Ballina

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After staying in the sprawling Y.H.A at Coffs with dozens of people , this is as differant as it could get . I arrived here late but still managed to meet the other folks staying here. All 3 of them.

I was in a 4 bed dorm that i only had to share with one chatty old  guy , but he made enough noise for a room full. i'd gone to bed , turned the lights off and he still tried to start a conversation when he came in! I feigned sleep and luckily was really out soon after.

One of the great things about staying in Oz backpackers is that they are used by locals as well as foreigners. It's so easy just to meet people from every country apart from the one you're in! The other benefit is that they are a lot more sociable. I spent a lot of time on my own in Asia , which was fine ,  but haven't spent a day yet here where I've not at least had a chat with locals or travellers.

Ballina is another small town with nice beaches and coastal walks.Other than that it was hard to find reasons to stop , so I booked the bus to take me a little further to Byron Bay.