Blogs from Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 16

I'm so happy to be here in Byron Bay. After 8 out of 9 days on the road, driving a minimum of 5hours and maximum of 8hrs a day, I am so excited to be camped in one spot. Iris has a annexe that finally got put up today, called Jimbo (in dedication to my friend Jim, who has single-handedly been the backbone of Iris's renovations and who has taught me so much in the last 12months) and I am so grateful to have the extra space and somewhere to put my chair and drink a beer on the occasional night and toast to my friend Jim. After leaving the spectacular and freezing Jindabyne, I made it to the coast, after another frightful drive down the alpine region, mostly driving in 3rd gear so I didnt ... read more

Hey everybody! I am in Byron Bay still but not for long, I will be heading up to Brisbane again to look for work! I had been working in Byron Bay for the past few weeks handing out flyers for the Peter Pan travel agency for accommodation (and any tour or activity you can book at the travel agency ) and working nights as a bicycle rickshaw driver. Money from the rickshaw gig wasn’t that great since you work from 6PM to 4AM and have to pay to rent the bike whether you make enough money to cover the rent or not. My best night got me $90 take home but there was another night where I ended up having to pay $10 for the privilege to stay out on the bike for 10 hours. Needless ... read more

Byron Bay - one of my favourite towns in Australia - a laid-back, relaxed, environmentally conscious hippie town with various bars with amazing life bands! There are also wonderful beaches and national parks! I visited Nimbin, where all the alternative marihuana smoking old hippies live. I got interesting information about composting toilets (no water needed), solar energy,etc. how much more water is needed for meat production than for vegetarian diet, despite this -the animal industry negatively impacts bio-diversity through habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, the introduction of non-native species and increased competition for food and water! (for more information: Vegetarian network: www.vnv.org.au!) I also got to know "friends of the earth international", which is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, who campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and... read more

Hey from Byron Bay! I’m here 2 days after my awesome road trip from Sydney to Brisbane. Julie and I rented a camper van from Wicked (the cheapest of all the camper van rental companies) for 5 days. We started out in the afternoon on a rainy Monday and fought our way through the huge crowd al trying to get their reserved campers on the road. The staff member serving us was a French guy who looked as if it wasn’t possible for him to be less enthusiastic about his job, but after about an hour’s worth of waiting, paperwork, and more waiting, we got our ride and got out of the depot and onto the road! I’ve only driven through Sydney once in my life and I intend to leave it at that, it’s like ... read more

Mar. 6 – 8 Woke up early and heard what I thought was a chainsaw. I was right. We all watched as a crew of men cut down a tree from the neighbour’s yard that shaded most of Jen and Simon’s backyard. Quite a few birds were very unhappy and I suspect there were a few nests in the tree. Poor Kookaburras. We went downtown and I rented a car for a couple days. Drove Simon to soccer game and then Jenica and I went to Mount Coot-Tha Botanical Gardens. Saw lots of amazing trees, plants and birds. Quite a noisy group of sulphur crested cockatoos – big birds. Quiet night. Up early Sunday morning and drove to Byron Bay – 2 hours south of Brisbane. Our goal – Kayaking with the dolphins. This was the ... read more