BYRON BAY
Day 48 - Sunday 1st November
BRUNSWICK HEADS TO BYRON BAY
We woke up to a new month and a new time zone. At some point yesterday afternoon we crossed the Queensland/New South Wales border. We were glad we didn't stay up till 3am to watch the Rugby World Cup Final as Australia lost. This means we are now 11 hours ahead of you lovely people back in the UK, when we arrived two months ago, we were 9 hours ahead, but then the UK clocks went back an hour and we've gone forward!!
We made breakfast then headed to Mullumbimby to meet a guy from Gumtree who was selling surfboards. There we picked up a banged up mini mal for me - it was cheap, but it was also pink. We decided to go for it as beginner boards this shape don't come along very often at this price (£101 to be precise) but it was pink. PINK!
Then we headed back to the coast to Brunswick Heads, a cute village by the sea. We took my board for a first surf, which didn't go too well as the conditions were not great.
We headed back into the village and had lunch at a place that Liz and Peter had recommended called Yami where we had falafel, pita and hummus. It was delicious. There were some cute vintage shops to explore.
Then it was time to head to Byron Bay woohoo!
We parked up not far from the beach, which is easier said than done in Byron. There are strict parking rules and you cannot park between the hours of 1am - 5am anywhere in town, effectively stamping out people who might try to free camp in their vehicles. The nearest free sport was where we'd stayed the previous night, 20 minutes out of town. If you wanted to stay closer, you had to stay in a designated car park of a hostel, which cost a minimum of $36, as a comparison, the most we've paid to camp so far has been $25 for a beautiful spot with loads of space to ourselves. In Byron you are literally squeezed in like sardines on a normal car park. Not cool!!
We went for a wander to get our bearings in this new town. There are quite a few lovely clothes shops and I started chatting with a lady in one of them and talk turned to pattern cutting. She said she may have use of a pattern cutter as hers had just had a baby and might not be available for the season so we swapped details. To be honest, we weren't planning to stay in Byron but it's good to have options eh!
Later on we met up with Stefi and Nacho just as Nacho was buying a new surf board. Which only meant one thing... He had to go surfing right away! Me and Stefi hung out at the hostel and I had an amazing WARM shower (perhaps worth the $36 after all?). When the guys got back, they showed us some photos of a python that was hanging out on route to the surf.
We made dinner then went out for a beer at the railway pub - a place with so much potential as its in a disused railway station, but they don't make use of all the amazing space at all!
We stayed the night at the hostel that they've been staying at but decided that after tonight we'd make the journey in to town everyday and sleep at the free spot.
Day 49 -
Monday 2nd November
BYRON BAY
Stefi and Nacho both had the day off so we decided to hang out for the day. First up was surfing, although the planned dawny didn't really happen and then we had to visit every surf break to find any decent waves. Trouble was, there wasn't really any swell and everywhere seemed pretty crap. Just as we were beginning to lose hope after checking out Broken Heads, a French dude came past on a skate board and told us about a point that was a 20min walk away over the headland at a beach that was much more protected from the wind. We made the trek there and got in.
I went in but soon came out as the tide was coming in, taking me nearer and nearer to some rocks. If you're experienced this wouldn't be a problem but I have no idea how steering works on a surf board and didn't want to break my new pink lady! I was able to catch waves on the new board but not stand up in time, but hopefully I'll be able to improve with practise.
Lunch was a cheap burger and chips on the grass where everyone hangs out during the day in Byron. We spent the afternoon in the library attempting to brush up on our CVs and portfolios. We realised it was going to be a bigger task than we first thought.
The rest stop that became of home for the week:
That evening we headed back to the rest stop 20 minutes out of town, where we met an English couple called Emily and Mark. They decided that if they were going to do a Hills & Waves, they'd be called 'Hoofs and Wheels' as she likes horse riding and he likes cycling. They later described themselves as 'the evil H & W' which I found really funny. As we were umming and arhhing whether to turn in for the night, Mark spotted a huge spider on Vanwell. We all ran over to have a look. It was bloody MASSIVE! I ran off and climbed the curb, cos you know, he wouldn't be able to get me up there (never mind the fact he'd had no problem at all climbing our slippery van). It was left to Will to flick him off the van with his flip flop. Unfortunately, the flick sort of turned into a squish as he struck the spider with too much downwards instead of sideways force. We huddled round his body on the floor to see if it was still alive. Someone asked if he as dead and Will said, "well he's curled up and not moving" and that was sort of the end of that. In the morning we checked on him and to our surprise, he had gone. Either he had made a miraculous recovery or a bird had him. Either way, a meter away from where he had landed last night, we found a large spider leg, so I imagine it was the later.
