Written 15th September 2011

Hello!

I am now sat on a bench by Byron Beach at 6.48pm and the sun has just set! I can hear some no doubt high hippie's sat having a great time on the rocks while playing bongos etc… and the waves crashing on the shore. I am finally able to sit in my beach shorts in Australia although my ever present grey hoodie is now on as it still gets a bit nippy here at night. J

So the train arrived in Casino at about 7.30pm and I then got a bus from there to Byron Bay, yet another hour travelling! When I arrived I wondered around for a bit before finding the YHA Cape Byron. I managed to get a room, dropped my things off and then went straight to the local bars with the lads from the room. Finally some English people! We did the 3 main bars in Byron and $4 actually wasn't too bad for a drink, although here they drink 'Scooners' for $4 which is in between a half and full pint! Pointless! Byron is still quite quiet at the moment as its not yet summer but there are still a few people around and I kind of prefer it that way J

We then went back to the hostel where I had a great nights sleep on a really comfy bed and only woke up to someone hovering the room at 10am! YHA seem to look after their rooms! I got up and checked out the local tourist information before setting off for the day. Oh ye, I purchased a quarter chicken for my lunch from Woolworths, still in existence here! So because I haven't walked enough in the past few days I decided that the first day in Byron was the best to do the walk! Basically Byron is the bit that sticks out on the east of Australia and you can do a loop starting on the amazing beach right up to the most easterly point of Australia where there is a light house and then back down through rain forests to the beach. The walk along the beach was really nice! Although, has anyone reading this ever been on a beach where as you walk the sand squeaks! Now that is weird! After spending about 30 mins walking, looking and listening to my feet I reached to end which was obviously the best surfing area. People were in there catching the waves, it looked pretty cool! I then wondered over the head land to some other beaches where there was amazing view of the bay to the left and just ocean to the right! I walked back along the coast, ocean now on left, all the way to the top of the hill from which I could see loads of WHALES, yes whales, squirting water into the air! That was well good! I stood and watched for ages waiting with my camera but it was so hard to get a picture, one you see them they are gone. Anyway I got a few good ones. I then continued to walk around the loop and could then see the beach on the other side of the sticky out bit haha! It was gigantic! There were so many waves it seemed like they weren't moving! From here I walked the last part of the loop through the rain forest! It was freaky…. There were some very weird noises coming from the trees and when the grass moved I froze every time! All I know is that the majority of things in Australia are poisonous! I learnt that from Ant and Dec! Then I heard something big moving, maybe a Kangaroo or something, I stopped and listened! Then I saw it! It was massive, about 1.5m long and the main body was about 20cm in diameter, huge! It just looked like a gigantic lizard, but it was bigger than that! I creped towards me, imagine what I was like… looking for anyone else, frozen still and snapping away with my camera! It had a really long snake type tongue that it stuck out at me directly about 3 or four times before then wondering off in the other direction along the path! I scampered, I wasn't hanging around for its big brother! I was so scared its untrue; jumping out a plane wasn't as bad as that! After showing a few people the pictures I found it was a Goanna, more or less just a big lizard. Some people have told me they are poisonous and other say they are not. Let's just say if I see another one I won't be stroking it or anything!

Then I walked back along the beach and back to the hostel via Woolworths to buy some food for tea, I thought id try Kangaroo!

Just for future reads, a group of girls have just decided to strip off in front of me and have just ran down to the sea squealing! Luckily I'm sat next to the shower as well! ;-)

The Kangaroo experience was a funny one. I cooked it how I though and although it was tasty I don't think it did it justice. When I've finished writing this I'm off to have another go!

Day 2…

Today was surf lesson day! I had a leisurely start to the day and booked a few things for New Zealand after being woken up by the Hoover again. I then met a group of other Surf Virgins at the Black Dog surf centre, got fitted out with wet suits and off we went. At the beach we had a lesson and practice on dry land before going into the water. Basically we all walked out the guys, hopped on our massive boards and then when a good wave came they gave us a shove and we had to do the 5 steps. Bum up, back leg forward, front leg forward, bent knees arms low, look forward and surf! Now id love to say I did it first time, but to be fair I did get up but then fell off within a few seconds! Next try though! Wam Bam Thank You Mam, I was surfing dude! All the way to the beach! It was very cool! This however meant a really long walk/swim/wade/hard work trek back out! I must have done about 20 waves during the few hours in the water and had about 8 really good surfs! To be honest after a while I was wondering what the big fuss is about. All you do is work your arse off to get out to sea all for 30 seconds of surfing which ends in a massive crash into the sea! It was still a good day though and now I can say I can kind of surf!

