To sum it up, Byron Bay is the 'savasana' of the yoga poses, it's the part where you've worked so hard that it's time to lay down, the relaxing part where you take it all in.
This place truly treasures itself. Smoking is not welcomed within 4 meters of a restaurant's door and shots are prohibited, so don't expect this place to be a party central.
The feeling of contentment and happiness is hard to ignore whilst in the midst of all who reside in this beautiful Eastern gem of Australia.
I won't go on, you get it, it's pretty magical - I highly recommend a visit, now here are our travel details;
I traveled with my lovely friend Helen, we flew in from Melbourne on a Tuesday. First stop was Sydney airport, then we flew to Ballina airport (the closest airport to Byron Bay) via Jetstar.
Ballina is a tiny little country town airport, there's not much there. To get to Byron Bay, there are 3 options;
1. Shuttle bus - $40 round trip - The bus takes you straight to your accommodation's doorstep from the airport.
2. Taxi - approx. $110 one way.
3. Car hire (Europcar - Kia Rio Manual) - $52.50 pp + $50 bond pp
We chose to hire a car because we wanted the freedom to maximize our time to explore.
Our accommodation was a town house located close to the main strip in Byron Bay. We found it through Air BnB, for more info on our accommodation, follow the link below;
https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/5127005?eluid=0&euid=e9a7fcae-045c-9c93-7374-7391f69e637c
Jo-Anne was our host, she didn't make us feel one bit intrusive. She also has the cutest little dog named Stella, who was also very welcoming!
Photos below are taken in the outdoor area of our Air BnB accommodation.
DAY 1
On our first night we wanted to find dinner, as it was a Tuesday night, we assumed our options may be limited. We tried our luck to have dinner and drinks at Miss Margarita's on the main street (Jonson Street). It was packed, so we ended up at a place across the road called, 'Byron Fresh'. We were waited on by a lovely Romanian waitress named Carmen. She was hilarious, and she had been living and studying in Byron for 9 months, she told us a few places to go out, one place was called 'Rails', another place was 'The Northern' and another called 'La La Land'.
The food at Byron Fresh was exactly that, fresh! I ordered a pumpkin salad with added chicken and Helen ordered the salmon. We were both extremely happy with our meals. The price was also quite reasonable, both meals cost under $30 each.
After dinner we made our way over to Rails, which was a quaint little pub, that used to be a railway station. We followed our ears to the sound of Irish music; conjured up by 8 men sitting alongside each other on the outdoor stage. They were all having a jam, utilizing every bit of their energy; sweat dripping from their foreheads and smiles on their faces. Each person playing a different instrument. The vibe was nice. There was a mixed crowd of young and old; no one was too drunk. Everyone was just having a good time; laughing, watching and some were even dancing the Irish jig.
The live music at Rails stopped playing at around 10pm. We didn't want to end it there, so we crossed the road to The Northern, where there was more live music. This place had a country feel; the bar was narrow and there weren't many places to stand or sit. The quality of the music made up for the lack of seating. The band players were carefree; all 3 of them had over grown hair, beards and dreadlocks - not one of them was wearing shoes.
We called it a night after watching them play for over an hour.
DAY 2
The next day we woke up early and eager to explore; we got our bikinis on and our comfortable flats and decided to bike our way into town to have some breakfast.
We had breakfast at a place called 'Bayleaf Cafe', located on Marvell Street, just off of Jonson Street. This place was amazing, you could tell it was popular, it was busy - yet still so relaxed. The food wasn't short of flavour either; Byron Bay is a raw food/vegan's dream. Helen ordered the GF quinoa porridge with fresh berries and I ordered the scrambled eggs with avocado, chilli and rocket on sourdough - my mouth is watering just thinking about it again. Prices again, were very standard, ranging from $10 for toast to $30 for a larger meal with add ons. The coffee was equally delicious.
After breakfast, we wandered on over to Spell & The Gypsy Collective, which is in view from Bayleaf.
After shopping for a bit, we got on our bikes and rode to Clarkes Beach, you can park your bike here, which is what we did. We walked along the white sandy coastline until we couldn't walk anymore. We stumbled across a lookout, the views at the top were spectacular. You could also see Wategos Beach from this lookout, which was exactly where we wanted to go next.
Wategos Beach is nothing short of a postcard photograph.
