Day 1
We awoke earlyish- well 8am and we were starving- we had porridge but no milk, so a 15min walk in to town was on the cards even before breakfast, oh and of course to look around the magical town of Byron. Once there we couldn't be botherd to buy milk and walk back to the hostel to eat our amazing porridge so we settled for a tuna mayonaise and sweetcorn sandwich we made up ourselves, yes these breakfasts just keep getting better and better! We went and sat on the rock overlooking the main beach, scott sat in something which was very much a poo colour but in the end we decided it wasn't, i hope! The surfer dudes in Byron were very serious and and didn't seem all to welcoming at first so first impressions were not amazing, in our hostel there was one girl in particular that walked round with a face like a smacked ass and had no manners what so ever, we later found out she was the world grumpy face pulling champion! So anyway back to now, we finished our yummy breakfast (still a bit odd having lunch for breakfast) so we went on a walk towardsthe light house which is ment to be one of the best things in Byron and the most easterly point in the hole of Australia. We got part of the way there before we saw a cute looking gurana on the path infront of us. I went to pull my camera out, finding it wasn't in it's case properly and it feel out of my had on to the path which seemed like slow motion! My reactions not being what they were a couple of months ago i reached down to pick it up straight away only to find the shutter button had fallen off and the spring along with it! Where it happened was on a small narrow path next to a grass verdge, next to a cliff so the odds for finding it were very slim but we tried all the same. Happy skippy Laura turned into Grumpy the trip is ruined Laura. So we headed back down the hill into town to find a camera shop, this didn't help Byrons standing! The camera shops told us that it would be 4-6 weeks to be repared (if you can send it to the middle of New Zealand that would be great) but it may be cheaper to buy a new one all together. Are you having a BUBBLE! So with this we marched off across the carpark to the nearest shop and bought a large bar of chocolate (and milk) to cheer us up! Back at the hostel now and it was lunch time so we had our porridge, nothing wrong with that! After a chilling hour or so where scott tried to fix the camera with nail scissors, celotape and carboard, we headed to what was meant to be the closest beach to us, apparently a 5min walk but which turned out to be a 20min walk through bush we arrived at a lovely very quiet beach. At this point we had forgotten the water bottle so i was gasping, i blamed Scott for this (goldfish). We decided agaisnt drinking sea water so we had a little paddle, we didn't relise the waves were a bit higher here and i got a wet crutch straight away. Thank god it was a quiet beach. Then we had a nice sitdown on our towels to soak up the sun and the lovely views. Whilst enjoying our lovely sit down we noticed a lot of holes around us in the sand, not sure what they were for a well timed crab poped out, not to my liking. With this we walked up the beach to get a look at the lighthouse we didn't make that morning. Now with photo evidence we headed back to the hostel. When we arrived there were new people in our roomy, ooowwww! (always intresting to see who or sometimes what is staying in your room) It was an English boy called Sam who was from Loughborough yaytimes! Remenising about dirty dirty echos hahaha! It was then dinner time so we treated ourselves to cooked chiken which we mixed in with our rice and cheese sauce. (the cheese sauce was lacking something though, oh yes thats right cheese but i suppose thats what you get for buying cheap) We spent the rest of the evening sitting, chatting and chilling with our new roomy. Surfing was on the cards tomorrow so we couldn't have a late night.
