Exploring

Brunswick heads turns out to be a lovely place. Very small - you walk around the block and you've seen most of it!! Brunswick is a much more affordable place to live than the more trendy places like Byron Bay, and does have most things its big cousins have. You could easily argue it has more - it's so much more quiet and peaceful than Byron, as we found out today...

This afternoon we explored Byron Bay (just up the road), which appears to have become somewhat of a hippie love heaven. The beach and bay there is absolutely gorgeous - some of the best coastline you've ever laid eyes on - but we reckon the town has the feeling of a place trying its hardest to be "alternative" (whatever that means). It's amazingly busy with hundreds of people and seemingly endless cars driving around the little streets. Every second shop is something overtly arty farty, and everyone seems to be in one of 3 categories - very well dressed and well-to-do (weekend visitors), wearing tie-dyed shirts and scarves (hippy wanna-be's on holiday) or genuine peace-lovers (mostly locals). Each to their own I guess.

Since we were in Byron, we decided "when in Rome... do as Romans" - so we had dinner at Earth 'n Sea pizza. Still the best pizza we've ever had - bar none. We love the wholemeal dough, the distinct lack of oil, and the great piles of tasty toppings (we recommend the satay chicken or the number 14) - luckily they now have a few shops in Brisbane too, so no excuses for bad pizza any more...

Outside the pizza shop there was a group of local buskers, who Grace decided were good enough to have a bit of a boogie to (she has a better dancing style than me - for which she will, at some point, be eternally grateful). We gave them a few bucks but I think they would have preferred a few beers - and who can blame them :-) I threw some coins in their guitar case, and tried to get Grace to do the same, but she threw the coins AT the guys, who were startled but thought it was very funny. Glad we can provide some amusement wherever we go!

Nambucca/Brunswick

Yesterday we said goodbye to Nambucca Heads - one of our favourite places so far. One of the best things about Nambucca is that you can make some great rhymes and limericks out of its name. There once was a girl from Nambucca...

Yesterday we drove a few hundred k's and we are now in Brunswick Heads. Brunswick is a little town situated about 5km outside Byron Bay, and in a lot of ways seems like Byron's poor cousin - it certainly doesn't have the development of Byron (although that might not be a bad thing) and it lacks shopping centres and the like - but it's got a charm all of its own. Luckily, it's just as beautiful, and we're camped down by the river near the roaring ocean. I'm planning on catching me a fish before we leave here - hope the fish are up for it.