Hi guys,

As you can see I am now in Byron Bay, having arrived as planned on Tuesday. I initially came with the intention of staying for 4 nights, however as I liked this place so much that quickly became 5 and if I had more time would happily go 7 or 8. Byron Bay by all accounts is a great place to unwind and chill out. A place where you can learn to surf, chuck yourself out of a plane, dive, shop or just flop on the beach. Literally anything goes and the best thing is that as a destination it is not as commercial as most I have seen, there is no sign of a McDonald’s a KFC etc, which is fantastic.

I will do my upmost to keep this as brief as possible, which of course means that you may need to put the kettle on!

Upon arrival last Tuesday and checking into my hostel on my 5th attempt, I made my way down to the beach. I went for a nice long walk toward Cape Byron, stopped for a few snaps of the many surfers, went to Australia's most easterly point before stopping at the lighthouse for a delicious ice cream. After this I then made my way down via the bush walk, an interesting and in places scary experience with the sounds of the many Australian critters ringing in my ears.

On Wednesday I got up early, not quite sure why but I proceeded to the beach regardless to mark my spot. I then spent a very lazy day catching a few rays and doing a bit of window-shopping before I was reunited with Katie in the evening whereby we had a nice Italian.

On Thursday we decided to have a sorting day for the next few days, we sorted out car hire for the following day, booked a kayaking tour, which eventually got cancelled, and booked a dive for Saturday. After this we once again flopped on the beach and played in the sea, which by all accounts was another scary experience. As it was our first real experience of Australia's waves we decided to play chase the wave. After a few minutes laughing our heads off we got hit by this massive wave which swamped us, we both simultaneously hit the sand and then did the washing machine motion until we stood up slightly dazed and a little scared. Of course we were both fine and it kind of taught us an invaluable lesson.

Anyway moving onto Friday we got up early again and picked up our hire car for the day along with a random German girl from Katie's hostel. We then made our way up the coast to wet n' wild, which is actually back up towards Brisbane. So we enjoyed a few hours here sliding down the many slides, which was again in places a little scary. As Katie has been kind of travelling with me now for almost 3 weeks she has quickly picked up on my 'neurotic moments', so there I am climbing up the many steps of this bloody scary slide and Katie in the nicest possible way of course tells me to stop being pathetic! She even mutters the words "I stopped listening to you 5 minutes ago" which I have to admit made me chuckle.

After this we drove back down the Gold Coast, avoiding the very touristy and some say tacky 'Surfers Paradise' and stopping instead at the nice Tweed Heads, with not tourist in sight it was a surfers Mecca, where we all got very snap happy. After this we carried on South and decided to go the long way round to Byron, via the Tweed Valley. For about an hour the scenery was superb, with great big rugged mountains, winding rivers and quaint little towns. However after it got dark we were all keen to get back, our slight detour ended up a long 2.5 hour winding drive until we eventually arrived back in Byron for a Thai.

The next day after getting up early again for our Kayaking Tour, which ended up in being cancelled, oh well! In the afternoon we went for our dive. So after being measured up for our equipment we were soon shipped off to the beach, where we had to jump on this boat which could only be described as a speed boat dingy. So you can picture it, 12 people clinging for dear life as the dingy bounced over the huge waves, the tanks clattering. My hands actually turned white as I gripped hard on the rope with my bum bouncing on the seat. After 15 minutes we arrived at the Julian Rocks, our location for our dive. The dive was awesome and we were able to spot a few turtles, a big leopard shark and lots of other big fish that I will never remember. We both enjoyed ourselves immensely.

After our dive and freshening up back in our hostel we then went back into town for a nice fish and chips on the beach, such a cliché I know! Then went for a few drinks in a lively bar listening to the live music. It was a great night and our last night together.

Right I have waffled on for far too long, if you have read down to this stage I apologise for boring you. Today I am making my way down to Coffs Harbour for the night and then onto Port Macquarie the day after for a few days before hitting Sydney.

I hope everyone reading this is well.

Jon