma, Muywillhumeraa...Murwhiminahbra...

"Murwillumbah?" The transit station woman asked.

"Yeah, that one!"

The next morning, I arrived in the quaint town.

"How much is the shuttle to the mountain?" I asked the hostel owner, a tiny unimposing man with thinning hair.

"It is free, but you have to stay here three nights."

Three nights in this little town? I just wanted to climb the damned mountain and leave.

"What is there to do here in Mul...Millerwil...Murhum..."

"Mur-will-um-bah. You'll fill your days fine. I have a comprehensive book of things to do inside."

Three days in Murwillumbah huh? This turned out to be a happy accident, because Murwillumbah has been one of the highlights of my trip. This is all due to the wonderful owner of the hostel, Tassie. He has been running this little hostel for past 28 years, yet he still has passion for his job. Most hostels provide a bed, kitchen, and common areas for travelers to meet. Tassie provided everything a person would need to enjoy themselves in such a small town: free bike rentals, canoe rentals (actually, they were sea kayaks), free trips to the mountain, and innertubes to float in the river. The greatest of his amenities was the free ice cream at 9PM everyday. Ice cream is not really a practical thing for a freezer deprived backpacker to purchase. On top of that general delight of ice cream, this gave a chance for everyone in the hostel to meet.

The place had a diverse crowd. There a 50/50 split between older and younger travelers. The off-the-beaten-track location weeded out many of the annoying party, surfer crowds that dominate the road, so everyone was laid-back, intelligent, and great conversationalists. Of course, Tassie was there most of the time, joining us in our conversations over red wine. Dad, you would have loved this place.

The town itself was quite nice as well. Like most non-tourist country towns, there was not much to see. Their big "tourist" draw is their public toilets. At one time, young hooligans started littering the city random graffiti. To combat this, the city struck back with a very novel approach, encouragement. Graffiti artists were commissioned to cover various buildings, mostly public toilets, with "tasteful" graffiti. They were reimbursed for the price of the paint and were given a creative outlet for their typically antisocial behavior. The graffiti is nothing special, no budding Banksy's, but it is worth a look. The people are friendly, quite normal rural dwellers, but there is definitely a minor hippie undercurrent. Walking around the town proved a pleasant activity.

Everyday, Tassie lined up various activities for the group. He offered rides to the nearby art gallery (which was closed the one day we had time to visit). On Wednesday night, he took us all to Coolangatta on the south end of the Gold Coast to see a free local ragtime performance. They played me "St. James' Infirmary" by my request :-D. This was a different and refreshing outing. Of course, his best excursion was Mt. Warning.

Mt. Warning used to be one the biggest volcanoes in the southern hemisphere, but after a large eruption and millions of years of erosion, it is not nearly as tall anymore. Compared to the Rockies, it probably wouldn't even be categorized as a foothill, but it was the tallest mountain for many miles around. Captain Cook named it Mt. Warning because of all the dangerous rocky outcroppings of the nearby coast. The caldera left from the eruption is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Mt. Warning is famous for receiving the first rays of sun on mainland Australia (though Byron Bay likes to argue they are first...the debate continues to this day!) A 3AM, sunrise hike is quite a popular activity, but I chose to pass on this due to the excessive morning clouds this time of year. Most morning, you can't even see the sunrise.

The first couple of days I spend it town were cloudy to even see Mt. Warning at all. We were quite lucky, for the clouds cleared up for the duration of our five hour hike. Tassie had a perfectly timed, prerecorded tour that he played while driving to the base. It was such a clever, yet eccentric idea. He must have done this drive many times to get the timing so right. The view from the top was wonderful. We couldn't quite see the ocean, as many do, but the entirety of the giant caldera was visible. There are few feelings more wonderful than standing on top of a mountain.

I was sad to leave Murwillumbah, especially since I had finally figured our how say it. Rural Australia is a seldom visited side of this country; I find this sad. The hidden communities such as this have proven to be the most rewarding. Maybe if there were more hostel owners like Tassie, more travelers would discover this world.