Day 50 -
Tuesday 3rd November
BYRON BAY
Today was another afternoon spent at the library. After working all day on my stuff on the laptop, it was Wills turn. It was a rather non eventful day, but hey, travelling the world can't always be climbing mountains and skydiving!
In the evening we headed to The Byron Bay Brewing / Pighouse Flicks cinema to drink beer and watch the film 'Everest' about the 1996 disaster that claimed 8 lives in a single day. I've been wanting to see this film ever since I saw posters for it because of my strange fascination for mountains, mountaineering and climbing. Since spending some time in Nepal, Kathmandu and high up in the Himalayas, I have wanted to know more, and this film sparked off that interest again. A lot of it is to do with how the altitude affects you physically and mentally, and how this can impair your judgement and your ethics.
I do believe that it has to be every man for himself up there because of the very real danger you put yourself in if you stay behind to help someone who isn't moving fast enough to get down in time. But the decisions of people climbing past the summit deadline of 2pm, combined with poor planning to set up the routes in advance, plus of course a deadly storm all added together caused such tragedy up there in the most unforgiving place on earth the 'death zone', where your body is quite literally dying from the lack of oxygen. Since seeing the film I have bought two books - 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer who was a journalist and climber in Rob Halls Adventure Consultants team, and ' Left for Dead' by Beck Whethers, also a client of Halls, who as the name suggests, was twice left for dead on the mountain by other climbers who believed he was beyond help because of his horrific frostbite wounds.
Day 51 -
Wednesday 4th November
BYRON BAY
Went wave hunting in the morning with Will and Nacho and found one around the corner of Lennox Head. We surfed on Sharps Beach. Will tried to get me to go further out back on the board but I got nervous and went in closer to the beach where I could still touch the ground with my feet.
A friendly warning in one of the car parks...
Surfing done, we had coffee in Lennox Head and a delicious cake.
On the way back to Byron, we stopped at a lovely point on a river for lunch, where we made cheese and ham toasties on the public use BBQs.
In the afternoon I rang a few recruiters while Will put in some more library time. I had a haircut as a hair model for a trainee hairdresser which was pretty nerve wracking as it felt like I was the first real person who's hair she'd cut... She got a bit stressed out at one point and did a massive sigh at which point her supervisor came over and took over for a little bit. I have always been a fan of getting my hair cut for free by people training as you never know what's going to happen... I like to think of it as a sort of extreme sport. It takes a lot of courage to sit in that chair!
Once I was done and the hair cut looked pretty good (it was only a one length trim after all, I mean, how wrong can it go!?) and Will had been kicked out the library, we went and had a pint on the waterfront, then headed to Nachos work for an Indonesian dinner. It was delicious.
As we started driving back to the rest stop, the heavens opened and we drove through a MASSIVE storm. It didn't stop pouring down all night and there were incredible blue bolts of lightening that filled the sky. We lay looking out the back window watching the show but eventually fell asleep to the sound of rain hammering down on the metal roof.
Day 52 -
Thursday 5th November
BYRON BAY
On the drive into Byron Bay every day, we had noticed 'The Farm' just off the junction of the highway. We googled it and found it had a restaurant, shop, but also daily yoga classes. I decided to give it a go today, so we awoke bloody early and drove there in time for the 6.30am class. It was an amazing yoga studio in an old wooden farm building. The class was really good, it felt good to be yoga-ing, I don't think I've done it since India. They also did amazing coffee and chocolate croissants.
That day we had planned to go to Nimbin. We were unsure whether to go as Liz and Peter had told us it was pretty pants. But you know, sometime you gotta see things for yourself. In short, Liz and Peter were right. For us, the best part of going to Nimbin was the lovely drive there. The second best part was the lovely drive back.
