Great driving by Ms. Margery the approx. 2 hour drive to Byron...of course on a friday afternoon when all the Brisbaners getting out of town as well. But surprisingly little traffic or I was blissfully unaware in the back seat being entertained by David. And rambling on about all we had seen and done on our trip thus far.
Checked into our Guest house, Arcadia which was on cowpers lane. Very nice and charming and the room was incredibly large with high ceilings. The "ensuite" was equally large with a mammoth jacuzzi tub and walk in shower...>VERY WELL needed.. Pay no attention to the sign out front "business for sale" although anyone reading this you may be interested in a career in hospitality Byron is the place!
Wandered into town (first rule: leave the car & keys at home and walk everywhere --- if you will be drinking VB or wine, no need to be in a car. PERIOD!)
walked to beach for a little sunset do I have to tell you at this point how gorgeus it was? C'mon! Please! of course found the main bar/pub on the beach and settled in for a few VBs and Coopers...after several hours and drinks and listening to a great band playing on stage we decide to head to eat. Well we didn't make it far a little restaurant just a couple steps down looked pretty appealing And a wonderfully talented young lady, Renee Simone and her entourage street band playing outside. she on the uke and the rest with guitar, beat box and other instrumentation. They were amazing. One of those should have bought the cd they were selling but was A$W25 and cheapo'd out!
further wandering after dinner found us in the local "hotel" which refers to a bar/club and further drinks ensued.. Imagine that and got to about 12:30 ish or so... and we needed to move on to the inn. But not without your late night meat pie fix.
next day was a little slow moving. But we all eventually got ourselves together and motivated and decided on a hike to the Byron Lighthouse. Not really knowing how far we eagerly agreed. All in all about 3-4 km but was mostly up up up steps and incline (basically scaling a mtn). But we did stop at the beach and "The rock" that david proposed to margery so we could gayly reenact the event in a photo shoot that would make Ange Jolie jealous. It was here that we actually witnessed a large (almost 7 ft wingspan) eagle swoop down and nab his dinner, a seemingly tasty large fish. This was to be a FULL thanksgiving caliber meal. He landed on the beach on rocks and diligently and patiently gripped and squeezed it with his talons, banging it on the rocks to kill the fish. Once he was satisfied it was dead he took it and flew up to an aerie in the rocks to enjoy his spoils. Watching this entire thing david took some incredible NATGEO photographs and I actually got a great one of him flying away. You may have seen it on the facelift page.
up to the lighthouse tremendous views and watching numerous whales breaching as they are in migration season now plus dolphins at play (many wave whales too, you will have to ask about those unique creatures). They are wave crests that you think you see a whale but no its just a wave -- wave whale.
here we are at the easternmost point in all of Oz looking out over absolute beuaty. I see holiday rental at this beach again sometime.
Dying of hunger we walk back into town to get Fish N CHips. What seemed like a 3 hour wait we got our Fish N chips takeaway (snapper crumbled with chips well done) and sat by the beach enjoying our best fish n chips EVER!
Back to the inn to get ready for our big anniversary night dinner. Dressing up for the occasion even with a tie, we began on the front porch with Veuve CLicquot. And how else would you begin such a grand night? I do not know any other way.
Margery had found this great place online called Muoi's Feast located in the heart of downtown (by the beach). The chef/owner is a vietnamese woman of very peasant upbringing in Vietnam was able to immigrate to Oz at a young age and get taken in by a family who raised her. she became a cook and worked as a chef at various hotel/restuarnts in sydney/melbourne (sydney hilton) and elsewhere and always wanted to own a restaurant. she and her husband opened this place about 5 or so years ago. Let me tell you it was dynamite. AND THE BEST SERVICE in all of Oz -- I know that's not saying much cause service in general is terrible but the service here was awesome. HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this restaurant to anyone . Margery and I both ordered the Wild Duck and David & Myra both ordered the Lamb Shank. YOu could not go wrong with either order. I think we pretty much closed the place down and I am sure they wanted us to leave but were very gracious. David & Margery got further vietnamese language lessons from the husband of the chef. Vietnamese dialogue does not come with everyone's meal here only those that enquire.
Next morning myra and I embarked for a walk into town and found Cafe Mocka for breakfast. Again, not bad service- not great- but great coffee and great eggs.
We then went back to bnb changed into swimsuits and drove over to Palm cove. Parked and walked down the beach to meet up with M &D for a final time and bid adieu for this journey and vowing to meet up again on another continent in another world.
Myra and I then got ready to head out but first provisions.
Travel budget tip: find a grocery store - we found ALDI's (we shop here at home) and stocked up on waters, fruit bars, cheeses and other sundry items to sustain us on our road journey and keep the "restaurant" tab bill lower in future dining times. Plus, stocking up on wine/booze helps as well at discount grocery prices (go to the Bottle Shop)
Heading out of town south on Tourist drive our next stop Coffs Harbour.
No comments:
Post a Comment