Blog 26

So on ThursdayI left the Sunshine Coast: drove around Brisbane towards the Goldcoast. I checked the surf in Surfers Paradise and I even had a little go, but it wasn'tthat good L, so I cruised on to Burleigh Heads. That afternoon the weather was bad and the surf even worse, so I just parked my car somewhere and used someone's unprotected internet ;-). After that I parked the car in a posh neighborhood and went to bed.

The next day the waves were still crap, so I just crashed on the beach with my book and chilled out. I did go for a run on the hard sand to do at least a bit of exercise, but that was only for 30 minutes: to the end of the beach and back. Since the end of the beach looked pretty nice, I drove over there to chill out and believe it or not, but in the park, next to thebeach, there is a hot/boiling water dispenser! So I had some cups of thee and felt really happy. When the sun went down I did my yoga in the park and went on the internet to try to send the song to New Zealand, but I didn't manage to…

The next day I did go for a surf at Burleigh Heads and although it was pretty crowded, the surf was nice: I stayed in for over 3 hours! In the afternoon I drove on to Coolangatta, where I had a second surf at Rainbow Bay after some groceries shopping . After the surf I went for a walk and bought myself an ice cream J

On Sunday I got up quite early and I started to drive towards Byron Bay, hoping to find a surf spot along the way, but the waves weren't amazing… When I got to Byron Bay I couldn't resist going in though, so I did at The Wreck: an old shipwreck, the S.S. Wollongbar, sticks its rotting hull just above the water at high tide and the sand gathered around the wreck has created a really good right hander (that is backhand for me).

After the surf I had a stroll along the beach and I checked out the town centre. Then I went to the travel agency (same one I booked my Fiji travels) and went on the internet there. Justin helped me converting the song, so I could send it of to New Zealand. Another guy, Gavin, was there as well and we started talking about the Bluesfest. He sneaked in the night before to see Ban Harper. That night (he was staying in his van) we stayed just outside Byron and the next day we went to the Bluesfest together. He managed to get a free ticket, lucky him!

The bluesfest was awesome! Please check my movies on youtube - surfsaske - Xavier Rudd - Missy Higgins - Jason Mraz and Ben Harper. The weather was crap: it was pouring and really muddy, but the stages were in big tents, so once you were in it was dry. We managed to get really near the stage, so that was great J

The next day I was really tired - we went to sleep at 3 am - and it was just a wasted day… no waves… Gavin took of early in the morning to get to work and I slept in big time!! Then chilled out on the beach and an early sleep at the secret spot.

The next morning I went to surf the Pass, a famous surf break at Byron Bay, a very busy one as well, but I'm getting more and more patient. I was even able to catch a wave without dropping in and without someone dropping in on me!!! Great wave J As I got out of the water and did some stretching, Marko walked up to me! I met Marko in Mimizan last year: he was a surf coach for Wavetours, the German surf camp. I knew he was living in Byron Bay and I kind of knew I was going to run into him, but in the end I didn't expect it anymore, sinceI was planning on leaving that afternoon. But here he was and later on, when I gave him a ring, he invited me over to watch a movie. Before I got there, my friend Roos called me and we talked for nearly an hour.

Marko lived at the house of the surf school with 6 other people and they were all really nice. We watched slamdog millionaire that evening and I had a good sleep afterwards.

Thursday morning Marko, Nick and I went to surfBelongil Estuary and it was great! We were the only three people in the water that morning and I caught hypes of waves. I had my first barrel!! (tube - when you're 'in' the wave). I didn't get out (yet), but I'll have enough opportunities for that in Bali. After lunch, Marko had to coach, so I went for a surf with JB, a French roomie. We surfed The Wreck, which was a bit more busy, but the waves were still nice.

In the evening I made some pasta and we went out for a night in town, where I met Fraser and Greg (Fraser Island) again, how funny.

The next morning, around eleven, I had another surf at the wreck with JB, while Marko was coaching surf again. In between I put my laundry in the machine at the backpackers, so I could hang it in the garden to dry at Marko's.

In the late afternoon I was really keen on surfing again, but nobody wanted to join me, so I went out by myself (The wreck again) and I had a really nice surf. Not only because I caught some really great waves (backside - rights everywhere in Byron), but also because there were some dolphins around to surf with us J

We had a very mellow evening: didn't do much..

Saturday - time to leave… a surf in the morning with Marko and friends, a stroll in town, said goodbye to Katja (roomie as well), who was working (got a coffee from her), had a goodbye chat with Carsten, while waiting for Marko to come back.

I left around 4 pm and drove straight to Lennox head. The surf was very messy at that point, so there was no point of getting in there. That evening I met up with Gavin and we stayed that night at Boulder Beach where we had some dinner and went to sleep around 1am.

I got up too late that Sunday morning. As we checked the waves, it looked really good, but when we were ready to get in, the tide just turned and the waves didn't look as good anymore, so we decided to drive on. We ended up at Evan's Head, where we went out for a pretty rough surf. We ended up sleeping somewhere near Iluka, but Gavin had to get up early to be able to get to work on time, so we got up at 4 am and started driving half a hour later. I drove to Iluka, where I parked and wentback to sleep and Gavin drove back to Brisbane, but he dot really unlucky, because his van broke down somewhere along the way…

That morning I checked the surf at Yamba's Pippies and Spookies, but there was way to much wind and the waves were way to messy: no surfers in the water… I drove all the way to Coff's Harbour, where I turned of at the ' legends surf museum'. Suzanne (Vermeer, 'Suus') told me to say hi to Scott (Dillon) if I'd pass by and so I did. Scott invited me to stay over and that was what happened. He's got a hot pool/ spa on his deck, so we chilled out in there and in the evening after dinner we went out for a coffee with Kamla and two of her friends: Charlie and Brian. We went to bed around 11.30pm and got up at 7 am Wednesday morning.

I did my yoga (was about time) and then I jumped in the Jacuzzi J since it was raining all day again. Later on, Kamla, Brian and Charlie passed by and we went to take out some lunch. Later that day, Scott had some surf camp busses coming to visit the museum. The second buss was a bit too early, so here we were… sitting in the hot tub on the deck with some champagne going on (this is the life ;-) and this buss with 53 young people arrived.. It was so funny: Scott was telling stories from the hot tub and all these people were standing there listening to him.

In the evening I played some guitar, Brian made a lovely Mexican dinner and we just had a good time.

This afternoon I'll be joining Kamla in a spinning class and we might go for a surf. I'll be leaving today, because I;ve got only so many days left L and too many spots too surf…