Easter Holiday

Generally, when planning trips, we try to avoid the “peak” times as much as possible. That’s the benefit of being semi-employed and in grad school – our schedule has a lot of flexibility. However, when we decided to buy tickets to the Blues and Roots Festival in Byron Bay, we neglected to notice that 1) it was during the Easter long weekend, 2) Byron Bay is one of the busiest places in Australia during Easter, and 3) our driving route would take us along one of the main holiday arteries at peak time. But despite the crowded campgrounds and traffic jams in the middle of nowhere, we had a fantastic getaway.

Hanging out in traffic in the middle of nowhere, with guys honking to draw attention to their mates peeing on the side of the road because there was absolutely nowhere to go.


It's hard to get a sense of how crazy it was, but this is our crowded campground at the festival. We're waaaaaay at the back


The Blues and Roots Festival was good fun. They had some great artists, and it's just fun to listen to live music.

And the gumboot fashion was just astonishing! Here's just 1 example:


Other highlights of the trip included the Macadamia Castle,

a dip in the orange-coloured Lake Ainsworth,

and several Big things, because all good road trips in Oz MUST include some big things. We saw the Big Banana, the Big Prawn, and a big oyster (but I don’t think it was officially “the” big oyster).

We explored several small towns and their quaint personality. We had Devonshire tea in the beer garden at the post office/cafe/general store in Wollomombi. There were flowers and sculptures on one side of the garden, and shark jaws and beer signs on the other. We missed the goanna pulling championships in Wolli, but we had some great fish 'n' chips. And we drove down Waterfall Way, each enjoying the waterfalls in our own way.



We also spent a lot of time on the beach, 'cause you just gotta.








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