Byron Bay as everyone had told me is a fantastic place. A lovely town with heaps of character, lovely individual shops and a gorgeous beach two minutes from where I was staying: Main Beach Backpackers.
On Monday I was reunited with Leah, Heather and Rebekah and we all stayed in the same room along with Ciaran a surfer dude and Dave whose real name was James but I got confused and the name Dave stuck. He even ordered a cheap Tuesdays pizza under his new name. He used to live in Beddgelert so Leah and I had the odd Welsh converstation with him. That afternoon we went down to see the beach and found the local sealife conservationists releasing three recovered turtles into the sea. The minute they saw the waves they flapped their feet and bobbed their heads up and down in excitment. It was fantastic to see them going back into the wild.
Tuesday was equally a brilliant day from a wildlife point of view. We all set off for a walk to the lighthouse and spent the afternoon watching whales jump out of the sea and surface for air and dolphins swim around the most Easterly point of Australia. I had never seen either mammal in my life and so that too felt very special.
Our social life in Bryon centred around Cheeky Monkeys which reminded me of the Woolshed in Cairns: backpacker heaven although trying not to get thrown out of the establishmend proved a mission in itself. Heather wasn't allowed back in on Tuesday as she failed the breathelyser on the wall test, Sam from the Essex Extraordinaires was asked to leave as I was in mid sentence with him and on Wednesday Rabbitts herself was duly evicted. The bouncer went to find Leah in the toilets to share the good news. This trip is all about doing things for the first time and at this was the first time I have ever been thrown out of a pub!
We spent lazy days on the beach and ended up speaking to the Essex Extraordinares: Sam, Ritchie (Lord of the manor Hatton), Ricky, Webby, Guy and top chef Disco. On Wednesday evening Heather and Rebekah Greyhounded off to Sydney leaving Leah in charge of the Rabbitts. Thursday we went for a third night in a row to Cheeky Monkeys with the Extraordinares. Sam and I stood as still as possible at the bar chatting about DJing, Ibiza and rugby -you don't get a better conversation than that! None of our group got thrown out that night - top result. Friday was a very lazy day. The Extraordinares went to Nimbin and came back with hilarious stories, Leah left me for Coffs Harbour and as we were all too partied out we had a few quiet beers and went to bed early doors.
Saturday was spent sitting in the sun at the hostel catching up on current affairs and having to say goodbye to the Extraordinaires and the gorgeous Sam. That night I was off to Sydney for my last 13.5 hour all night Greyhound journey to join Heather at Maze Backpackers. I felt jet lagged all day and went for a wander around the harbour and saw those famous Sydney images: the Bridge and the Opera House. I had to pinch myself that I was in fact finally seeing those sights. Maze Backpackers gave us a book of vouchers which included 15 free drinks at various locations. Heather suggested we went to one of the bars nearby and chirped as I ordered a glass of wine like her "I didn't know you liked wine". I do like wine but wine doesn't like me as Liz will vouch: I always end up completely trashed. After 4 more glasses I rolled into the backpackers at 16:00 drunk as a skunk and continued to speak utter rubbish for the rest of the evening from my top bunk. Note to self stick to the Tooleys in future!
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