Wednesday 17th June

My time in Byron Bay is coming to an end.. I leave this afternoon, at 3.30pm to get the bus up to Surfers Paradise. I'm sad to leave here, it's so beautiful and peaceful and little and unique and has such a great atmosphere, think Surfers may be a bit of a Butlins in comparison.

I've had a few wonderful beachy days here, sometimes the wind is cold, but it's more than warm enough to lie out in the sun for a few hours and read or doze, it feels like I am on holiday every day here! I suppose in a way I am, because between paid work and voluntary stuff at the uni and general work-related organising stuff, I worked pretty much constantly in Sydney for 2months, so the last week is like having a week off! Wonder how it will feel in two weeks time when I'm STILL having a week off.. only further up the coast.

I got up at 5.30am on Monday to get a minibus up to the lighthouse to watch the sun rise. Cape Byron being the most easterly point of Australia, I was one of the first in the country to see the sun rise, which was awesome.. the icing on the cake were Whales, in the sea!! They pass by a lot at this time of year, on their northerly migration. Yesterday, I did the lighthouse loop walk again, this time stopping for an hour here-and-there to lie on the beach or just sit and watch the water, and I saw SO MANY whales, literally in double figures!

It's a bit different seeing them from the shore, because what you mostly see is the water spout when they blow it out of their blow holes, that's the most visible from far away, then sometimes they just rise up under the surface, or you can see a flipper or something, I'm pretty sure actual whale watching would be a fairly different experience, some people I was talking to last night really reccommended going on a whale watching boat trip from surfers, but it's semi-expensive, at $90 so we shall see how it goes! It's kindof difficult because I want to be careful with money but at the same time I don't want to miss out on any experiences and regret it. It's not often you get a chance to go whale watching somewhere where there are so many, the people that went from surfers said they saw something like 18animals in three hours and really up close.

Today I am hung over. Since being in Byron I have had two awesomely fun nights out, both with people that I have known for less than two days, it's great! Alcohol helps =P I am defs getting more confidant at just sitting down at a table and talking to random people, it's one of the reasons I stayed so long at this hostel actually, it's so friendly here you can just sit down at the big communal table and strike up conversation with whoever is there, most people are great.

The sun has just come out for my last day... yay!!