Nimbin is essentially a street with lots of crap hippy shops selling crap hippy stuff. We sat and ate a crappy pie but the people watching was certainly not crap. Ageing hippies in tie dyed hemp clothing wandered past and I wish we'd gotten photos of them but we were too engrossed, and actually, in all honesty, the pie wasn't that bad. We went into an art gallery and were promptly offered hash cookies along with the sketches. A nose in a second hand book shop was the only thing that salvaged the trip as I bought the second instalment of Game of Thrones, whilst selling him the book I'd just finished, resulting in a very cheap purchase. He also threw in a free homemade chocolate each (which we think was drug free but who knows)
When we got back we headed to Brunswick Heads as there was a plug at a day use area that we desperately needed to charge our laptop. But Will went for a surf first on the other side of the river mouth and by the time we got back it was nearly dark and the bloody electricity gets turned off at the plug when it's dark (probably to stop weirdos like us from hanging around) and so it was game over.
Back at the rest stop we cooked a delicious dinner of roast veg, cous cous and halloumi safely under cover as again the nightly storms rolled in right on time.
Day 53 -
Friday 6th November
BYRON BAY
As yoga had been so good the day before, I decided to go again, although this time it wasn't quite so good. C'est la vie.
We headed in to town and had a chilled day.
As it was our last night, we treated ourselves to dinner out. But first, happy hour drinks at Byron Fresh Cafe as they have good beer and live music. We went for burritos at Miss Margarita and they were delicious. We had seen people queuing up at this place everyday so finally we tried it for ourselves.
We walked back along the beach to where we'd parked for the day and watched an incredible lightening show erupting over the lighthouse point. We stayed and watched but hurriedly ran back to the van when we felt the first drops of rain reach us.
Day 54 - Saturday 7th November
BYRON BAY TO A REST STOP A COUPLE OF HOURS SOUTH OF BYRON
Today was to be our last day in Byron. The plan was to walk to the lighthouse for opening time (10am), look round, walk back to the van and head off. But like all good adventures, the day didn't pan out the way we planned. We kick started the day with a delicious toast breakfast, then drove from our rest stop into Byron for the last time in search of a wave. Satisfied with broken heads, we kitted up and jumped in. A miraculous thing happened this surf. Same as what happened in A bay. I just sort of got it. The standing up part I mean, I'm not some sort of pro. I was playing around in the white water on the new board and my aim for today was to pop up on the board, and the conditions were right and the waves were strong enough but not too powerful that a) I would fall off or b) I would be too freaked out to go for anything. So yep, there I am in the shallows and it was awesome because there was a sandbank quite a distance out, meaning I was in for a long-ish ride but I could still stand in the water. I paddled for broken waves and just sort of hopped up on the board, just like that! And once I'd done it once, I found I could keep on doing it. There were a lot of fists raised in triumph, and because Will wasn't surfing too far away, he saw most of my waves and pumped his fist too. It was rockin!!
We drove back with Nacho to Stefis cafe and had a drink and then it was time to say our farewells to them. Their plan is to stay in Byron until their visa runs out, when they'll be heading off to Bali and Sri Lanka. So this could possibly be the last time we see them, until we visit them in Uruguay of course!!!
Then it was time to make the walk to the lighthouse that overlooks the bay and is on a headland that marks the most easterly point of Australia. We walked the path from Cooks lookout (every town in Australia seems to have a Cook reference somewhere) to the lighthouse. On the way we walked past a group who were about to paraglide down from the hill. We waited in anticipation but they were no where near ready but we thought perhaps we'd see them jump from the top.
The lighthouse was cool, but it was closed!! So no chance to climb the stairs unfortunately. What we did see from there though was the paragliders jumping from their platform, and we spied a group of dolphins far below us in the sea. We decided to follow them north by walking the coastal route back to the car. They were playing in the water, catching waves and jumping about. It was awesome to see. Easterly point ticked off we carried on, following the Dolphins around the headland. Then we climbed the lookout point and watched a few sleepy longboarders cruising on some barely there waves. Looked like my kinda surfing!!!
Byron Bay done, all that was left to do before we left was buy a Deus cap, devour a delicious ice cream, then hit the road. We had no clue where we were going to end up that night.
We drove for a couple of hours and stopped at a roadside rest stop. And when I say road side, I mean it is literally adjacent to the A1 road, the main highway in Australia. To say that it was a noisy night is an understatement. HUGE road trains thundered past us at all hours of the night, and it felt like they were passing through the van it was that loud.
After dinner we had a beer outside the van, it's been so long since we've done that. That was our life up in Queensland but for the last couple of weeks we haven't spent our evenings sitting outside the van. Thunderstorm, rain and massive trucks roaring past kept us awake most of the night. Oh and needing to get out the van every 5 mins to have a piss as we haven't drunk alcohol in a while!!