Day 2- we arose early and grabbed a bowl of porridge so we would be big and strong for the surf, like that would happen. We got picked up at 8am and were taken 20min south to Lennox head. We were all given and nice blue and already wet wetsuit before being given our long heavy boards to carry on our heads. Mine seemed bigger and heavier then all the rest and it didn't have a nice little handle to carry the 300m to the beach, i was knackered before i got there! What seemed like a whole body workout later i arrived at the beach. To begin the lesson we were given a safety lesson using diagrams in the sands which was nice. This wasn't helping with me confidence of surfing, the lecture was all about what to do it you get swept out to sea and how to read the rips and basically stay alive at sea. He did say that we would make it as far as Samoa which was nice to hear, although i hear it's lovely this time of year? After the lecture was the warm up which raised a few eyebrows with Scott but we gave ourselves top marks all the same. Things then got more practical as we had to practise on the sand what we were going to be doing in the water... it seemed easy enought, but we both thought we were going to be pros after spending 2 days watching the Quicksilver pro anyway. After 5mins of practise in the sand we all headed out to catch our first waves, i had discovered i was goofy footed (this is which foot you put forward on the board) I put my right foot forward so was classed as 'goofy' this was with great delight to Scott beacuse he was normal. So on the water we go and i didn't start very well. i could even pick the board up off the sand. Scott ran off and left me but it didn't matter beacuse it meant he was the first one to fall off ha! Once in the sea i couldn't manouver the board round so everytime a wave came i lost my board back to shore, oh but it was made even worse because i was attached to it! not funny! But it meant i didn't lose the blue 11ft board. Second problem the current was too strong and i was struggeling to stay upright and walk deeper in the sea to catch a wave, oh it was going to be a long morning. Thankfully the instructor soon realised that i was a retard in the water so came over and gave me a helping hand. By the second wave and with a little help on timing and balance from the instructor i managed to stand up on my board and ride the wave in. While all this was going on Scott had fallen off maybe 10 times but i'd give him an A star for effort, he did eventually manage to stand up but was most annoyed because i wasn't watching. On the flyer they gave us it said if you didn't manage to surf 40ft you get your money back, but it wasn't that difficut considering my board was 11ft, they're not stupid you know. After a small orange break we were back in the sea trying to prefect what we had learnt. Scott swopped boards with a girl because she was struggling, not that he was doing much better. So this time he had a smaller board which he didn't cope better with a managed to get some good waves. Me on the other hand was stil trying to get back in the sea thanks to the big board and strong current. I was againg rescued by the instructor who carried the board out for me and let me get on with it. For the reasons i have already mentioned the 3 hours of surfing had well and truely tired us out, and my body felt more tired then after doing a lactic session. To freshen off we all jumped in a fresh water lagoon just across the road from the back which was really refreshing but also a horrible brown colour from the tea trees around it. We got dropped back at the hostel in time for lunch which consisted of Tim Tams and some porridge. The Tim Tams are tacking over from icecream at being the highlight of the week when it comes to food. After lunch Sam joined us and we took an awsome bus into town, it was awsome because it was FREE! We sat on the beach and this time it was sunnier, so we took some snaps before wandering around town, window shopping and not really knowing what to do. We did keep getting harrased by people wanting us to go the thier clubs or do one of their pub crawls, SOD OFF! Whislt walking around town we bumped in to the swedish couple we had met in Rainbow Beach but I could not for the life of me remember their names so just shouted 'HELLO GUYS' across the road, it got their attention. A quick 5min catch up before heading to Woolworths to sort out dinner, Scott bought 4 packets of noodles and i bought some smoked salmon and greek yoghurt (Sounds posh but later dicovered it wasn't the best combo) I was very excited for some smoked salmon even thought it was $4. Once back at the hostel we sat in the T.V room with the anti-social surfers before watching Hot Tub Time Machine with Sam, Not my choice but quite funny. Dinner called afterwards and I was soooo excited, excitement however turned to disapointment when i found out that greek yoghurt didn't go well or at all with hot rice, Scott told me after that maybe i should have waited for the rice to cool down, thanks great input there! Giving the yoghurt and warm rice to Sam i enjoyed the salmon while Scott had his noodles.
Only an hour later we said goodbye to Sam and Byron Bay and heading out on the 9pm Greyhound bus. The journey was only 2hours which we were so pleased about because we swear there was atleast 10 people on there you wouldn't like to meet down a dark alley. 2 hours of trying not to fall asleep so we didn't miss our stop later we arrived in the small seaside town of Yamba, even in the dark you could tell that this was going to be an improvement on the last place! The coach driver said as we left, that Byron was voted num 7 and Yamba num 1! It was a good start!