We went to Byron Bay for the weekend, just a 2 hour drive from Brisbane. Byron Bay is a popular tourist destination known for its hippie culture, surfing, music, and food. Upon arriving into town we spotted this very hippie looking double decker!
It was very cold and unusually rainy our first day in Bryon Bay, and it really felt like the Oregon coast!
This is the main public beach in town, but dogs aren't allowed here so we admired it from afar. Plus we so we were fine on the paved path above given the weather! The famous lighthouse is on the big hill in the background.
We stayed in a great bed and breakfast - there were two guest rooms on the lower floor and the owners lived on the top floor.
Sev caught up on the gossip while I gave Quita a short walk around the yard.
Then we went to the dog beach and let pupper run around.
Australia is much less pet friendly that the states, and you can only bring dogs to certain beaches designated as dog beaches.
Luckily the beach was pretty empty being such bad weather and Quita had the beach to herself.
Byron Bay's reputation as a foodie place proved to be with reason. We ate dinner at a Spanish restaurant called St. Elmo's. The menu is all shared plates meant to be eaten family style.
It had a great ambiance and even better food!
Our first course was toasted bread with garlic tomato sauce on it.
Second course was seafood stew.
I learned that soft shell crab is one of my favorite foods! This little guy was fried up and crunchy on the outside!
Third course was roasted vegetables with grilled goat cheese - of course no vegetable dish is complete without beetroot in Australia, even at a Spanish restaurant! And my phone died for the final course so we don't have a picture but it was the most amazing dessert ever - an almond turron cake fresh from the oven!
We found a funk band playing on the street after dinner.
And they had an impromptu dance party on the sidewalk.
Quita was so tired and happy after running and exploring all day!
Our guest house had the best continental breakfast ever! That little loaf of bread was freshly baked and just amazing! Clearly, we devoured it!
Quita stood at the door and whined, apparently wanting to hunt the local fauna.
We walked up to the Byron Bay lighthouse, about a 30 minute walk.
There were many amazing views on the way up.
This is the main Byron Bay beach from another angle.
Quita obviously enjoyed the walk up!
Part of the walk was on a suspended walkway along the road.
And most of the walk was through a national forest. This is right after the first of approximately 5 signs indicating that dogs aren't allowed in the forest...
A group of dolphins live in this part of the bay - we saw about a dozen of them resting in the surf!
Luckily the sun came out for our walk!
Quita really enjoyed eating the long grass in this area! On the hill in the distance is the lighthouse that we were going to.
View of the lighthouse and very expensive homes on the way!
Over 1000 dolphins live in the bay - 30% of them, all of whom are females, stay year round and the others migrate throughout the year.
I felt like the Cheshire cat on this branch.
There's a lookout point on these rocks, and the waves were just huge crashing against them - they were very loud too!
We chose to look at the lookout point from above!
Most easterly point of mainland Australia. I imagine this is where the forest officials spotted us with Quita, as they were waiting for us at the lighthouse!
We saw a wallaby in the bush, but I scared it away trying to get a picture!
This doesn't look like stereotypical Australia, maybe more like Scotland!
We didn't have the chance to hang out at the lighthouse because as soon as we arrived we were kicked out for bringing a dog in the forest! Their dog laws here are so crazy!
The lighthouse is on a point with beaches on most sides - this is the side that we walked up as seen from above.
View from the road down.
This is the beach from the opposite side of the lighthouse - another gorgeous beach!
As I was taking this picture the forest officials yelled at us from across the street that we need to leave immediately - apparently we took too long vacating their precious dog free zone!
You can see the paragliding ramp and para glider flying around. We watched them for a few minutes.
And we watched a second para glider take off.
After giving all Americans a bad name, we walked back down the road which was about a third the length of the forest trail!
Then we took Quita to friendlier ground - the dog beach - where Sev tried to fly his kite until another dog attacked it as it was taking off and knocked it down! It was pretty funny!
Quita accidentally swam for only the second time in her life while chasing seagulls and finding that the firm ground dropped off into a tide pool suddenly! Instead of turning around, she swam all the way across the tide pool!
There are a few bridges between Byron Bay and Brisbane that have trees and plants growing on top, presumably to allow the wildlife to cross the highway from above. This one is more like a tunnel, but I wasn't able to get a picture of the actual "koala bridges". Sadly no wild koalas were spotted on this trip.
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