I arrived in Byron on a Tuesday morning, after having a surprisingly good night's sleep in a bus from Sydney. The first impression was that I was going to love the place, and it turned out to be true. In Byron I've felt the most relaxed so far. Spending a whole week there was a good idea because it left me with plenty of time in my hands. My hostel was located on the beach, and all it took to reach the waves of the Pacific Ocean was to walk 50 meters from my room to the beach on a sandy forest track. I swam in the ocean almost every day, letting the huge waves wash over me. I've also loved having time to just relax in a hammock reading a novel or sunbathing on the beach. Taking any book I can lay my hands on (not wanting to buy them, I read what I can find laying around in hostels), I've read some pretty weird novels that I wouldn't choose from the bookstore shelf back home.
On Thursday I got experience the ultimate Aussie thing to do: surfing. I had contemplated whether I would prefer a one-day class just to try it, or a multi-day course to actually learn something. I had a feeling that I wouldn't have much talent for what I was going to do (not having a good balance and being a bit clumsy; and terrified of things moving fast that I can't properly control, like snowboards for example), so I decided it was enough to try once how riding a wave feels like.
So I booked a class, pulled on a wetsuit (looking more like a robot than Siena Miller, I'm afraid), and on to the waves! I pretty much sucked at it, as expected, but managed to do a few good stands. I didn't find in that hard to stand and stay up on the board, but the difficult part was catching the wave: most times I tried I couldn't paddle fast enough and the wave just died under me. It was definitely a lot of fun, standing on the board and riding the surf to the gorgeous sunset.
Friday was the first properly sunny day, so I decided to go hiking in the Cape Byron national park. Walking on the track on the beach and in the forest provided me with some fabulous scenery. I followed a wrong route for a while and was wondering why the route was so difficult that it included climbing over cliffs and having water up to your knees... Unfortunately I didn't manage to spot any wild dolphins that often visit the area. Instead, I encountered a very unfriendly snake in the forest. I only spotted it when I was standing right next to it on the path, close enough for it to attack me. The snake wasn't that big, only about 50 cm in length, but definitely scary enough with its head up, aggressively hissing at me. I had heard enough of those "ten out of the thirteen species of snakes in this park have deadly venom, so don't get bitten" warnings to run away as fast as I could.
On Sunday I joined Jim's Alternative Tour to visit the hippie haven of Nimbin. Apparently what made it "alternative" was that they had a fun soundtrack playing in the bus, with all the songs related to people and places on the way. The bus driver seemed to have lost his sense of hearing ages ago, and apparently wanted to bestow the same fate on us, the music blastic so loud that I had to press my hands on my ears to prevent them from hurting.
Our first stop on the tour were the colourful Bangalow village markets. I enjoyed just walking around and looking at the handicrafts and organic produce. Obviously I couldn't resist the temptation of buying some mudslide ice cream. I do love my chocolate. It seems likely that I will be the first person impoverished because wasting their fortune on ice cream.
Our other stop before Nimbin was a country pub in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly, it as full of people having ANZAC day lunch (Australia - New Zealand Army..??? - somehow the day was related to the end of the second world war). We tried some local macadamia nuts, which were a lot of effort to break into and didn't really taste like much.
Then we were dumped in the tiny village of Nimbin. We browsed some stores along the only street, a visited the very cool and visul museums that promoted the freedom to consume marihuana (which is illegal in Australia). I hooked up with a Canadian girl from my tour, and together we went in search for some "happy" cookies to try. She openly shared stories of all the drugs she'd ever tried, so I expected her to know what she was talking about. It turned out we had trouble finding any cookies. The people who apparently had them all looked seriously creepy, and we were both suddenly too shy and didn't have the guts to just go and ask them. How do you strike up a conversation like that? "Excuse me, I was wondering if you sell illegal substances in an edible form?" Gave up pretty soon as I didn't want them that much. Don't worry mum, I've been a good girl.
On our way back we drove into a rainforest and visited Minilya falls. As I've mentioned before, I don't have a bid interest for waterfalls. These ones made a big drop of 100 meters, but still they failed to impress me. If I want to see falling water, I have a shower...
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I loved Byron from the minute I arrived in town. I had all kinds of ideas of what I could do, from kayaking to mountain biking, but ended up enjoying doing nothing too much to bother. The day I arrived I was walking on the beach, expecting it to start raining any minute, and gasping at the stunning sea and sky. I was grinning stupidly to myself, because I was just so happy to be there. That wasn't the only surge of happiness during my stay there. Suddenly the words of the photographer from my surf trip seemed very valid: "Why not stay forever?"
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