We checked Byron Bay's weather regularly before our arrival and it kept saying '27 degrees with showers', so we were very nervous about our stay being cold and rainy. Turned out, the weather man was not to be trusted, it was hot and it didn't rain once.
Carmen, the Romanian waitress from Byron Fresh informed us that this time of the year (Autumn) is actually the best to visit Byron Bay. The weather is perfect and there's not as many tourists. So there you go!
Wategos Beach was truly picturesque. The iconic Australian brand, Seafolly were there for a campaign photo shoot, I can see why they picked the location.
We ended up making our way back to our bikes after getting burnt, and headed back to Jonson Street for more shopping.
Ladies, the best places to shop in Byron are:
- Tree of Life $$
- Spell & The Gypsy Collective $$$$
- Tigerlily $$$$
- Arnhem Clothing $$$
For dinner, we went to a place called Treehouse on Belongil, this place isn't in the main strip, to get there you need to catch a cab. Treehouse had a "Treehouse" feel to it, but no, it wasn't actually a treehouse - but it was surrounded by wood, with red velvet couches and a red velvet curtain greeting you as you enter.
The food was incredible, we ordered 3 sides (Mussels, Chicken Wings and Haloumi) and Sticky date pudding to share for dessert. I would recommend doing it this way to really taste everything! Although, Helen said she was still hungry after the sides, but she's a bigger eater than me.
We made our way back in a taxi to Rails on Jonson Street, where we had been the night before, by that time it was 11pm, so the live band had already finished. They were still playing a bit of music and the place was still buzzing with people, this time it was more of a younger crowd. The place closed at 12 - we stayed until it closed, then decided to check out La La Land. We walked up the stairs to La La Land but unfortunately, it was quiet. There were about 10 people in the place, but it looked like it would be a lot of fun on a Saturday night, the decor was beautiful and had a real Moroccan vibe to it, dark wood and creamy shell chandeliers - we left pretty quickly after doing a walk through.
The security guard helped re-direct us to a place called Woody's - a night club on Jonson street, this place was packed, everyone in there was young - exactly what you need if you want a big night out, they played house music and a few classic hits, the dance floor was filled with people. This is where we learned you couldn't order shots (or spirits on the rocks either ha).
DAY 3
We woke up as early as our tired bodies would let us, as it was our last day in Byron, we decided to spend the day exploring in the rental car, our Air BnB host, Jo-Anne, recommended we visit a place called 'Killen Falls', which was a 30 minute drive from where we were staying.
I would have to say everything is fairly easy to find with GPS on our smartphones now, we just typed in Killen falls and found our way there. We stopped off at a place called Harvest for breakfast, which was on our way there, it was ok, the food wasn't as fresh as what we had in Byron Bay. But they also sold pastries and take away coffee, which might be a better option if you just want something light.
Once we got to Killen Falls, we parked the car and prepared for our trek, (I would recommend wearing closed toe shoes like converse, not thongs, far too slippery) or you could even go barefoot as some of the locals did.
Helen and I started walking through the path, I remember looking up to see a slow moving object, which turned out to be a skinny little green snake, I was terrified! I wanted to turn back, in fact, I did turn back, that was it for me - I was convinced I was leaving this place!
Helen talked me out of it and she suggested we talk to a couple of girls who were walking up behind us (one of the girls looked very free-spirited, she was barefoot and fearless) we told her about the snake and she kind of just shrugged it off and kept walking ahead, so I thought to myself, if she's not scared, neither am I.
I walked carefully, making sure I was stepping on branches and not snakes, my heart beating out of my chest and my face couldn't shake the look of pure distraught. We hooked around and stepped down a slippery hillside, where we met with a lake, from there we turned left toward the waterfall, where we were given a warm welcome by 2 friendly old ladies who informed us that "it's worth the trek".
Pebble after pebble, we balanced our way to the final destination, we were finally there and the 2 old ladies were right, it was beautiful. Mother nature sure knows how to impress. There were quite a few people already in the water, swimming around, some taking photos, others sitting on branches drying off on the sides.
I felt like a kid on Christmas day, forgetting all about the snake I'd seen 10 minutes earlier. I quickly got my shoes off and into my bathers and made my way into the water, the bottom of the waterfall pool was filled with rocks, some quite sharp, it was dangerous to stand up and enter at the same time, so I decided to enter whilst crouching, ha I would've looked ridiculous, but it was the only way you could get in! The water was the perfect temperature, it was fresh. This was by far my favourite experience of the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment