AusTour 6: Byron Bay

This place was gorgeous and a great refresher after a city atmosphere like Brisbane. We arrived into the small beach community at 630ish after leaving Brisbane at 3. After arriving we made our way to the Byron Bay YHA (our first YHA experience). The feel of this hostel was good, and matched the beach town environment. The only way to describe it would be like inside-out camping, a horseshoe of room surround shady-palm courtyards, decks and pool. Really relaxed and laid back. After a quick dinner of fish and chips (we were by the sea after all) we went to the railway friendly bar (‘the rails’) where we were serenaded by a western Australia artist, Freya Hanly (I urge you to check her out, she was really good). Later that night we made our way to the beach to try and see some stars as the night was really clear. The next day we rented (free) bikes from the hostel and made our way out to the beach and the Cape Byron walking trail. The sun was warm in a cloud free sky and the beech was white sand greeting crystal clear water. Lazily we made our way up the walking trail (past the most enormously huge lizard I have EVER seen) towards the lighthouse. As we ascended, we passed the most easterly point on the Australian continent (marked conveniently). After too many steps to count we would reach the lighthouse at the top for a look out at the wide ocean and back upon the mountain ranges including (the Captain Cook named) Mt. Warning. We (as in i) decided to continue along the trail which included, can you guess…more steps (up and down, even though we were going down). At one point we left a message of sticks on the path for any other weary traveler on the steps to nowhere ‘Boo more steps.’ The last part of the trail brought us through the Cape Byron Headland Reserve before dumping us pretty much where we had started. We went back onto the sandy beech (which squeaked curiously like tennis shoes) where Barry braved the waters. Finally we went to the surfer’s beach on the other side of Cape Byron where we watched the surfers for a good while before returning the bikes and meeting the bus for our next destination Port Macquarie.Byron Bay: the Complete Review
Beautiful and relaxed place. Definitely want to go back. There’s no annoying transit system, no noise pollution (no light pollution) and I wouldn’t be surprised if the sun shone everyday there. The beaches were large and clean and the water was even better. Nature abounds here from giant lizards to some sort of mutant turkey. Singularly the best stop on the trip.

AusTour 5: the Bus

In planning the trip we had looked at numerous was of getting from Brisbane to Sydney while stopping at some of the key places in between. We had decided to take a hop on hop off bus down the coast and found a company that would let us do it. For just $115 we were able to go from Brisbane to Sydney while stopping at Byron Bay, Port Macquarie and Newcastle. The bus had more stops (all the reasonably be towns down the coast) but those are the ones we had decided on. The bus would take us down the pacific highway for the most part. Busses departed daily with one bus departing Brisbane at 1pm and another at 3pm. There was also a third bus starting about halfway down the pacific highway starting at around 6am—we took this for the final trip into Sydney. Overall it was great value for money, and didn’t take up the day (travelling mostly during the night) so we could use the daylight to explore and holiday.

Outta Here

Its Spring Break…again! So I’m getting out of Melbourne with Barry from Hartford. We’re flying up to Brisbane tonight, to begin a trip down the coast towards and into Sydney. I’m lazy, so I stole Barry's map of the key stops on the trip.
I should ignore the part about being eaten by a shark. Not because it wont happen, but because I wont be posting a blog anytime in the next 13 days. I also have an extra part tagged on to the end of this trip, down to Adelaide in South Australia being as i have two weeks off for break and Barry only has one.