Brisbane to Byron Bay

Brisbane would be our first high rise city since Singapore but more significantly the first city we would have to infiltrate in a car. We arrived in the city centre soon after 9am having found it pretty easy to navigate the ring roads and other highways around the city, but then it became considerably harder. Our plan was to find somewhere to leave the van all day while we explored the city before driving out at night as our research suggested there was lots of street parking available and many car parks. Unfortunately Brisbane doesn’t cater for the 2.7 metre car so we found ourselves getting repeatedly blocked by height restrictions and never managed to find any street parking available for longer than an hour. Eventually though we stumbled across an outdoor car park fifteen minutes walk from the centre which we could use for four hours. We accepted it seeing as we had been driving around Brisbane’s grid of one way streets for about an hour. Despite struggling so much we both stayed surprisingly upbeat which is odd as driving into foreign cities has always seemed like such a stressful experience, or at least it has been when in the backseat of the family hire car.

Our first stop was the information office to pick up more leaflets than we could carry even though we had already formulated a plan for the day and had no more time for extra sights. Brisbane is a very easy town to get around on foot as it is almost all a grid with all its central roads being named after British kings and queens with the male names in one direction and the female names cutting across them. We first found the city sightseeing bus which would take us on a loop of the town which we assumed would have a pre-recorded commentary. It turned out that the information would actually be relayed to us by the most boring and slow talking man we had come across so far. In Australia it seems that everyone is funny and is always looking to crack a joke but that was far from the case with this man. This was part of the reason we opted to get out at Mount Coot-tha as by the time we had looked around the next bus would have come along and hopefully without such a dreary conductor. Mount Coot-tha is a rather large hill surprisingly close to the city centre offering pretty good views but it will live long in my memory as we visited its cafe where I had the world’s largest lamington. These are a chocolate covered sponge with coconut sprinkles which I was particularly fond of when we lived here all those years ago.

Linz posing with Brisbane

Our plan worked as the remainder of the trip was voiced by a considerably chirpier man, called Rowan, who often threw in a joke, but frankly anyone with the slightest hint of a personality would have been an improvement. One of the most memorable points of the tour came as we passed through a suburb not far from the centre where our driver pointed out that the floods of earlier in the year rose higher than the roof of the bus we were travelling in. At another point we passed a hotel whose ground floor remained unusable due to flood damage. Other sights we passed included the Gabba, the city’s London Eye style ferris wheel and numerous particularly nice looking colonial buildings.



Brisbane centre from south of the river

 

The bus also passed quite close to our van so we got off, leaving Rowan with just himself to talk to as everyone else had already left, and walked through a rather pleasant garden back to the car park. We weren’t sure whether paying for another four hours was allowed so we drove back into the city’s streets in search of a new spot. As we walked round town we had marked a couple of possibilities on the map so headed straight for these. Once again they rejected us, however a friendly guard gave us directions to another car park which accepted our taller van so we set off hoping to put an end to our parking troubles. The directions were perfect but he failed to mention how much it would cost us. Knowing full well that they were the only car park without a height restriction in the centre of town they had jacked their prices to extortionate levels. We only needed to park for a few hours so I almost laughed in the man’s face when he asked me for $67. We ignored his smug “good luck” when we told him we’d look for somewhere else and left. Within minutes, on our return to the original car park, Linz spotted a tiny street where we managed to park for the rest of the day for around $5. I could have quite happily returned to the $67 dollar man and let him know all about it, or at least stand outside his entrance and let everyone else know. That’s it for car park related stories in this blog I promise.

We headed for King George Square which houses the Town Hall but were disappointed to find it was closed for renovations and that we wouldn’t be able to go up its observation tower. However, in the square the locals were enjoying its winter festival which completely confused us both as it was set out just like you would find in England at Christmas with various stall selling hot drinks and a temporary ice rink. All this in the middle of June! Having enjoyed a freshly cooked churro we journeyed towards the river which is a major part of Brisbane as it was the reason a settlement was first built here.

I didnt do very well for photos in Brisbane and Linz's camera was out of battery, so here is a
photo of a street. It was either this, me waiting for the bus or a photo of the bus itself.

