It's Byron Bay baby!

Writing on the sand ©thepursuitoftraveling

So as we said last time, Brissie can offer you everything but a proper beach because its airport, port and river flow make swimming impossibile. If you feel bored by the city life and you are looking for a break from all that, a magic place is just around the corner, or better around the coast, to give you beautiful sandy beaches, blue crystal sea, awesome parties, outdoor activities and lots of wildlife of course! We're talking about Byron Bay! Located in NSW, not far from the border of Queensland, this place is absolutely the place to be and recognised by everybody as backpacker world paradise. Easily accessible from Brisbane:
- by car > 180 kms south of Brisbane, it takes 2/3 hours drive;
- by bus > several bus companies connect Brissie to Byron Bay, among which there is Greyhound Australia, check their website to discover the timetable www.greyhound.com.au
- by train > from Roma street there are many trains that reach Byron (have a look on http://www.railmaps.com.au/ to find routes and timetables).

Byron Bay Signal ©thepursuitoftraveling

Let's introduce Byron Bay for the perfect weekend to oganize with your mates! Of course you should stay there as long as you can, but to fall in love with BB it's enough a couple of days! With its stunning views from breathtaking cliffs and wonderful beaches where you can surf and it's also good for the beginners, love at the first sight is almost guaranteed. We have experienced this amazing spot during the Easter weekend, after having ranted a car from Wicked (http://www.wickedcampers.com.au/) and booked a mix shared room in one of the backpacker hostel of the town .... here we are in Byron Bay!

When everything started ©thepursuitoftraveling

Guy looking for cuddles in Byron ©thepursuitoftraveling

The first thing you notice when you are in Byron, day and night, is the different atmosphere from everything you have ever seen traveling until that moment. People surfing, playing guitars on the beach, selling handmade crafts and walking barefoot along the streets, hippies, travelers.... that's Byron Bay, the semplicity mixed with the spirituality and freedom to be yourself. It's look like to be in the children book of Peter Pan, in the never-never land where people try to find a sort of salavation from a society illness causing selfishness and cynicism.

Talking again about our weekend experience. Once arrived at our hostel, it was already Friday late afternoon so we didn't have time to take tun and enjoy the beach so we opted for a walk around the town plus Italian pizza... what an awesome way to start the evening! Since we were in a good vibe mood we decided to have a crazy night at the Cheeky Monkeys, Byron Bay's number one party bar. We chose that location because our hostel (http://byronbaybackpackers.com.au/), but actually most of them, gave us a colourful wristband, also distributed from nice girls around the town, to have free drinks there.

Let's the crazy night begins!! ©thepursuitoftraveling

Hangover next morning?!? What's the perfect location to recover from it??? One of the several Byron Bay beaches! Not only the Main Beach, which is long and crowded, Byron has some little ones, as Clarkes and Watengo's Beaches. 

Watengo's Beach ©thepursuitoftraveling

Bushwalk start from the Main Beach ©thepursuitoftraveling

They are reachable by car through the Lighthouse Road or otherwise you can get there thanks to an incredible coastal walk where you can take amazing pictures and watch surfers enjoying the waves. According to our opinion, making it through the bushwalk is really interesting because sometimes you can find wildlife. In our case, we didn't find any koalas or kangaroos but usually you can spot them - a lot of people told us about this wonderful opportunity. Cape Byron walking track is a 3,7 km loop and the grade of difficulty is medium, so this bushwalk is adviced also for families witk kids (keeping an eye on them, stay away from clif edges). Remember also to bring binoculars with you, in fact during the period from May to late October you can spot, from one of the several lookout, Humpback Whales migrating. If you are  interested in whale watching, during the season you can book one of the daily tour manage by Byron Bay Whale Watching, here is a link of their website http://www.byronbaywhalewatching.com.au/

Different views from Cape Byron Walking Track ©thepursuitoftraveling

Regarding outdoor activities, Byron Bay, even if it's a small so has nothing to envy to other bigger places: you can choose between land, sea, air, body and art activities. 

LAND ACTIVITIES	SEA ACTIVITIES	AIR ACTIVITIES	BODY ACTIVITIES	ART ACTIVITIES
Natural Walks	Scuba Diving	Sky Diving	Yoga	Painting
Horse Riding	Surf Lessons	Gliding	Retreats	Drawing
Mountain Bike Tours	Snorkelling	Ballooning	Day Spas
Golf	Kayaking		Massage
Entertainment for Kids	Whale Watching
	Fishing

Among these wide choice, we opted for doing snorkelling at Julian Rocks Marine Reserve. This wonderful place is home of an abundant marine life: turtles, manta rays, giant guitar fishes, cuttlefishes, colourful sponges and sometimes also grey sharks. Julian rocks consists of ancient sedimentary rock, remains of a vulcanic eruption more than 20 million years ago. We absolutely recommend this experience and to bring a good underwater camera with you :)

Enjoying the beach ©thepursuitoftraveling

Last but not least, the Lighthouse. The icon of Byron is the most eastern point of Australia and where everybody goes to enjoy bautiful sunrises and sunsets. The breathtaking view from the Cape Byron Lighthouse is amazing and the trail to reach the top of the hill, where the lighthouse is situated, worths absolutely the effort. With the last pictures below our story of Byron Bay ends.

