Day 115 - Byron Bay

I've been busy. Haven't had access to the internet for a week, and I've done so much... so sorry for the huuuge post!

On Sunday I did some more exploring, then in the evening went to a random house party with Helen, a girl from my dorm. The house party was near Bondi beach, and we met some other travellers and generally got very merry and made lots of friends and lots of noise.

On Monday, my last day in Sydney, we went to Bondi beach and spent the day drinking beer and admiring the tanned locals behind our sunglasses. Helen had finally managed to find an apartment for christmas, and offered me floor space, but I'd already booked a seat on the oz experience bus the following day for the journey north (good job - or I'd have been tempted to stay for new years!)

Getting up on tuesday morning at 5.30 wasn't fun, but the march to the Oz Experience office woke me up (was running late). Once there I filled up with coffee and met the other peopple who I'd be sharing the journey with on the next few days. Kiran, 26, from London and Marc, 30 also from London, were my fellow brits. There was also a bunch of Canadians, some French speaking, all v. friendly. Some Germans and some Danish guys made the numbers up to 18. Finally we had our driver/guide in the form of Stringer, a crazy ozzie bloke with a naff lline in jokes. We all had to get up and introduce ourselves, then we spent the rest of the 6 hour journey listening to music, playing card games and chatting away, getting to know each other.

Our first stop was Barrington Tops, and Barriington River Backpackers hostel. This place was literally the middle of nowhere, with no phone, no internet and no mobile reception. The place was run by a bloke called Dave - typical ozzie guy; sarky, tubby and very hairy. The place itself was great, the accom was swish and the main area, down the hill by the river, was an immitation of the old mining shacks that were around during the Barrington gold rush sometime way back. We scoffed the all-you-can-eat pizza and guzzled our beer whilst we decided what 'extreme sports' to participate in. We pretty much all decided to give the night kayaking a go. Night kayaking is a 6k kayak over grade 1 (easy) and grade 3 (pretty hard) rapids and rocks in the pitch black with nothing but a bloody bike light strapped to our forheads. It was fuuuuuuun. The hostel website, www.barringtonriverbackpackers.com, said it would put piccies up, but they aren't there yet! Anyway, I made it to the end without falling out, but it was crazy, so I think the photos will be somewhat amusing (if they ever arrive!). After the kayak we all climbed into the roasting hot tub to sooth our cold, aching muscles. Heaven! The hostel was advertising for people to stay and help out for a few days in return for free accommodation - I was v. tempted, I had had such a great time, but I was looking forward to the next location... Surf Camp!

On Wednesday morning we left early to make the long journey to surf camp. Journeys on the bus, despite being surrounded by loads of people to chat to, where uncomfortably hot and cramped, and I waaas so glad to reaach the camp at 2.30. As soon an we arrived, a tanned, hyper guy in a wetsuit jumped on the bus and started yelling at us in an excited manner.
"Yeeeaaah, dudes and dudettes, how's it going? Are you excited to be here? We are going to learn to surf. Yeah! We are going to have fuun and look cool. Aaallriiight"
Oh god, I am too tired for this.
We dumped our stuff in our cabins, changed into our swim stuff and congregated in the main area for wet suit fitting. Half an hour later we had all hauled ourselves into our wetsuits and were handed boards to carry to the beach. We got half an hour of very enthusiastic tuition on the sand, then basically told to go practice in the sea. For hours. Well, I will say this for their technique; by the end I had had a good workout and managed to catch many waves and stand up on the board (however briefly)! That evening we all had free BBQ and much alcohol (again... my Indian weight loss is so going to be cancelled out with all this boozing!). I was exhausted and crawled into bed sometime before the wheelbarrow beach races (what a shame I missed that, not!)

The next day was an early one (again) and all us girls wussed out of our morning serfing session, preferring to laze over breakfast and tan on the beach. Below is pic of us all surfing (that's us, the little black dots) and one of me and Emily (from Canada) on the beach (note my brown arms and white legs.. niiice).







After we had finished sun bathing/surfing we went baack and packed up our stuff (again, v. tempted to stay) and got back onto the sweltering bus, destination Byron Bay - otherwise known as heaven on earth, the place where travellers go and never leave.

So that's where I am now! I'm staying at Holiday Village: simply the best place to be with free bike, surf board and video hire. I'm in an apartment with ensuite showeroom and its own chillout room (with TV) and kitchen. Last night we went to cheeky monkeys (cheesy club over the road) to support the two German girls, Sandra and Alex, who had entered the wet t-shirt competition (yes, I know) in a desperate bid to win the $300 prize mooney so that they could stay in Byron over christmas. Unfortunately they didn't win, mainly because they refused to sink to the depths of removing their t-shirts altogether (many other contestants didn't have such ??) but we still had lots of fun and danced like crazy things. Below are some pictures from the night, I forgot to carry on taking them after the firsst half hour, but at least I took a few!

The gang (pre going out drinks)



Me and Joe (from Canada)



The crazy German girls, releaved the ordeal is over ... Em and Hamish, grooving on the dancefloor

Today I'm going to do the laundry then hit the beach. I went yesterday (to the beach that is, not the laundry) and it is just perfect; a long strip of soft, white sand. Had to watch out for stingers in the water though: at one point a few little blue ones appeared and I pegged it out of the sea, paranoid that I would get stung, much to everyone's amusement!

Added photos:

The group dressed in extreme Kayaking gear - niiice

The rapids (ok - so this bit isn't so impressive)

Me and Kiran, wine in hand

Joe attempts to play the guitar

Sexy wetsuits - again! Dressed for surfing

And more drinking (the hair - sea water made it go mad - ok?)

Huuge cricket, Em tried not to scream

Kiran makes a new friend

We lost the washing up game, and had to wash up, in fancy dress! Not good. (Josh hogs the picture, as usual)