Wwoof #3 - Byron Bay

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We have spent the last 9 days with a family in Byron and have loved every minute. This family is quite a large one; our Wwoof hosts, their 6 children (ages 8-17), their cat Rascal and their dog Tara. For most of our stay there has been 2 French Wwoofers here too, Laure and Anthony. Absolute chaos! The family is 15 minutes away from Byron Bay and on top of driving the children around they also dropped us off in Byron pretty much every day! Note to parents: If you thought you had it bad dropping/picking us up, you haven't seen anything!!

Anthony and Leure had been here 5 weeks before we arrived and were sleeping in the caravan so we were given the cabin. When we arrived it was all kinds of colours, so our main job was to paint the cabin. It's looking pretty good now if we say so ourselves! So, a typical day in Byron: Wake up as we please, brekkie, paint or look after the youngest and try to ween him off the XBox whilst our hosts ferried the other children about, get dropped in to Byron, get 3 scoops of Ice Cream from our favourite place Gelatico (the best by far is Snickers Ice Cream!) and then hit the beach. Or, hit the beach in the morning and cook dinner at night.

Our hosts are so relaxed and really don't demand a lot from us which has been lovely as the 6.30am starts at the other Wwoofers were starting to nacker Amber out! I don't suffer from oversleeping syndrome! On Australia Day (26th January) which is widely celebrated out here (unlike St George's Day), we met up with some friends we met in Asia. One pint turned in to eight and we ended up staying out in Byron and having a bit of a blowout. We had a really good day and ended up kipping on the floor of our mates hostel. We spent the following morning on the beach and the afternoon playing with the kids. It's a hard life! Each evening we have been watching films (it's the only way to keep the boys quiet!) and we've watched Finding Nemo, Boy, Mao's Last Dancer, Happy Feet and Billy Elliott.

Here comes the creepy crawly bit. The first night we arrived we were introduced to Freddy the spider, the HUGEST spider I have seen my life. It was about the size of my hand. It's a very sporty household here, the boys (all 4 of them) are really in to football and 3 of them play at a really high standard, so after a bit of banter about Australian 'soccer' and The Ashes demolition, I think we were shown the spider so they could get one over on The Pommies! It worked! However, when we went up to the cabin and were greeted with a spider about the size of Amber's hand, I just ushered it way with a broom (quite an achievement for me!). There was also a huge Cane Toad in the bathroom! Talking of bathrooms, they have a composting toilet here which is good but I always reach for the flush! Also, a snake shed it's skin along the vine outside (above where we sat for dinner). Apparently it belonged to one of the deadliest snakes in the world, although this may have been another scare The Pommies tactic! The cabin is about 100m from the house and I hate the walk there at night - i'm pretty sure one night we saw a snake, and then you have to watch our for the cane toads and when we finally arrive at the cabin we are greeted by cockroaches!! Amber doesn't mind it so much and my attitude has changed towards them since we first arrived in Thailand. When I say changed I mean I don't cower in the corner and leave Amber to deal with them - I now smash them with a big broom and hope for the best!

On Sunday we loaded up the car with a few surf boards and headed for the beach or the surfers bit known as 'The Pass'. One of the sons attempted to teach us how to surf. Amber says it's one of the hardest things she's ever done (mainly because it takes effort!). To be fair, it is really hard and you clearly have to be physically fit to surf. The current (or the 'sweep' as they call it) was so strong and the waves were coming every 10 seconds. I caught a wave but couldn't get my bloody gangly legs on to the board! Amber just clung on to the surf board for dear life and tried not to drown! We are going to hire a board further up the coast and give it another go because we did really enjoy it! After a spot of surfing we headed to the quarry where thrill seekers jump from ridiculous heights into the water pool... Safe to say it wasn't our thing!

Yesterday we walked along the main beach, through a tropical forest and on to Watergoes Beach. It was so beautiful and tranquil - definitely one of our top three beaches up there with Sihanoukville (Cambodia) and Rai Leh (Thailand). There was just something about it; it felt inspiring. 700 metres up through the tropical forest you reach the lighthouse with the most amazing views of Byron Bay. It was absolutely breathtaking. There are 1500 dolphins and huge tortoises in the bay but we didn't spot any, we did see a huge stingray though. I was mesmerized just looking into the panoramic view of the ocean. I could literally pan my eyes from left to right and all you could see was deep blue sea. We have loved Byron, it's a real hippy, care free place where to walk bare foot is the norm.

Next stop is Surfers' Paradise (just for one night) and then to Brisbane to stay with our fourth Wwoof host. This should have been our last Wwoof stop but we've enjoyed it so much that we've arranged another for Cairns.

Love to all,

Mat and Amber

xXx

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Photos

Cabin after!
NO bugs will be getting through that net!

I might look proffesional on the beach...
... But I looked like a plonker in the sea!

Comments

[rena]

Byron
Hey beautiful ones..........pictures are fab and i am now insanely jealous!! Really need to save up and go to Aus......