Sunset at most eastern point of Australia! ©thepursuitoftraveling

BUDGET ACCOMMODATIONS	PUBS
BACKPACKERS HOLIDAY VILLAGE	CHEEKY MONKEYS: great party bar and restaurant where you can find 5 AUD meals from 7 PM. Entertainment is every night!
BAYSTAY GUESTHOUSE
BACKPACKERS INN ON THE BEACH	BYRON BAY BREWERY & BUDDHA BAR: open 7 days a week with live music, open mic nights, DJ's and big screens with major sporting events.
ACQUARIUS BACKPACKER MOTEL
BYRON HAVEN	WOODY’S SURF SHACK: the place to be for surfers, backpackers and locals. It's a bar where everybody will love the rocking vintage surf vibe.
ARCADIA HOUSE
ATLATNTIC GUESTHOUSES	LA LA LAND: a small nightclub with a dance floor and balcony outside where you can have your smoke.
BYRON BAY YHA	COCOMANGAS: is a popular nightclub in the middle of town -  Jonson Street
NOMADS BYRON BAY	THE RAILS: is a former railway station where train travelers could just order a beer directly from their window.
BYRON SPRINGS GUESTHOUSE	THE BEACH HOTEL: is a great place to drink a beer with friends, relax in the sun and listen to live music.
RESTAURANTS
MISS MARGARITA (Mexican)
EARTH’N’SEA AMAZING PIZZA (Italian)
THE GREEN BISTRO (Australian)
THE CYPRUS TREE (Greek)
O SUSHI (Japanese)
IL BUCO (Italian)

Thank you guys!!!

Byron Bay Map

Lone Pine awesome Sanctuary

Located in the west-side area of Brisbane, this sanctuary is a real gem and a must-see place if you visit Brisbane and the whole Queensland. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is a well-known refuge for wild animals, rated by the famous Internet service provider AOL (America On Line) as one of the “Top 10 Zoos in the World”, easily reachable by car, bus or taxi (through the Centenary Motorway M5) and also by boat (through Mirimar Cruises). The Sanctuary, home of several Aussie creatures like kangaroos, Tasman devils, crocodiles, possums, wombats, wallabies, parrots, birds and koalas, is open every day from 9am to 5pm, 7 days a week. For practical reasons, I’ve decided to report below a table with the daily  and yearly prices:

Ticket Type	Online Daily	Retail Daily	Online Yearly	Retail Yearly
Adult	$32.40	$36.00	$56.00	$70.00
Child (0-2yrs)	FREE	FREE	FREE	FREE
Child (3-13yrs)	$19.80	$22.00	$36.00	$45.00
Concession	$21.60	$24.00	$44.00	$55.00
Family (2ad+3ch)	$76.50	$85.00	$148.00	$185.00
Mini Family (1ad+3ch)	$54.00	$60.00	$108.00	$135.00

I want to take this opportunity to remind all the people interested in cuddling a koala that here you can take a picture while you are hugging one of them. You should also know that in Queensland this activity is still doable, but in NSW and in other states holding a koala is strict prohibited due to the possibility to transmit diseases to these cute furry creatures. In Queensland the government decided to let people hug koalas for not more than 30 min in total every day, giving them a day off every three working days. Not only koalas, at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary you can feed kangaroos in the 2 hectares provided for them, a 2 AUD food packet is sold at the shop  located in the park.

If you love animals and you are looking forward to taking care of them, you can join the Lone Pine Team as Volunteer. For more info I advise to have a look on the website or a chat with one of the employee.

What are you waiting for an incredible day at Lone Pine? There you can find any facility, shop, bar and wildlife experience you need! Free wifi is also available!

In conclusion here a video of us and our friend Thomas at Lone Pine Sanctuary, enjoy it!

Welcome to Brissie mate!

After more than 20-hour flight, finally we arrived in Brisbane, the hearth of Queensland, and we couldn’t do a better choice! Brissie, as Australian likes to appoint, is a cosmopolitan city with thousands of opportunities to get and it’s provided with an exceptional public transportation. For example, at the beginning of our stay, we were living outside the city center, but we had several ways to reach downtown without taking much time. 

