The Spirit Of Travel

Hi everyone,

Hope you’ve been having a good time either planning a trip or travelling the globe. Where ever you are, I hope the following lines will provide you with some insights or useful information in your travels.

In my last blog, I explained to you how I make my travel/destination decisions, and what my thinking process is.

Once I’m clear in my mind what it is that I really want to do, then it’s real easy. However I’m a person who needs to be at my destination of choice to make these decisions. I need to feel, smell and see the place, a brochure is good in the beginning but that’s about all I use it for. There is a saying that sums it up for me; the map is not the territory, and the map in this case for me is the travel brochure/catalogue.

So this is what happened. Within a couple of hours, a more detailed plan was worked out. I went to see one of the travel agents in Sydney, and explained roughly what my trip was about and the places I knew I wanted to see.

Stuart was very good. He quickly figured out that I needed some basic things in place to get started and on the other hand enough space, to make decisions while travelling and being able to turn my plans upside down.

So here is what I ended up with.

• 30 day Greyhound Pioneer Travel Pass Sydney - Cairns one way. The only real restriction was that I had to be in Cairns within 30 days, which didn’t seem a problem for me at the time and indeed it wasn’t. There are passes that are valid 2 months too. Check out their website; www.greyhound.com.au
• A booking for my first leg on this journey from Sydney to Byron Bay, the next day or so
• A room in one of the backpackers in Byron including the transfer, which these places used to do for free on either arrival or departure. I’m not sure they still do the courtesy transfer, but this is just a matter of asking them when you book.

This last step, as you might remember, suits my travelling style, because I want to have one thing in place and that is a bed and a roof over my head at the destination.

So there was not much more left but to enjoy Sydney for another couple of days and then hop on the bus at around 10.00pm to arrive in Byron Bay by the next morning.

It was a really good experience. First of all, I can sleep on a bus just as easily as I can sleep on a plane or train. So I could fast track my journey and make up some time with not missing out that much in my mind anyway.

The busses stop every few hours at a roadhouse. There are toilets, and some food outlets too. It amazed me how many people in their private cars, where at these roadhouses at just about anytime of the night. This showed me that the Aussies are on the road a lot no matter what time of the day or night.

Once in Byron, I checked into the Hostel and started exploring.

I chose Byron as a destination, because many people have told me that this is one of the most beautiful spots in New South Wales. And indeed it is, the landscape, forests and the beaches are splendid. However, I did not feel any sense of belonging there at all. But I guess that’s just me and that’s fine. We all need to experience different places and things to come to our own conclusions what we like and what we don’t like.

Please don’t get me wrong, this is not a reflection of Byron Bay, it’s just a reflection of my very own preferences. I have come across more people who liked Byron Bay than didn’t like it, so by all means go and check it out for yourself, and let me know what you think.

Till next time!

Cheers

Barbara

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