From Byron Bay to Brisbane

After traveling approximately 900 km from Sydney (over the course of 3.5 days), we arrived in Byron Bay. It's a coastal town that mainly attracts surfers and beach enthusiasts. After meeting mostly people aged 60 and over in recent weeks, we have now encountered young backpackers as well as families with small children/babies.

We were lucky, as there was immediately a market in Byron Bay offering everything from clothing to jewelry and knives, to food and tools against supernatural forces. We were able to spend a good few hours browsing the individual stalls.

In the late afternoon, we headed to the beach, and the water invited even us cold-blooded folks to take a dip with its pleasant temperatures. Even baby M wanted to splash her feet in the water.

The second day was also spent leisurely strolling through the town, eating, and enjoying some time on the beach before we headed to the Gold Coast. Since baby M is currently in training mode, practicing sitting and crawling, we want to give her as much time on the ground as possible to let off some steam.

At the Gold Coast, we stayed in an apartment near the beach. Since the campground would have cost only slightly less per night than an apartment, we opted for the more comfortable option.

From the Gold Coast, we drove to the Springbrook National Park for a short hike and walked the Twin Falls circuit, which took 2 hours (with a longer break at the waterfall). The Twin Falls themselves were very beautiful; some were even swimming, but unfortunately, we didn’t have our swimming gear (though it might have been a bit chilly...).

Afterwards, we continued on the circuit path, passing by another waterfall and along beautiful views of the valley, following the small path up and down until we reached our car again.

The last stop with the car, before it was returned the next day, was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Here we saw sleeping wombats, a Tasmanian devil, two platypuses that seemed unhappy with their aquarium (one kept going in circles, while the other just hung out underwater and didn't move - very sad 😞), and ultimately many kangaroos, which we were able to pet.

The next day, we were unfortunately greeted with some heavy rain - so unpacking the car wasn’t much fun, as we spent the last nights in an apartment before heading to Singapore. Somehow our luggage also grew instead of decreasing as planned...

The next few days had somewhat mixed weather, but since we were also looking forward to 'doing nothing' (other than taking care of the baby and ensuring our well-being) and reading, the occasional rain was quite welcome.

Baby M also enjoyed the fact that she could crawl to the cable with little effort and was undeterred by our 'no'. Once she spotted the cable, everything else was irrelevant, and she overcame every obstacle 😀

We found Brisbane quite nice, especially Southbank, which we liked a lot. There are free pools, a small rainforest to stroll through with a pagoda, and many restaurants. Since it was Easter break, it was quite busy, especially at the pools.

The free walking tour was unfortunately one of the worst tours we’ve ever experienced 😞

And then we just had to pack our bags and try not to forget anything as we head to our next stop in Singapore.