Byron Bay

After the haul out I needed a day off. Dan was pretty toasted too. We both wanted to see some of Australia and ever since my trip to the Gold Coast I wanted to get down to Byron Bay. Everything worked out right because Evan needed more crew and the hippy backpacker types stay in Byron. In retrospect, Byron Bay has been the best part of this whole trip so far...I'm definately going back there some day.

The day started a little later than it should have. I was told that Byron was only an hour South of Surfer's Paradise, but it sure turned out to be a bit longer. Evan gave us some flyers to post up, but there weren't too many. I figured we'd have to hit a copy shop once we got down there. No, Bill, they don't have Kinko's everywhere.

Dan and I got some muchies at this new breakfast place on the corner, before we hit the train. Brittney kept saying that we needed to stay the night there, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to take that many days off work. We still had a lot of work to do on the ship, and Kat is one hell of a bosun. I figured that we'd just make it a day-trip turn-around. We were on a mission after all. This was no pleasure ride; we were on a recruiting trip.

First: the train to South Bank, Brisbane. Switch lines to get to Gold Coast. Hour and change later we jumped the train at the end of the line and grabbed a bus down to Zone 19...which is WAY down the line.

After nearly an hour on the bus, stopping at every stop, we realized that it would take us hours to get there. A decision needed to be made, and fast.

As the bus blew by a car rental place, I knew we had to get off. The first 'Car for Hire' was really sketchy, but there was a more reputable one down the road....'Ned Kelly's Car Hire' turned out to be the place for us. Dan and I picked up a Mazda something-or-other that is comparable to a Yaris. Tom, you need to check this car out in the states. It's a little better than the Geo, but has all the good points.

On the way down the coast, I naturally got us off the highway so that we could take the scenic route along the water. It's no Highway One off California, but it does alright. Driving on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car is a real trip. I damn near killed us a dozen times in the first 5 minutes before I got the hang of the thing.

We stopped for lunch in some suburban town. Subway sandwiches, of all place...Dan needed some special battery for his camera and the Subway was next to the battery store. I think the name of the town was Tweed Heads, because just after that came Tweed Heads Valley. This little neck of the woods was just like the shire from Lord of the Rings. It's like the drive to Julian from San Diego except a hundred times better. I wanted to stop for photos, but we were running late and had a job to do still. I'll come back to this valley, and next time I'll have a bike. Yeah, that's the way this road needs to be travelled.

Shortly thereafter we made it to Byron Bay and naturally I drove straight to the beach. Sweet mother of Jude, this place is beautiful. It was really nice to see nature in action. I can't describe it enough, but trust me, it would blow you away.

While I was admiring the scenery, Dan was admiring the SCENERY. You see Byron Beach is full of free people and there's a very lax dress code. CBO, Tom, Kennedy: all those beautiful people I told you about were here....and they were topless.

The afternoon was well under way and we still hadn't talked to anybody yet. We needed to get a move-on. I told Dan, "Alright man, we don't have a lot of flyers, and I don't know if there's a copy place here. We can't just hand these things out to any Joe-schmoe. We need to hit larger groups, and leave one flyer per group." With that said, I walked straight up to the largest group of extemely hot, topless women that I could find.

What do you know, it was just my luck that the first group we hit all worked at a local Youth Hostel. After hearing our story, one hottie (Chelsea) said, "The town is completely booked up because of the festival! If you guys want to stay the night, you better act quick. There's probably only one or two beds left at our hostel and it might already be gone." Since we had rented the car, we had to stay the night. Good thing we got the hot tip too, because we ended up getting the last two beds in town.

The hostel had access to the beach, but in a round about way. We had to walk through this jungle area in the sand and then over some old rail tracks. The beach was just like something out of Juarassic Park and the hostel was just like the movie: The Island. It was wierd but cool.

Once we had the rooms secured, Dan and I headed back to the beach. We must have talked to over three hundred people and handed out dozens of flyers. We split up, worked as a team, took swim breaks in the beautiful waves, whatever. The afternoon went well.

As evening came, we hit the copy shop and started papering the town. There were a lot of tourists for a blues festival that's held here every year. (The list of bands was amazing, google Blues Over Byron for the full list.) I met some really cool beans and posted more flyers than I can count. Dan and I talked to so many people.

As the evening drew up, we headed back to the hostel for the Wednesday night barbeque. The food was cheap, but it was BYOB. "This is good," I thought, "I've got the perfect plan." We bought a case of beers and bought barby tickets from the front desk. While the meat was cooking up, I offered beers to my fellow hostelers. Everybody was so friendly, I ended up getting more drinks offered to me than I gave away. And of course, I was handing out flyers the whole time. Everybody wants to know where you're from and what you're up to. It just worked out that I had a flyer for the boat to go along with my story.

Dan and I met up with Meja from Sweden and a few of her friends. Thanks for the tour, ladies. The hostel was giving out free gift cards to a particular club, and since we stayed at this particular hostel, we didn't pay cover. Life was working out pretty well. The folks we met at the beach that worked the hostel were all there too and apparently everyone was going to the same bar.

...enter elipsis here...

The night got a lot more interesting, but in the morning all our limbs were attached and our passports were still in our pants, we counted it a win and headed home by 11. Dan got some boomerangs that were painted by this aboriginal artists, but I couldn't afford one. The trip was already becoming too costly.

The trip home was a long one, but just as we arrived back at the ship. Mark and Brit were headed to the pub. "A nightcap would be so bad," I thought. Man was I right. There was a Jam session goin on at the pub and we all really got into it. Mark was playing guitar, Dan was on drums, and there were two guys from a local Irish band there with guitars and harmonicas. I had a schooner of Tooeys and ended up singing. I can't believe what a good time we all had. The pinacle of the night was when this Maury guy picked up the guitar and started doing tunes in his native language. For those of you who don't know, the people in the film Whale Rider are all Maury. I got some video, but the video upload on this site isn't working. I'll have to show you all when I get back.

I definately want to go to New Zealand. I will go back to Byron Bay.

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