Byron Bay

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Day 1 (Monday) - The bus (or van) ride to Byron Bay was pretty uneventful. I talked with four Brits for about an hour then it was time to get off. As I was getting off the van, I saw Nigel (from Fiji). We were meeting back up to travel down the coast a little bit together. I had told him when I would arrive but expected to see him at the hotel, not the bus stop. He had a box of noodles he was eating in his hand and I was jealous. To his credit, he offered me some but I knew that would just make me hungrier and I have a weird thing about sharing food. Soon enough Niki, the girl working at our hotel showed up to pick me up and take us to our home for the night. This hotel was a little further out of town than the hostels but it was about the same price for a two bed room in a place ranked much cleaner and comfortable than the hostels. After being in hostel dorm rooms ever since leaving South America nearly a month before, it was nice to have a night’s reprieve. Upon getting to the hostel, I unloaded my stuff, let Nigel have the big bed (he slept on a bus the night before) and I took the fold out. The cot was comfortable, aside from its tendency towards collapsing. I know, I have the ritziest of tastes. However, once I took down the legs and it was flat on the floor, all was right with the world. Now it was time to get things right with my stomach and find a place for the following night (the place we were staying that night was booked). We headed into town and walked past the Noodle Box that Nigel had gotten his food from earlier. The smells of Nigel’s were so good that I couldn’t continue past and got my own box. After eating, I felt much better and was ready for our difficult task of finding accommodation. Way too much time of traveling can be spent searching for accommodation. It is best to plan ahead if possible. So we walked on our way stopping at ever hostel and cheap looking hotel we could along the way without finding much success. Our last stop was The Aquarius. We didn’t have much hope but when we showed up they said they could take us for the next two nights. We got the last two beds. Being successful champions of the universe, we were very proud of ourselves. Sometimes the best victories are small ones. We then decided to walk back to the hostel. It was getting to be late in the afternoon and we both wanted to get cleaned up and changed. The evening started with a walk to another hostel where there was a talent show that evening. It was late getting started, so we didn’t get to see much of it. We left early to head to a local club that was apparently where everyone went. If you ate dinner there, it was cheap and you avoided a cover charge. We did eat dinner and we stayed through trivia night and then through several hours of dancing. I felt a little out of place there as it was filled with all gap year kids (18 or 19 years old). It was as if I was on European Spring Break. We bailed out of there a little before 2am and made the long (not that long) back to our place. Nigel was out quickly and I was as soon as I had finished a little electronic correspondence.

Day 2 (Tuesday) - Got up around 11 before a noon checkout. It felt good to just lie in bed. We took advantage of the included breakfast, which was my first ever encounter with vegemite. I put too much on and could not stand it. Niki saw my error and offered to make me a vegemite sandwich. The key was to put butter on first then spread a light layer of vegemite on top. I have to say that I was pretty surprised that I enjoyed it. We made it to our new hostel around 1 at which point we ventured out to the beach. The beach was quite a nice one with comfortable sand, beautiful people and pretty water covered with sizeable waves. We ventured into the water and did a little body surfing. The waves were perfect: large enough to provide a good ride; not too large as to be dangerous and long breaking to so as not to be over too quickly. After wearing ourselves out, we were hungry, so we ventured out to get some food. As is often the case in Australia, the decision came down to fish and chips or a kebab. We chose the fish and chips. After supplying our bodies with much needed nourishment, we headed back to the hostel where we got cleaned up for the evening. That evening started at the same venue as the night before but we quickly got tired of that and found another place down the street where the one man band played a host of great rock-n-roll covers. We spent the rest of the evening there till we were tired.

Day 3 (Wednesday) - We woke up late again, which was a nice change of pace. Upon waking, we talked with Steffen, one of our roommates. Steffen is a German who like many others is planning on spending nearly a year in Australia, working as he goes. The only problem is that with the host of economic problems, it has been hard finding a job. The previous day he had looked all day with no hope in sight. So giving up he joined Nigel and I as we were headed back to the beach. We went back to the same spot and basically spent the day as the day before, chasing waves. These waves were bigger than the day before though and were more powerful. We had gone in three times when on the third time Nigel and Steffen were injured on the same wave. This was the point when it was time to go crash on the beach. I got a nice nap before it was time to head in. We all got cleaned up then headed in to town to run some errands and grab some dinner. After dinner, we went to the supermarket where we all grabbed loads of chips and drinks. We were busy snacking away back at the place when our two Swedish girl roommates (Johanna and Louisa) came back from their day and asked what our plans were. Louisa was feeling sick and going to stay in, so Johanna was keen on going out with us. We went to a swank bar that was a ‘have to go’ place for a drink but it was quite expensive, so we left there and headed to a beach party made mostly of Swedes that Johanna knew. It was a good time but about 12:30 I got tired and decided to head back to catch some Zzzzs.

Day 4 (Thursday) - Nigel and I had talked about trying to surf this day but with all the people that were in the water, I was afraid to try as I thought I would end up injuring someone. Instead, we decided to walk to the lighthouse, which is another thing that everyone said we had to do. It was quite a walk but very pretty and we found the Eastern most spot in Australia. We cut the walk back in half by stopping at a different beach than the day before. It was quite beautiful and different than any other beach I have been to. Waves roll for what looked to me to be a hundred meters because there is so little variation in the depth of the water. The waves are not large but it is quite a surreal feeling. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience much of it as it started to rain shortly after we got there. Luckily there was a restaurant nearby that we could escape the rain in, being only half drenched. After the rain stopped, we walked back into town and then back to the beach from the day before. Unfortunately, it started to rain there after a bit and we headed back to the hostel where we took showers. We caught a ride to the bus station about 6, though our bus wasn’t for a couple hours. With heavy bags, you take a lift when you can get one. We checked email then grabbed a pizza. It started to rain heavily when we were getting pizza so we decided to wait it out there for a while. When there was a break we went to the bus station, which was really nothing more than a covered sitting area, and enjoyed watching the rainstorm as we waited on our bus. It arrived ahead of schedule and we were off right on time.

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Photos

Beach
One of many beautiful beaches

Bus Stop
Raining