Thanks to our Italian university program, we didn’t have any problem to find the accommodation because they provided for us a wonderful host family, in a quite and green area far from the CBD. If you don’t book anything for your stay you shouldn’t be worried, just have a look at the map, go to Milton (in the CBD) and you will find the solution! Lots of backpacker hostel always wait to welcome new people and you will have the opportunity to meet young travelers and make new friendships. 

While you are in Milton go for a visit at the Suncorp stadium ( http://www.suncorpstadium.com.au/ ), if you are lucky you can find the Reds or the Broncos playing, otherwise just have an alcoholic tour at the iconic brewery XXXX ( http://www.xxxx.com.au/agegate ), located just in front of the stadium. If you are not interested in rugby and coldies you can always have a good meal in Milton Road where you can find the best Italian food in the city.

Do you love cycling and running? Well, Coronation Drive (close to Milton) is what you are looking for! Along the road you can ride your bicycle, join the best view of the Brisbane river and on your way back if you are tired to exercise you can also take the City Cat ( http://translink.com.au/ ).The ferry boat, operates by Translink, stops almost everywhere, but  if you don’t live on the riverside this mean you will need to do other work out….no pain no gain! If you like cycling, but for obvious reasons your customize and fancy bicycle is in your home country, you can always hire a public bike in one of the several stations across the city (for more info have a look on the Brisbane Council website, in particular to the CityCycle service and you will find prices an news about it).

First step: accommodation. Second step: new friends. Third step? Have some fun! The place where you can have fun is definitely Fortitude Valley. Every night, in particular on Friday and Saturday night, you can enjoy a drink in one of the several bars and pubs or otherwise you can have entertainment for adult. But this area is not only the epicenter of the nightlife, it is also famous to be considered the Chinatown district. Located in Fortitude Valley you can find the Chinatown mall, one of the biggest mall in the city and it is a hub able to host markets and special events. Another “alcoholic area” of the city is Riverside, but compared with FV is more fancy and expensive but absolutely a best location to get in hangover!

If you are looking for a different kind of fun you can always have an Aussie BBQ in one of the several parks of the city provided with public grills, but keep in mind to go early there otherwise you won’t find any available grill, especially on the weekend. The parks where I advise you to go are: New farm at the Merthyr Park or if you are looking for something more quite the areas close to the University of Queensland are a perfect location. But if you want to do the best barbie in Brissie you must go to South Bank!

Let’s speak about South Bank, without dubs the best area of the city. Before coming to Brisbane you should know that unfortunately there isn't opportunity to go to the beach despite Brissie is located on the ocean because airport, port and the river flow make swimming impossible. But again, don’t worry mate! South Bank is here to help your needs of tan and refreshing because this is absolutely the place to be in a sunny and humid weekend day if you don’t decide to leave for other destination! South Bank is the premier lifestyle and cultural destination, host festivals, events, top restaurants, shops and the famous Wheel of Brisbane. The parkland is home of rainforest, plazas, riverfront promenade and amazing public swimming pools as you can see from the pics below.

Another place that worth a visit is West End, mix of superb bars and restaurants where you can enjoy the cosmopolitan culture of Brissie. Italian, French, Greek and Thai restaurants are waiting for your good taste, the Saturday market is a darling and then there is “The Bearded Lady”, the pub of our friend Chris ( http://thebeardedlady.com.au/ ) is a mix of graffiti, recycled wood cabin, music and cool drinks…. In other words is the coolest pub ever!

Last but not least Queen street, this is the hearth of Brisbane. Here you will find a pedestrian road and the one of the most important mall of the city: Queen street mall. Inside the mall there are many restaurants, shops and cinemas in order to make your stay in Brisbane an unforgettable moment. 

SHOPS and MALLS	INTERESTING PLACES
Queen Street Mall: the heart of Brisbane have everything you need	Lone Pine Sanctuary: rated as one of the best zoo in the world, have several animals among which there are koalas and kangaroos
Chinatown Mall: here you can find cheap accessories and a supply of Chinese and oriental food	Eat Street Market: every Friday and Saturday night from 4pm to 10pm you have the opportunity to try foodies delight in more than 50 food stands http://www.eatstreetmarkets.com/
Indooroopilly Shopping Centre: best mall in the city. Top food court, flagship shops, top international brand make shopping a great experience also for those who generally prefer to join a wonderful day outside   https://indooroopillyshopping.com.au/	Ekka: is the largest cultural festival of Queensland, cover an area of 22 hectares, located in the suburb of Bowen Hills. Check out on their website the date of the annual event, typically is between July and August  https://www.ekka.com.au/
DFO: the outlet shopping close to the airport have many Australian and International brand and the products are really cheap!  http://dfobrisbane.com.au/	Moreton Island: is the National Park island situated just in front of the city. An amazing place where you can be involved in the nature and in contact with animals

Click on the link below to discover Brisbane and its secrets

 https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en_US&app=mp&mid=zlrDb6snzwfg.kaiK7SYuS-T8