So tonight, after I got back I decided to walk down here to write my blog. I got some great jumping pictures in the sun set on the beach, even creating a few new moves haha! The hippies are still playing away, the girls didn't bother with a shower near me L and I'm getting pretty cold now. I'm now totally up to date with my blog and now off to try my hand again at cooking Kangaroo and watch a movie before bed. Surfing takes it out of you! Tomorrow is Scuba Diving again and I am fully expecting to see a darn sight more than in Kenya! A goldfish would pretty much be a result, although Turtles, apparently playful sharks and millions of fish are expected! We will wait and see!

Ta tar for now

x

Written 19th September 2011

Hello!

I am currently sat outside Shelia and Bob's house in Brisbane in glorious sunshine at about 30 degrees! Lovely 

I SAW A SHARK! That basically is all I need to say about my diving experience in Byron Bay! After a few laps of the swimming pool and a well cool speed boat ride out to Julian Rocks I got into the sea in all my gear and down we went. I was diving with the company's Dive Master a lady called Sue. She was to put it politely, a very experienced diver, but apparently could find anything and everything in the sea! We went down to around 12m and found hundreds of fish! Big ones, little ones, tiny ones and bloody big ones! Here is the list, King Fish, Snapper, Parrot Fish, Clown Fish, Morish Idles, Puffer Fish, Bulls eyes, Lion Fish, White eyed eels, Wobbiegong Shark and…. A Grey Nurse SHARK! After about 20mins of swimming around between 10m and 12m I signalled to Sue that I only had 100bar left of air in my tank. Although that was half I was when I had to tell her so I did. So far we had seen plenty of really cool fish but not a shark which is what I really wanted to see. My dive limit was 12m but Sue had mentioned she would take me to about 13m if I was doing ok. So I pretended I was fine and gave her the thumbs up. In reality after 20 mins at the bottom of the sea I was feeling a bit funny but not bad enough to say so. So we then went down what I can only describe as, 'an ally way under the sea', and got to between 13m and 13.5m. Still no shark. I was then continuously checking my reading as the last thing I wanted was to see a shark and then run out of air… Just as I thought it was time to head back up my right hand, which Sue was holding, jumped like a rocket, was squeezed bloody hard, and a dive master was looking at me holding her hand on her head pretending to be a shark! This was actually the, 'I've seen a shark so don't move quickly' signal! However, I didn't need a bloody hand signal as I could see clear as day the 2m plus long Grey Nose Shark swimming right past us. It was like slow motion, hardly moving and with its head surrounded by loads of tiny fish it floated right past us about 1m away. It was huge! With my heart racing I tried to take in as much as I could! It had two fins, quite a lot of marks and scratches, big eyes and a pointed nose. It ignored us completely which I was most happy about and then just disappeared. It was crazy! We then swam round a little bit more looking under rocks, in little holes and around corners. All I was concerned with was getting back to the top as I was convinced our big friend would be back to take a bite out of my backside! Luckily it didn't and after a 2 minute stop at 5m depth, where I felt very weird and almost wobbly, I got to the surface. I then climbed back onto the boat and sat there still trying to regain a feeling of normality. I just about came round by the time we got to the beach and crash landed onto the sand. That's apparently how they get the boats out the water here! I still couldn't believe I had just been face to face with a Shark! A real life, no cage, no nothing shark! After getting changed and sorted back at the centre I headed down to the beach. Read my book for a bit, which I can now say I am very near the end of after 3 months, and then fell asleep! A days surfing and a shark encounter had seen me off. When I finally woke up I did a bit of souvenir shopping, $10 for a shot glass!, went back to my hostel and sorted my bags out, before heading to the beach for one last time to have my tea. As I had seen many different kinds of fish in the morning I decided that for tea I wanted to eat one! Fish and Chips it was! I had the best F+C I have ever had! The chips were hand cut, the fish was amazing and I discovered I like Tarter sauce. They didn't have any ketchup! I walked to the beach for one last time, got my bags from the hostel and hopped on the bus to the Gold Coast.

I had a great few days in Byron and did some great things! I had a few life endangering experiences… that sounds really good haha, and had great fun surfing and diving. Byron itself is a weird place. Beautiful beach, town and surroundings, filled with what I class as weirdo's smoking all sorts! During the week it was great and I kind of had the place to myself. While I was waiting for the bus though on a Friday night I couldn't help but think of Blackpool as fairies, devils, action men etc… and any other hen/stag party theme dressed in 'L' plates walked past me.

By for now...

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