The Farm

After a surprisingly restful night in the Campervan, we took off this morning on a day trip of the areas surrounding Byron Bay. Our first stop was The Farm, a lovely organic farm right outside of the city that is open to the public. It reminded me of some of the places we go in the North GA mountains during apple season. We had a light lunch there, pet some animals, and walked their pretty property.

Crystal Castle

From the farm, we headed up into the nearby mountains to go to Crystal Castle. Crystal Castle is a nature sanctuary that houses some of the world’s largest crystals. They also have nature trails, a crystal cave, Buddhist temple and gardens, a meditation area, and more. It’s beautiful, tranquil, and a little bit cheesy, which is just how I like it. We hiked their paths and enjoyed the sights, but Rob was not interested in the daily meditation or sound healing 😂, so it was a fairly brief visit overall. Loved all their focus on peace and healing, and all the amethysts, particularly since that was the stone chosen for Jenna’s beautiful engagement ring.

Some cool videos from Crystal Castle:

Minyon Falls

Our next stop of the day was Minyon Falls in Nightcap National Park. It was a harrowing ride up the mountain, as we did not know that sections of the road were unpaved. Riding a giant camper up winding, small unpaved roads was a real test, but Rob handled it like a pro. And a side bonus- the remote unpaved roads were surrounded by rainforest housing koalas, and guess what?!? We saw our first koala in the WILD! So exciting! This little guy or gal was running across the road- we had no idea they could be this speedy- and scampered up a tree on the other side, but luckily I managed to get a few pictures! What a thrill! On top of this, we had heard kookaburra laughing while at Crystal Castle (probably going “You suckers spent $30 bucks to look at rocks! Bwahaha!”), but while we were stopped at Minyon Falls we actually SAW a kookaburra flying around the parking area. So cool! It is the dry season here so the falls were light, but it was a pretty stop. Our original plan had been to stay at Nightcap Park until evening to see if we could find their glow worms and glow fungi, but unfortunately the drive and the conditions of the road made driving up here at night in a Campervan an unwise choice, and we are too dang old (wise?!) to make those kind of dumb choices 😂. Anymore. 😬

Byron Bay Lighthouse

Our final stop of this busy day was a great sunset spot at the Byron Bay Lighthouse. We hiked out to the easternmost point of mainland Australia and then to the lighthouse for views. It was gorgeous, as you’ll see from the pictures! While we were there we saw a wild wallaby (a “swamp wallaby”), which we didn’t even know existed, and another koala up high in a tree. A great day for wildlife watching!

After sunset we headed back to our campsite, got the camper hooked up again (yay us!), and took a walk into town for a great pizza dinner at Pizza Lab Byron. Thank heavens for all the steps we are putting in because we are also putting away the food here! 😛 Thanks for adventuring with us!