Ahhhh Murwillumbah!

Murwillumbah YHA- Mt Warning in the distance

Tweed River and Mt. Warning from the YHA

We were here a year ago. Oldies at a youth hostel. Why not. Our host is Tassie, the original operator, who converted this fabulous riverside homestead into a YHA over 30 years ago and has been here ever since. He was in his twenties then and has grown up with the hostel and its clients. Scores of young people still flock here and mix with generations spanning fifty years.

It's the discerning YP who check in here. They are interested in the environment, the mountains and in an alternative to the madness of Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise. As a result they are open and interested in people ensuring that we all learn from each other and enjoy our shared stories. 

This year we met people from China, from Florida and Seattle in the US, from Glasgow and the wilds of Scotland, a tennis fanatic from France via the Reunion Islands (off Africa), Ursula from Austria. There were others. The Australian contingent represented Gatton, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Mt Warning, the magnet for young people, hovered in the clouds in the background. Crazy young people  borrowed pushbikes and rode the 10ks to its base and then climbed for two hours each way returning at 4pm exhausted.

Lynne and Andrea New Years Eve

Some saw nothing. some were lucky and got the spectacular views over the caldera (one of the biggest on the planet).

New Years Eve was smaller than 2013. Ten of us sat down to a five course Thai meal cooked by Toni, Tassie's mate and a chef in her other life. The YP were absent - on flights to Melbourne, checking in to hotels on the Gold Coast, on buses to Sydney - they couldn't resist the bright lights.

Thai feast - Toni top left

Tassie

Glimpse of the caldera from the Border Ranges NP