Day 252
Wednesday
6 September 2017 –
Casino – Byron Bay
We were awake early yet again with the glow of the morning
sun filtering through the van. We managed to stay in bed til just before 8am
before finally crawling out and getting started.
With the morning routine complete, we bundled into the car
and made our way to Byron Bay passing through the towns of Lismore, Bexhill,
Clunes and Bangalow before finally making it to the coast.
We arrived at Byron Bay Brewery at 10am and hour earlier than
scheduled, so we decided to walk along the road checking out the swamp forest
area with its tall, spindlely paperbark trees and sheoaks. It was a forest of
enigma much like Byron itself, hard to place it into one box alone.
We returned to the brewery still early so we completed a lap
around the building before entering. The brewery was very funky and we could
see it being a great party place when music was on.
We sat in the beer garden waiting for the 11am opening,
meanwhile staff busily set about organising the venue and took time to make
sure we were fine as we waited for Will to come and chat to us.
When he was ready, we sat inside at the bar where Paul could
try the beers and chat to Will about them. Louie one of the brewers also came
out to talk to us and insisted that we have some food to go with the brews Paul
was trying, so we sat down to cauliflower poppers, sticky lamb ribs, chipotle
chicken wings and fries. It was delicious and all chosen for us by the brewer.
We were really impressed with the staff at the brewery, who
couldn’t do enough for us, they even gave Paul a hat and a tour of the brewing
kegs and soon to be renovated band room. It was a fantastic start to our day
and not a cent spent.
As Paul had been plied with beer, the keys were handed over
to me and I drove us on to Stone & Wood Beer, located in an industrial
estate. We met Cale, a Freo boy who was more than happy to chat about Little
Creatures Brewery, as he set about pouring Paul a tasting paddle. This was
another brewery with a great vibe. Cale gave us a good run down of the beers
and when Paul was done, asked after his favourite, he then promptly went of to
fill a squealer for him to take home and drink, another bonus.
We organised to return tomorrow to check out the brewery itself
and to try some beers under their Fixation label and then it was time to pour
Paul back into the car before heading on.
We had decided we would spend a couple of days in Byron and
had seen a campground at the local rugby club, so we drove back there to book
in, unfortunately they were undergoing renovations and we couldn’t stay, so we
ducked across to the Big 4 instead and booked for two nights.
With that done, we then made the hour and a bit trek back up
the hill and into the farming country to return to Casino. Paul took time for a
nap while I got lost in the drive. There was little traffic on the road, so it
was quite enjoyable.
At 5pm we were back at the campground and unloading the car.
I got on with going through the photos while Paul loaded the car onto the
trailer ready for tomorrow.
We did a quick walk, admiring the orange moon that was
glowing on the horizon due to the smoke haze in the air and then settled into
the van for the evening.
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