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Published: October 16th 2005
was tres sad to be leaving bribane 😞 still, new places are exciting so i got over it pretty quickly, lol.
slept most of the way to byron bay, my first stop in new south wales! (i feel like i've been in queensland like, forever!!) how super exciting!!!!! everyone that i had met so far on my travels had totally raved about byron, so i think that i had high expectations of the place. unfortunately, these expectations were not met 😞 had a lovely time in byron, don't get me wrong. i just thought that i had been to much nicer, more exciting places. ah well!!! just goes to show you that different people like different things and it pays to go to places regardless of what other people say and draw your own conclusions 😊
must say though, absolutely loved the hostel that i was staying in - was sleeping in a 10 person indian teepee!!! so much fun! the hostel had such a chilled, laid back atmosphere too, with free didgeridoo lessons, yoga classess, fire twirling shows, fab swimming pool and a hot tub! the place is run by hippies (seems to be the general theme of
byron bay). loved it to pieces and actually spent most of my time laying by the pool jumping in and out of the hot tub 😊
totally got over my obsession of wanting to buy a didgeridoo as well - after 5 days of listening to it someone playing it non stop i was about ready to crack the guy over the head with the bloody thing!!! still, i should thank him i guess, saved me a bit of money 😊 😊 😊
the guy who picked us up from the transit centre (mick) decided that i was posh and that he was going to call me miss sweeney for the remainder of my stay in byron bay. gr!!!! he was hilariously funny though, seemingly knew everyone in the town and went around calling everyone "cobber". awww, dead nice of him - when i realised that i had no money he gave me a lift into town and back so that i could use the cash machine 😊
byron bay is really small and the main shops are all along one main road which leads straight to the beach, so its not hard to get lost 😊
rough seas :s
down at byron bay beach frontthe pool was open every night till like 10.00pm so i went for lots of evening swims, soooo cool! its amazing just swimming around looking up at the stars and thinking "eep, i'm in australia!!"!!!! its still really warm in the evenings too so the pool doesn't feel cold or anything. awww, and just sitting there in the hot tub!! brilliant stuff!!!
after one night sleeping in the teepee i realised that reinforcements were needed - it was soooooooooo cold!! had to get another blanket and wear a jumper, hat and socks to bed the next night, lol. muist have looked hilarious! although everyone else soon picked up on my genius plan and did the same :D i guess its just like camping really, but with 10 other people in your tent and you actually have a bed 😊
totally novel getting up every morning and jumping in the swimming pool to wake up before breakfast!! was the first one in every morning, its lovely having a whole swimming pool to yourself!
on the friday i actually went to yoga which was cool 😊 then in the evening, after a hardcore afternoon of *ahem* sunbathing and
swimming, i went to the cinema to see charlie and the chocolate factory (third time, gotta love mr depp 😊). ahhhh, but this was no ordinary cinema! the arts factory lodge (the hostel i was staying at) has its own cinema which is apparently world renowned. the lights in it are uv. the chairs are all cow print sofas. and the first 5 rows are floor level sofa bed type things! tis awesome! everyone takes their blankets and you all get a sofa/sofa bed to yourself! definitely the best and comfiest cinema that i've ever been to!!! the only annoying thing was that the guy who was on the sofa bed next to me fell asleep and snored all the way through the film!!!! hehe. it was great though, kind of like watching a film at home, being all comfy and stuff but having a huge screen and a box office film 😊 if you ever get the chance, go 😊 tis a fab experience!!
eep, can't remember when it was, but i saw the hugest spider that i have ever seen in my life!!! it was on the pole holding the teepee up over the bed that was
next to mine!!! i took a picture then ran off screaming 😊 when i came back it was gone. i like to think that it went far far away. like, outside maybe :s
went for a walk along the beach on saturday morning and nearly got blown away!!! it was so windy, and the sea was really really rough! the waves were huge! so my little walk didn't actually last all that long 😊 that evening (after another lazy day sunbathing 😊) i went to a fire show at the buddha bar (the hostel's rather lovely bar) with jenny and sarah (who got to byron on the friday from surfer's paradise). the fire show was brilliant!!! it was all like fire juggling, fire twirling, fire eating and other 'fun' things involving fire. i so want to learn how to do it!! (shall put it on my 'to do' list...) after the show finished, we headed into town and went to a few bars and clubs but ended the night early (well, 1am, i guess that's not too early!) because we were all knackered! that was another thing - everyone had raved about how good byron bay's nightlife is. ummmm.
say hello mr turtle!
i took this picture!!!!! ok. maybe there's a different byron bay.....
