The Pacific Highway

The Prawn Supremacy

Continuing on our travels up the Pacific Highway we stopped off for a break at another awesome roadhouse (the Rock Roadhouse we saw earlier last week has nothing on this). On Friday the Greyhound pulled up at the Big Prawn. I immediately preferred the Big Prawn to the Rock Roadhouse, and not just for it's B-movie charm. Whereas the Rock is essentially a small version of Uluru there is no larger version of the Big Prawn to be found anywhere in the world. This is the definitive Prawn. We've heard rumours that there's a Giant Lobster out there, but for now the Big Prawn remains the king of the road

Friday, Byron Bay, 759km north of Sydney

We spent a few hours hill-walking to reach the lighthouse at the top of Cape Byron. The sun has been extreme the last few weeks and we're all several shades darker than we've ever been - Lee's sandals have left him with tan stigmata on the top of his feet. The vistas of the bay were stunning and totally worth the climb - these beaches are the real deal. Unfortunately the YHA was fully booked out so we had to slum it in a hostel called the Arts Factory. This place was hell on Earth and crammed with 18-30 party goers from England. In the evening we went to see a family jug band perform, it consisted of an old man on a banjo and his 8 kids most playing washboards and one who tap danced on top of the tables - proper hilly billy stuff.

Sunday, Coolangatta, 875km north of Sydney

Situated at the most southerly part of the Gold Coast where impossibly perfect white sandy beaches seem to stretch off to infinity. Nice place, though the YHA sucked - an enormous aboriginal guy and his son tried to fleece me for $10, which was weird.

Monday, Brisbane, Capital City of Queensland, 1011km north of Sydney.

Brisbane impressed us. Attractive and compact with large free open air swimming pools complete with fake beaches on the south bank of the city, all opposite the colourful city skyline. Very nice place.