On the other side of the river we found ourselves a science museum, but given that we must have seen the majority of the world’s science museums so far on this trip and have written about them all in various blogs, I’ll leave it at that. Following this stop we wandered along the river in the rather nice Southbank area passed the city’s lagoon and various good looking restaurants we contemplated eating in. They all seemed rather expensive so we rejected them and put off dinner for now and continued to walk through Southbank to the pedestrianised bridge, which lead back into the centre. On the way we stopped at one of a few purpose built pods sticking out the side of the bridge to allow people to look out onto the skyline where we watched the sunset.

I realise you've already seen enough photos of the skyline, but i'm getting
pretty desperate now

Back on the town side of the river we planned to finish our loop of the city by wandering through the free botanical gardens but found the university blocked our path. We weren’t overly bothered by the prospects of a botanical garden in the middle of winter so just continued on towards the casino which marked the end of our walking tour of Brisbane. Other than being asked to remove my hat, to disastrous hair based consequences, we made it in with ease but found ourselves walking back passed the bouncers within minutes as again we failed to find virtual blackjack.

Wow I took some boring photos. This was the casino with a thoroughly uninteresting
junction infront

We then found ourselves a relatively cheap dinner at the Down Under Bar and Grill. When I was younger Dad used to order things like octopus purely to entertain me and James, and I think this has had an effect on me as I found myself ordering the “Skippy Burger” for entertainment purposes. Kangaroo turns out to be a red meat which is pretty tasty although not ideal in a burger as it results in a rather soggy bun.

As so much of Brisbane is based around the river we ended the night by taking a ride on the CityCat used by commuters and tourists as a means to get around quickly. It was pretty obvious we were tourists as all the locals dived inside given the outside temperature but we opted to stay where we could see the city. It was considerably colder than we anticipated so we didn't go as far along the river as we had planned and got off in the rather expensive Riverside area.

Following this we returned to our bargain car parking space and found getting out of town was a little harder than getting in, but at least roads in Australia seem to get considerably quieter at night. We returned to our free rest area ninety kilometres north of Brisbane that evening, as there were no other free options anywhere near, and parked up in between two trees. We were unaware at this point that we were playing with death.

We woke up the next morning to find the two trees we had parked underneath were now just one tree as in the middle of the night one had fallen down, luckily away from our van. If it had fallen the other direction we could have been in serious trouble. As it turns out we were just left seriously confused as we still hadn’t really woken up when we saw it and somehow had both slept through it crashing down.

This is how close the tree came. The car on the left had parked up after it came down

One of the sights we had decided to leave until our second day in Brisbane was a tour of the Castlemaine XXXX brewery but having left our booking of it too late we found ourselves missing out on our second brewery of our travels. Consequently we decided not to venture into Brisbane again and instead could enjoy a scenic drive along the Steve Irwin Way (Highway 6) through the Glasshouse Mountains. On the way we passed the largest go-kart track in Australia and Linz let me enjoy a quick blast round the track before returning to the van to continue south beyond Brisbane.

Having been a faithful friend on our trip so far The Bruce was now a thing of the past as Highway 1 became the Pacific Highway as we crossed into our second state: New South Wales. Single lane roads cutting through scenic views and sugar cane fields were replaced by two and three lane motorways, with considerably more traffic lights, ploughing through endless suburbs and industrial estates. This was the first time I found myself not enjoying the driving as we found ourselves in numerous traffic jams without even a nice view. In order to get away from the motorway we found a Tourist Drive which would take us to our next destination in Surfer’s Paradise along the Gold Coast. The Tourist Drive turned out to be worse than the motorway as traffic lights became unbearable and I started to seriously worry that the southern, and more populated, states would just be endless suburbs.

Eventually we ended up in Surfer’s Paradise which is undeniably the worst place we had come across in Australia. From the name you could guess that it’s famous for its beach, however short sighted planning from the town means that its outdated skyscrapers now block sunlight from the beach in the afternoon. This makes it far from an ideal beach and anything but a paradise. We only chose to stop here as two free nights had left us out of power meaning cameras and the laptop were in desperate need of charging. Having rejected a couple for being too expensive we checked into Nobby’s Beach holiday park in the suburb of Miami. After a takeaway pizza dinner we each Skyped home and called it a night.