on the sunday, me, jenny and sarah went on a day trip to nimbin. ok, so here's the thing about nimbin. its a little town about 70km inland from byron where the NSW turn a blind eye to the fact that marijuana/weed is openly sold here. everywhere. its basically the amsterdam of australia. and everyone who goes to byron goes there. just because it has to be seen to be believed. seriously, the place is insane. every single shop there sells drug paraphenalia and the cafes openly allow people to smoke pot on the premises. we went on an organised trip and were there maybe an hour. we were offered weed about 20 times. by men, by old ladies, by women with push chairs. walking along the street. looking around shops. wandering around the museum! it was all a bit scary to be honest. i've never seen a place like it before and i can see why people day trip there, because you just can't even begin to imagine what its like. definitely the most random part of my travels so far. was really quite glad to get back on the bus
me and sharn in the pool
night time swimming! so much fun! and leave :s after all that "excitement" we went to the channon markets. the channon markets are a market which travels around the byron bay area and are in a different place every sunday. it was really cool 😊 kind of quirky as it is run by hippies. but the area that the markets were in were so so beautiful, rolling hills, kind of like english countryside i guess. next stop, we went to some gorge lookout (can't remember the name!) but it had amazing views! we were so high up it was actually quite freaky!! but you could see for miles and miles.
awww, after all our goodbyes, guess who turned up at the hostel when we got back - sharna!! hehe 😊 she decided that she didn't like brisbane and she didn't like surfer's paradise so she was going to try and find work in byron 😊 likely story - i think she's just following me 😊 still, was lovely to see her again!!!!
on the monday morning i was up bright and early as i was going diving at 7.30am!! apparently julian rocks (a dive site just off the coast of byron) is one of
the top 10 dive sites in oz. my dive partner was a real live aussie lady called kylie, hehe, made me laugh 😊 had an awesome time! on our way out in the speed boat dinghy thing (proper charlie's angels style, in our wetsuits, lol.) we saw a humpback whale! once we were under the water we could actually hear the whalesong which was the most amazing thing. the visibility was great and we saw so much! i actually saw wobbegong sharks this time! yay! saw a really huge one just lying there on the bottom! and we saw a huge shoal of really big fish (say, each one was maybe the size of a cat??) just swimming above us! awww, and we saw a turtle swimming up to the surface. AND just before we were about to surface we met a turtle on the bottom! he was just kinda sitting there, looking at us and we got so so close, it was fantastic! definitely the best dive that i've done. ooooh, and we swam through a cod hole too. so yeah, the dive was brilliant fun!! when i got back to the hostel i was speaking to one of
the guys on reception and he totally freaked me out - after asking how my dive was, he proceeded to tell me how a few weeks ago there was actually a 6m great white shark just cruisin' around out at the dive site. cheers for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
eep, went to yoga that afternoon and it was a different instructor. he was weird :s think he was a little bit pervy and i didn't really enjoy the experience. not fun. especially when he chose me to be his partner when we were doing poses that required two people. ick. didn't go back to yoga after that funnily enough. :s
the next morning, got up uber early - 4.00am!!!!! was going on the sunrise tour up to the byron bay light house. rather unsurprisingly, no blokes were on it, lol 😊 the light house is actually the most easterly point of australia and the sunrise was amazingly. totally worth getting up for. we saw whales too 😊 so so pritty 😊
once we got back to the hostel i was totally determined to stay up (it was about 6.00am by this point) so i grabbed a blanket and my book and
sunrise at byron bay light house
the most easterly point of oz :) got cosy in a hammock. finally gave in and went back to bed when i nodded off and nearly fell out of the hammock 😊 finally got up at a far more sensible time and had a totally lazy day finalising my sydney arrangements and sunbathing 😊 awww, sharna got a job at a little cafe in byron so that evening we actually went out for a proper goodbye meal 😊 me, sharna, jenny and sarah all went for a meal and a few drinks at the buddha bar. a super fun evening was had. oooh, i don't think i mentioned irwin did i? irwin was in the teepee with me, lovely guy from america, however, he sounded just like kermit the frog which made it really hard to take him seriously, and i nearly wet myself everytime he spoke to me!!!
o yeah 😊 i'm not being mean! i swear!!! :D
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MUM
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Miss you.....................
Oh my God, whatever next....... Am so proud of you. Hope others will be inspired by your adventures.You will certainly find Luton a bit of a bore after all this.Miss you loads but have really enjoyed keeping up with you on the blog. Love you, sending big huggles, Mum XXXXXXXXXXXXXX