Driver Reviver & Byron Bay

About a couple of years ago, a friend and former work colleague was going out with a girl called Heidi from near Byron Bay, Australia. She was seeing my photo's of castles and the like on Facebook and wanted to meet up when she visited the UK. A few weeks before she was due in the UK, she was dumped and heartbroken. We kept in touch and vowed we'd meet one day.

And so it was that we headed to Byron Bay with the main aim to see Heidi and this famous and most south easterly point of Australia. It's a former Whaling Station (1954-62) and now famous as a backpackers destination and surfing town.

On the 1.5 hour drive we stopped at a Driver Reviver station at Brunswick. They're famous in Australia. They are voluntary operated by The Lions Club and offer free coffee to revive tired drivers in the hope it'll save them from a collison, injury or even save lives. They're dotted about all over the place and operate at busy times - I believe Australia doesn't have motorway services like the UK. Anyway, the two volunteers we met were delightful and we chatted for ages. Super tea, coffee and biscuits and I was only too happy to leave a donation.

We met up with Heidi and her boyfriend, Ewan (from Scotland but lives and works in Oz). He's a lovely chap. We had a few cold drinks in a bar on Byron Beach which was extremly busy, then walked up to the Bryon Bay Lighthouse where the group photo was taken and I took the lighthouse photograph.

Afterwards we went for a swim on the surf to cool down before saying our goodbyes as it was late afternoon and we had the drive back. I was tired so we stopped off at The Driver Reviver for a relaxing break. I love them! Why can't the UK have such a wonderful thing?