We were eager to get out of Surfer’s Paradise as soon as possible but had spotted a rather entertaining looking mini golf as a result of Linz’s assault on the campsite’s brochure rack in reception. They had three courses of 18 holes and we played two and a half of them having given up on one as we got stuck behind a children’s party. Linz would probably claim she was going to go on and win that round but overall I think I came out on top. Further redemption for being beaten at the football video game all those months ago.

A roulette wheel dictated that I played this hole with my feet. It went terribly

Shortly after leaving Surfer’s Paradise the roads went back to single lanes and we could see more than just other cars and once again I could enjoy driving. By this stage I had all but taken over the driving as Linz was never particularly happy with the big van but more importantly was much better at being our in car DJ. Our music options differ quite drastically as Linz’s iPod offers a range of recent hits combined with boy band classics where as my iPod can have anything from a song which has just been released to one which charted in the 50s. It’s not out the question to have Green Day followed up by a bit of barbershop.

In the afternoon we arrived at the much anticipated Byron Bay which had always been the place where we were going to go surfing. Neither of us can surf but we were right in the heart of surfer country here so we had decided before even leaving England that here was the place to do it. However, we had arrived too late so would have to put it off until the next day and instead enjoyed a walk around the small town before going to sit on the beach to develop a plan. Byron Bay is a lovely small town with couple of streets of wooden beamed shops leading up to the beach and plenty of eating options. After the beach we went in search of Black Dog surfing where we met George, the black dog, who we played with while we booked our lessons for the next day.

Having got 25% off our lessons due to it being winter, we wandered back to the car stopping at a couple of shops on the way to where we both bought some much needed jumpers. Seeing that it was starting to get colder during the days it’s likely most photos from now one will involve these jumpers. After this we headed up to the towns lighthouse which offered views of both the main beach as well as Tallow Beach where we could spot a few surfers braving the evening temperatures. The lighthouse was particularly nice as it had been excellently maintained and was even being used as the background to a couple’s wedding photos as we arrived. A very long way out to sea we could see a tiny dot we believed to be a whale as many sightings had already been made that day, however having paid $2 to use a telescope we could barely make anything out given the distance.

Hundreds of people a day must take this photo

We hoped to find a free rest area again to save on campsite fees but the ones mentioned in our bible of cheap and free camping areas only suggested highway lay-bys so we had to settle for another night in a paid site. At least we managed to get stand-by rates given that we arrived minutes before they closed for the evening.

Im not much of a beach person. As you can see I'm facing away from the sea because
the sun was annoying me

The next day we spent the morning on the main beach before heading back to the Black Dog for our surfing lessons. Our guide, called Dom, was a rare thing: a Swiss surfer. Not only was he a surfer from a country with no sea border which is mainly covered in snow but he used to be an investment advisor. How far can you get from an Australian surfer dude? He took us, and the other four in the group, round to Tallow Beach which was fairly unpopulated which is ideal given the likely hood of us falling over quite regularly. After a brief tutorial on land, during which he commented I was trying to leap up to quickly, I was surprised at how quickly we were in the water and attempting to stand up on our boards. We would take it in turns to lie on the board while he would push us off as a wave came up from behind us. Of course on my first attempt I tried to leap up too quickly and ended up plummeting head first off the board. However, I was quite pleased with myself as each time I tried and failed to stand up I made sure to correct each aspect that was going wrong one at a time, and was able to stand up pretty soon after my initial failure. In time I even managed to work out how to turn and was very reluctant to come back to land at the end of the lesson after we had been given some free time to try and surf away from the instructor. Linz had a slightly different experience resulting in her punching her surf board a few times. At the end of the lesson we bought a CD full of photos that had been taken of us while we were being taught, however given the lack of CD drive on our laptop we haven’t been able to have a good look through the inevitably embarrassing photos yet.

Following dinner at the delightfully named Hog’s Breath Cafe we left Bryon Bay in search of another free nights stay. The first few suggestions from the book were once again lay-bys with very little light and a bit of a creepy atmosphere so we continued on. By now we were starting to wonder whether free camping was just a Queensland thing and that we may now find it much harder, but our next stop was successful. A local museum offers the use of its car park overnight and even their toilets , and given that there were already a few other campervans parked up for the night we knew it was fine to stay there. So after a shaky start to New South Wales we had found an excellent little town in Byron Bay and had once again found a place to dodge paying anyone money to sleep, so things were looking good again.