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 4: Brisbane the III

So we didn’t exactly have three days in Brisbane, the first night was only a half night and this was only a half day, but I thought id use this post to describe the last day and some general tie-ups.

That morning we went out in search of breakfast again, Barry’s friends had left that morning at some inane hour for Surfer’s Paradise (yup that’s the name of the town*) so it wasn’t as crowded this morning. We had planned to tour a famous brewery that day, but for two reasons the first was 1) the line was shut down that day and 2) the tour was sold out. We had to leave Brizzie at 3 that day so we had a limited time we could actually do anything. We decided to take a ferry tour down the Brisbane River to conclude our Brisbane trip. After battling the trains once again (a recurring theme for Brisbane) we made out way to south bank and got on the boat. For what it was worth the ride was enjoyable and pretty informative. My only wish is that the annoying automated voice on the first half of the trip could have been replaced by the actual live guy who did the second half. I probably learned a lot about Brisbane that day, but promptly forgot a lot of it. The tour took us past many historical sites along the river including the immigration building, the old wool factory, the Story Bridge** and the (apparently infamous) breakfast creek.
After the boat tour we raced back to Bunk to retrieve our bags before racing back to Roma Street Station for our 3 o’clock bus—I say race but it was really a slow crawl due, once again, the Brisbane train network.
Brisbane: the complete review
We managed to do a lot in the two-ish days we had. I would hazard to say though that we probably could have done a third, but after that would have serious run out of things to do. It’s a big city sure, but it lacks in the whole interesting activities department (and the transport for that matter). Overall the city lacks the feeling of a city like Melbourne, there was just something wrong in the air so to speak, and it’s a city I won’t make any special efforts to see again.
*Australia has some seriously weird town/city names. Some might reference to the aboriginal names like Wollongong, Wagga Wagga or the only place I know that has 8 ‘O’s in its name, Woolloomooloo. Others are blatantly simple like that of Surfers Paradise, or perhaps the Town of 1770. Or you can bet everything you own that the names that you see everywhere in Australia will be the name of a town somewhere. Names like Macquarie, Flinders or Monash.
**there are some other famous bridges in Brisbane, including the Victoria Bridge now in its fourth generation. The first bridge in that place was made of wood and was eaten by marine wood worm. The second made of iron was washed away in the flood of 1893. The third was only temporary and the fourth is what still stands today.

I’m Back!

13 days later, I’ve gotten back from my (nearly) see everything in Australia tour. Ok, so we didn’t see everything, but there was no way we could fit anything else into this trip. Tourism was the key element to the trip, but we managed to get some holiday time in too. Probably because of this incredible amount of tourism in a short amount of time I’m buggered.

Nevertheless we saw some great sights, went to some great places (, got a great tan) and had a great time (that’s a lot of great!). Now thinking about exactly how I’m going to document it here I think ill do a post on a place by place basis. This will mean that chronograph will go in reverse in blog history (one downfall to the blog-system), but ill try and mark them. So we start, well, at the start with Brizzie (Brisbane)…but first: