Emma & Ben… Far From Home

​21st Jan -27th Jan 2017

We left Sydney at what seemed like the middle of the night to catch the train to Byron Bay – the journey was 15 hours to a little town called Casino and then another hour and 30mins by coach from there to Byron Bay. The journey was pretty tedious, but it was cheaper than flying and we got to see the scenery as we headed up the coast. However we were both very relieved to reach our destination!

When we arrived in Byron it was pitch black and pouring with rain so didn’t leave us with a great first impression – however when we checked into our hostel I was pleasantly surprised, there were colourful little rooms located around a communal garden and it
had a nice relaxed vibe; a refreshing change from the party hostel in Sydney! We settled in quickly.

The following morning we woke up to sunshine (hurrah!) and realised just how close we were to the beachfront. I’d recommend visiting Byron just for the beach alone – it was beautiful.

We only had 3 nights (2 full days in Byron) which is probably all you really need to explore the town as it’s only small. We spent most of our time on the beach, walking round the town, which although has a slight nod to its hippie past in parts, now mainly consists of nice cafes, surf shops and bars. However, we could certainly have stayed for longer just because it was the first time in a while we felt ourselves relax. 

Our budget is tight so we mainly self-catered during our visit but did treat ourselves a couple of times based on the recommendations of Kate and Mike (sister and brother-in-law):

• Twisted Sister Cafe – lovely light bites and cakes 
• Bella Rosa Ice Cream Parlour – very tasty!

Other highlights from our stay include: coastal walk from Byron Bay to Cape Byron to see the lighthouse – this was also recommended to us by Kate and Mike (thank you both!). The views were amazing but our mistake was that we tried to do it on what was the hottest day of our trip. It’s a pretty steep climb so we were both sweaty messes by the time we reached the top. Unfortunately for us we didn’t get to see any whales or dolphins from the viewpoint as they leave the waters during these summer months but I’m assured there are loads to see at other times of the year, so it would be worth the climb for that.

From Byron Bay we travelled by Greyhound coach to Brisbane central bus terminal – it took about 2 hours 30 mins. Very convenient. We then had to navigate Brisbane’s transport system in order to reach our Airbnb location in the West End (we had to take a train and ferry). We realised quite quickly that we had been spoilt in Melbourne and Sydney and that Brisbane isn’t set up for travellers in the same way but with the help of a couple of very friendly locals we managed to figure it out in the end.

I was pretty excited about getting to our first Airbnb accommodation mainly because we could finally have our own apartment with our own bathroom and kitchen!! It didn’t disappoint, the apartment was lovely and modern, clean and in a good location not too far out the city. We have decided that we are going to try and use Airbnb as much as possible during our trip, particularly when we plan to be in one location for a few days. Being on the road for almost a month has made us realise that having a home away from home is important for our sanity at times!

On our first full day in Brisbane we decided to head to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary – it’s about 45mins bus ride out of the city but totally worth the journey! It was amazing! We got to hold a koala and feed kangaroos. It was expensive but it worth every penny! It’s one of the favourite things we did in Australia.

Our second day in Brisbane (and our last full day in Australia) happened to fall on Australia Day which celebrates the day Captain Cook first landed and marked the beginning of European settlers (the day is a bit controversial as Aboriginal people refer to it as ‘Invasion Day’, and when we headed into Brisbane that morning there was a big protest taking place). With our tourist hats on, were hoping that there might be lots of activities happening in the city but we found it was just like a standard bank holiday and most things were closed so we were disappointed. Luckily the evening fireworks redeemed our last day – it was one of the best displays we have seen and we loved that the music the fireworks were synced to were Australian classics with songs such as ‘Land
Down Under’ and ‘Waltzing Matilda ‘ – Kylie Minogue also made the playlist of course – it made our day! 

We were both really sad to leave Australia behind, we throughly enjoyed our time there and felt it was the perfect place to start our trip. We hope that at some point in the future we are lucky enough to return.
Fiji, you have a lot to live up to….

(Posted by Em)