29/8/9 Saturday Sydney-Surf Camp (spot x)

We departed Sydney on Keanos bus with only two other passengers at 6am. We drove out of Sydney travelling over the Harbour Bridge to the North shore. Keano entertained us with his many stories and probably many tall tales. We stopped for a lunch stop at a small town called Grafton where we had pies, Phils was Roo pie and liz had Lamb with plum sauce pie....yummy! We picked up another passenger in Coffs Harbour before Keano took us on a little detour through a housing estate where there are dozens of wild kangeroos jumping around all over the lawns eating the grass. We saw some really close up and some really large males too. We watched part of a movie charting the history of Australian surfing which was really good but we hadn't enough time to see the end. We stopped at a bottle shop to pick up some beer for the night as there is no bar at the surf camp. We pulled into surf camp at about 5pm just before sunset and we both walked along the sand till the sun went down....we can be romantic if we try !! We were sharing a dorm with the two girls off the bus, Liz handed out earplugs in case of Phils snoring! We all met up at the canteen area for a dinner of burgers or pasta or fish or a combo of all ! There was loads of it and it was great food. We all spent the night round the camp fire and playing cards and drinking beers. We are due to have a surf lesson at 7am so we went for an early-ish night.

30/8/9 Sunday Surf Camp-Byron Bay

We had to wake early to go to our surf lesson after a huge buffet breakfast of hot and cold choices. We made our way for a briefing with our instructor who explained the waves and the surfing rules...eg don't pee in the wetsuits !!! We all got changed into wetsuits...looking good as you can all imagine!! Phil had a bit of trouble stratching the suit over his expanding belly but got there eventually. We carried our boards onto the beach and had a dry land demo of what to do before being let loose in the waves. We had great fun trying to catch the waves and Phil managed a few seconds with sort of standing but Liz only just got herself upright once and fell straight off....what a laugh though! After the surfing we all got showered and back on the bus to continue North to Byron Bay, a little coastal town famous for its hippies and the nearby town of Nimbin where everyone is stoned!!! Keano stopped the bus for us to eat after about 45 minutes as we were all starving after the mornings efforts in the water. We drove along through Grafton and Ballina out onto the coastal road to Byron. We stopped to lookout over a protected bay called Lennox Head where we could see Dolphins surfing the waves. Shortly after leaving the view point a whale did a huge breach out of the water leaving a huge splash behind him. We watched him for a while while he was passing by the bay coming up for air and blowing out of his blow hole. Byron felt like a holiday beach resort and was really relaxed and sleepy with a really great beach. We checked into our hostel, briefly checked our emails and booked a day trip out to the village of Nimbin on Jims alternative tours and also to go turtle snorkelling. We also booked our Fraser island and Whitsunday tickets as an open ticket. We need to confirm dates later. We took the hostel owners advice and went to a bar on the beach front called Beachview hotel to watch a band playing and have some Sunday afternoon relaxing drinks. We chatted to a local woman, Pheonix, for a bit and stayed to watch the band who were pretty good. It had a really lovely atmosphere in Byron Bay and we really liked it. In 1969 there was a huge music festival in the area and hippies arrived from all around and lots of them have never left and now live in the mountain areas around Byron and Nimbin. On the grassy bank beside the beach a few people had gathered with instruments and were playing a few tunes. There were a few people juggling fire sticks etc. It was a really relaxed place and you could see why people don't leave. On the way back to the hostel we picked up a pizza we had free for booking trips at the hostel...result it was gorgeous. We ate it whilst watching the TV before heading for bed.

31/8/9 Monday Nimbin

We were picked up this morning by Jim the guide for Jims alternative tours to Nimbin. He is a very cool guy in his late forties who drives a small bus, narrates the day and plays some brilliant classic tunes appropriate to the tour route or stories hes telling. He has obviously put so much thought into the music choices, it was great.He was a visitor to Byron and Nimbin during the 60's and 70's and has run the tour for 17 years. He told us stories of the history of the area and some of the people who still live there in the mountains. We arrived in Nimbin which is a tiny town totally based around the hippy sprit and most of the people there were stoned . The police turn a blind eye to personal use despite cannabis being illegal in Australia. There was a museum of Nimbin which had blatantly been created by trippy hippies...totally bizarre!! Nimbin was full of crazy characters We spotted a real old boy smoking a huge joint then later saw him swervinmg all over the place on a mobility scooter.....hilarious!! On leaving Nimbin Jim drove us through the countryside playing some really chilled music to visit a friend of his called Paul Recher who is a hippy from California who has created his own jungle over 40 years. He imports plants and trees to plant as he wanted to live in the jungle so he grew his own. He was really odd and obviously stoned as he took us round his 80 acre property to see his collection of trees etc. We sat on his summer house over a pond eating macadamia nuts before walking round a bit more.Phil walked over a snake, his second one of our trip...he seems to attract them. There were weird things put all over the place like a bunch of little dolls he had positioned in all sorts of sexual positions, a huge pile of trash made into a "living art piece" and loads of collections of things piled around too. He was a really happy guy who loved his trees!!! On the way back through to Byron we spotted a Koala bear and baby in one of the trees which was great. We were pretty chilled when we got back to Byron due to both the atmosphere of the place and the music. We headed across the road from the hostel for a free meal we had for booking tours and both had really good huge meals. We had a few drinks and went off to bed.

1/9/9 Tuesday Byron Bay

We went snorkelling with turtles (read turtle) in the morning. We checked in at the office and changed into wet suits before getting taken to the beach. We went out to Julian Rocks on a high speed launch and we jumped into th ewater first and left the divers to sort out their equipment. We had seen two turtles in the water when we pulled up to the mooring point so had high hopes. We did see and swim very close with one turtle but didn't see any others. The visibility was pretty poor and you needed to be really close to anything to see it but there were loads of colourful fish swimming around. The boats driver called us back to the boat after about 40 minutes and we got back in. He had seen whales nearby and we sat to watch out for them too. We saw several whales pop up out of the water so it was really great. Phil had hired an underwater camera but as the visibility wasn't great the pictures weren't up to much...never mind. After getting back to the hostel we decided to go to the beach but on the way we spotted a barber so Phil popped in to get a cut but came out with a number one all over...bit of a shock!! It was a bit late to go to the beach so we decided to take free bikes from the hostel and cycle to Byron's lighthouse at Cape Byron. It was a slightly uphill cycle for about 45 minutes to the lighthouse then we walked the short distance to the top. We sat taking in the lovely views and the sunset before getting back on our bikes to travel to the hostel. If you have checked out our photos before reading this you will have seen pphil is claiming Liz tried to kill him...heres the truth. phil decided to video Liz cycling down a pretty steep road and she came to asensible stop at a road junction. Phil didn't see her slow up and whizzed straight past her coming off the bike and whacking the handlebar straight into his moob....ouch!!!! Amazingly the video camera survived unscathed but we now have a you been framed clip of the whole event!!! He was pretty shaky but we rode back to the hostel and went for dinner over the road at Cheeky monkeys for $2 pasta and free beer..brilliant bargain tea and delicious too! We chatted to a lovely irish couple who have done a similar trip to us then after a few drinks we went to bed. Phil was really sore and had a huge lump over his boob!!!