The Eatery Review + Roaming Byron Bay // Review ~ Adventures

Splendour festival is hard work, especially when you give yourself 3 hours to wake, freshen up (so you don’t look like the zombie you woke up as) and roll up those pesky sleeping bags before getting stuck in traffic back to Byron!

 

A little birdie (a.k.a. local Byron gal) told us to hit up ‘The Eatery’ in our cafe search because apparently ‘Cafe Byron’s’ coffees weren’t on point.

So what a better way to refuel – the place was a cafe + bar + bistro (wow slaying) but we were here for the lunch. Afterwards was the time to explore all the surfy stores, boutiques and arcades peppering Jonson St (and the surrounding streets).

 

The order was a slider plate of smoked salmon, bacon and chorizo ($15) and two Coconut Chia Bowls ($11). I’m not one for sliders but the chorizo one was rather good. I thought it would be punch-to-your-throat spicy but no! The sausage was cut not too thick, the mayo was light and the thick grated carrot was a nice change of texture (a little fresh crunch).

 

For me, chia seeds need something special as they taste quite plane on their own. Sweetened with maple syrup was a bit basic I thought and would have much rather more stewed fruit and the sweet vanilla labneh to do that job. It was also topped with this “Magic dust” as they called it which was a sweet version of dukkah with goji berries. It wasn’t a stand out dish, even the dukkah was kind of lost in the stewed fruit and quickly lost its crunch. I feel that Aboutlife do better chia pudding (I’m sorry).

 

The magic dust also graced the banana smoothie which I think properly tasted like banana unlike other I’ve tried! No sneaky caramel flavour here!

 

 

So this was where we chilled (with our luggage too) to watch Byron locals do their thang listening to a really good singing busker across the road.

 

Sadly one major flaw was the service time (like how fresh can you get with all the elements of our dishes already premade). Even though we got seated and ordered immediately, ours and another fellow splendour table took ages to come out like the cookie monster ate our orders or something! L The staff were really lovely though but we were so hungry we had to inquire after our order. How they didn’t manage to notice two tables sitting around for ages - I don’t know.

 

Let’s not end on this bad note, the place had the atmosphere that I was needing at the time – lazy and quiet with bar tenders working softly away.

Three Word Summary: Relaxing, Lively, Local
Ambience 4/5
Fare $$
Service 2/5
Foodwise 3/5

MVPD

Xoxo

There and Back Again: Coogee To Bondi Beach Walk

Spontaneous trip of the day: walk the 6 km coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi beach in Sydney! Annnnnd back again - 12 kms!

This was our thinking – what better way to get some cardio under our sleeve than to get the blood pumping in a brisk walk along beach and up and down stairs with great company and views of where the sea meets the sky. There was absolutely no excuse to skip exercise for the day is the deal was this sweet!
Weather was pretty nice since the past days have been bucketing rain so it's almost as though destiny had spoken!

 

First stop was Coogee shops for a milkshake power up at 9am and then the journey “There and back again” not featuring any Hobbits began! Of course you could start at the very top at Maroubra beach but our bus went right to Coogee so we stuck with that!

 

It was such a lovely walk filled with great ocean views, a lot of hat holding (thank you wind) and of course fit looking joggers to remind you of your 2015 fitness goals. For all you Tumblr morguls out there who blog Tumblr models/girls we even walked past Australian model Bambi Northwood Blyth near Clovelly (@bambilegit for those who don’t know her). She was walking too fast to stop her for a photo (still looked fresh faced despite the exercise – jealous!) but she did give me motivation to conquer the next leg of the trip!

 

The beaches were all quite empty with pretty rough waves so leg dipping was the only option. Just as well because the wind was still pretty nippy but maybe next time for sure!

Two hours later after conquering Coogee, Clovelly, Bronte, and Tamarama we finally reached Bondi and decided to lie on the grass and have a snooze before lunchtime arrived! You can totally demolish this walk in less time since we made multiple stops to take photos and we were only power walking anyway.

Finally at a very sleepy Bondi

Before no time in the sun it was time for a refuel lunch at before the much more windier and uphill staircase trip back to Coogee. We were feeling really adventurous but you could easily catch a bus from Bondi back home or something.
You feel so accomplished (why shouldn’t you) and start to envy the locals who probably do the walk everyday and have their banging bodies for evidence.

 

So sore legs all round on the bus home! If beach views and beaching dipping isn’t enough motivation to get you out of bed and exercising today I don’t really what will! Grab a friend , swimmers and your sun protection arsenal cause this is definitely a trip I’d do again (maybe half jog next time? Who am I kidding :P)


MVPD