Days 9-11. July 12-14 2026. Broken Head. Whales, warm weather, wandering, wading, wow.

It felt like the holiday had started a few days back when we stayed in Umina beach for a couple of nights instead of travelling every day. Travelling north a few more hours to Sawtell meant we could start to sit outside for a bit and have shorts on. At Broken Head we are really hitting our stride now with a three night stay and warmer weather. We have full scale set up with the awning and mat out, tables and chairs outside, cook top and Thermomix all set up for camping comfort. Sitting outside not only gives the feeling of more space, at night I love looking at the sky looking for shooting stars. Heading down to the dark beach at night revealed a glowing night sky and the regular sweep of a beam of light from Byron Bay lighthouse skimming across the beach.

A wander into Byron Bay was nice, but also reminded us why we like to stay out of the bigger towns. It was very busy, there was nothing we needed to buy and only one record shop. Well, two if you count the Wide Open Road Café with its small selection for sale. We had lunch on the famous beach and went up to the lighthouse for the traditional photo. We have been a few times before and may have seen a whale once, but today they were putting on a show. More than a dozen all up, breaching and tail slapping and clearly visible from the lighthouse. To see them breach, you still had to be a little lucky. It was a bit like looking for lightning. Scanning around hoping to see it happen and then it flashes just where you weren’t looking and you catch it in your peripheral vision. When you did look in the right place to catch one in full flight, it was breathtaking. I think it that is the right word for when everyone around you lets out a loud “Oooh” at the same time.

Our evening walk is along a long stretch of sand and is beautiful at sunset, with warmish water to wade in and bright white soft sand. There are birds feeding on small fish that have been dumped onto the beach by the waves. A bit cruel to be ripped by nature from your home and then delivered to your hunter almost literally on a plate. We were thinking the whales were too far out to see from the beach, and as we were about to turn up the path off the beach – lightning struck twice as a whale breached as if to say “always keep your eyes open.”

Choosing your camping stops has a lot of science and luck going into it. We stay out of major towns, try to cap the drive at 3-4 hours at a maximum, check out what the wikicamps reviews are, mix that all in with a grain of salt, cross your fingers and pick one at random. Broken Head is in a national park, with no shops around and isn’t affiliated with a big chain. With the other parks not being very full, this seeming to be a little out of the way and when we booked we were told there were plenty of sites to choose from, we felt we were heading to a little oasis with few people and a nice site to ourselves.

What we hadn’t counted on was that it was only 10 minutes from Byron Bay, and it seemed almost every dude and dudette with a board had flocked down to this place on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. There was chaos in the carpark you had to drive through to get to the caravan park. The caravan park looked ordinary and then they put us right to the toilets. Finding another site, it had the grass chewed up, mud to drive through and not a very level site. Quite disappointing, but then the facilities were great, the walk to the beach was only a couple of minutes and you could hear the waves and watch the stars. IT went from 3 star to 5 star once we were used to it. Then the next day, on our return from a day at Byron we were surrounded by vans, with huge one behind us on a ledge seemingly parked on top of us. The last night it opened up again and it seemed OK, so it was a lesson in being able to roll with the punches and appreciate what you do have when it was there.

Broken Head Caravan Park Google review.

This park is a mixture of pleasantry and disappointment. On the plus side, it has great facilities, very close access to a very great beach, very little light pollution to bother your star gazing at night and a very funny name. On the negative side its sites are uneven, too close together and prone to churned up mud if it rained. We were happy to have been there but will likely skip this place for the second time. 3 stars.