Lots to report on here, but I'll try to not make this post too long (I know you all only look at the photographs...).
It was a 3am get up for our flight to Byron, and then when we were finally at the airpot, Jetstar decided to cancel our flight. We thought it was going to be a total disaster and possibly losing a whole day of our holiday, but luckily they managed to fit us on a flight 20 mins later to the Gold Coast, which we would then get a bus to Byron from, only adding on an extra few hours to our journey. Phew!
John, one of the Australians, has never been on a plane before (I KNOW....!?!?!) and he got frisked twice going through security, bless him. We were teasing him about all the different alarms and feeding him loads of bullshit about how you have to behave in airports and he was absolutely shitting himself through the whole procedure. Very, very amusing.
John, the plane virgin, getting frisked
The
house we were staying in was gorgeous. All open plan and wooden floorboards with an outside decked dining area and a pool. Plus it was only a
10min walk from the beach and town, and was opposite an amazing little café
called ‘The Top Shop’ which did perfect breakfast things like banana bread,
coffee, smoothies and fresh juices.
Beetroot juice
The house was only for 10 people, but we were sneaky sneaky and brought 13 of us. This was all great and quite subtle, until 4 more (Josh, James, Emma and her boyfriend Michael) drove up to join us, and then Ahmed and Sam flew out as well, along with 3 boys (Mark, Peter and Seb) who came and camped in our garden in their Wicked Van, and then Josie’s events were cancelled at Uni Games in the Gold Coast and she came to join us too! I think that makes 24 of us in total…. whoops.
Cape Byron Beach was amazing, the sand was so soft and it
was nice and big so that you don’t have to sit right on top of another group of
people. The sea wasn’t too cold either, and so it was perfect to just dip in an
out of. The weather all week was amazing, around 27 degrees everyday, and
everyone was looking nicely sunkissed by the end of the week.
Squeaky sand
Byron town is pretty small and is basically full of little
quirky cafes, bars, and shops. They also seem pretty obsessed with gelato,
weirdly, so loads of Gelaterias dotted about the place too! The shopping was so
good and there were just hundreds of shops full of hand made clothes and
jewellery. Loads of the shop owners offered to adjust clothing too if things
didn’t fit or you wanted it altered, and were super chatty and, of course, incredibly
hipster. Everyone just walks about in bare feet and talks about how they’re
thinking of adding some beads to their seven-year-old dreadlock….
Night markets
One evening we went for happy hour at
Balcony Bar which is literally what it says in the name, and is just a little bar which has a balcony outside area which is perfect for people watching. Grace, Kellie, Goose and I ordered lychee martinis which were the bomb. Yum.
One of the days, Grace, Stan, Jack and I decided to run to
the Cape Byron Lighthouse to catch the sunset. Google maps told us it was 1.3km
away, which was right if you went by road, but we somehow ended up going the
cross country route and took several wrong turning and 45mins later we were
still running! The last leg up to the lighthouse is just endless steps and
sloping hills and so we were all pretty out of breath by the time we got there
and had completely missed the sunset, oopsie. The lighthouse is also near the most eastern point of the Australia mainland which was pretty cool. Closest I'll be to home in a while!
The small bit of sunset we managed to catch at the beginning of the run
Another of the days, some of the boys took us in their van to teach
us to surf. We crammed nine of us into their Wicked Van and headed off. We went to Wategos Beach in the morning and at first the weather
looked like it was going to be a bit cold and windy, but we all persevered and
got in the water anyway. We did some practice ‘popping up’ on the sand and then
braved the water, boards leashed to our ankles and boys watching at our sides. Sadly, the wind was causing the waves to break in weird
places and the undercurrent was way too strong and so we decided to move over
back to Cape Byron Beach instead where it was a little calmer. By this time the weather was much nicer and the surf
was far better and so I actually managed to get up – only for a millisecond
though. You need a surprising amount of upper-body strength to get up, which I
definitely do NOT have! Was good to finally say that I’ve been surfing though.
After several hours of trying to surf we had a BBQ on the beach - it's crazy in Australia, they just have BBQs there for you to use...! We cooked up a yummy feast of pumpkin, courgette, corn, chicken, burgers, and some questionable 'meat' sausages.
Our group was perfect as it was big enough so that everyone could go off and do their own thing if they wanted. Some people went kayaking with dolphins and whales, some did a skydive, some surfed, some stayed by the pool, some kitted themselves out with a whole new hippie wardrobe, y'know, quite a nice varied holiday...!
Kellie looking buff in her kayaking gear
Adam losing his shit freefalling 15,000 feet in the air
We could only book the house for 5 nights, and so for our last night we headed to the
Arts Factory Lodge which is a really cool little hostel the other side of town. All the accommodation in in little huts, lodges, cabins, or tipis and the whole vibe there is so relaxed. There's a pool, a lake, hammocks, you name it. There's also some water dragons lurking about which you have to watch out for though....
Water dragon!
So basically, it was a great week and I'm very sad to be back at uni and wearing shoes and stuff... hopefully my tan won't fade too quickly though as it's still hot in Sydney and I'm looking forward to booking my trip up the East Coast for November/December.
For now though, back to the grind.
B x
