Byron Bay

Cities are great but for me this was more like it, back where a beach bum belongs, and what a beach.. Byron’s bay is vast and stretches wide enough that you can take in the bay and see one half shrouded in dark clouds that threaten rain whilst the other side remains pale blue. The town itself reminds me of Brekenridge Co with the same style timber shops running along it’s boulevard and it’s boardcentric residence. We slept in a chilled out beach hut village a few hundred metres from the main beach. My mode of transportation round town was a single geared low-rider bike, great for cruising with the guys riding longboard and carrying shortboards but a herculean effort when attempting to reach the pinnacle to which Byron Lighthouse shines. Looking around the cliff edges of the lighthouse there are handgliders suspended high in the thermals and fierce messy waves far below them. Towards the bay, near offshore rocks experienced surfers are tackling less frequent but equally intimidating waves and sharing their surf with pods of dolphins, from my vantage point I can only see the silhouette of the surfer and finned torpedos cutting through the crests of waves. In the morning I awoke early and ran on the seemingly endless stretch of sand disturbing flocks of seagulls and cooling off in the sea, the water here had risen in temperature from Melbourne's 18 to 26 degrees and its so nice not to require a wetsuit when surfing, I retreated from the midday sun and kicked back with a couple of Estonians but by afternoon sad news reached us that two lads had been swept out by the rip current and drowned on the same beach I had been running on. From our beach hut I had heard a helicopter or two but this was a usual occurrence and so thought nothing of it.

We returned to the lighthouse with the our Estonian friends, together we trekked along a coastal path that lead us to the most Easterly point in Australia, further down was a hidden beach where pristine sands had a fine film of water covering them. The beach is partially protected from the barrage of waves by a rocky alcove and at the point where the defenses meet the ocean the waves explode into an eruption of white water, foam and spray. We spent a day with hired out boards and went surfing out on the point. With surprise I managed to catch the first wave I tried and as soon as I was up all the reasons why I love surfing immediately came flooding back. The second wave reminded me to be respectful as it flipped me over a few times before dumping me on the seabed. We continued to surf till dusk and it was so much fun, the skies remained spotless for the duration with the exception of a small helicopter that hovered a little further out. I discovered the next morning that it was shadowing a shark that was combing the shallows. I now have two pieces of advice for you. If you see dolphins in the bay, then sharks will stay away. But if you see fishes start to jump from the water, do likewise.