Last stop of the eastcoast before hitting Sydney was... BYRON BAY! Another place hyped up by the masses. Everyone that's been has nothing but praise for the little town. We were actually considering a visit to Surfers Paradise before Byron, but opted to spend more time here to see what the 411 was.... So... We arrived on a gray, cloudy day... Which was a bit worrying, as we had our 2nd skydive attempt booked in on the next morning. But we remained optimistic... We wondered around the small hippy town and looked at the shops. If you were looking for a tye-dye tshirt, or something with Bob Marleys face on, Byron had you covered. I bought a pair of trainers and some tracksuit bottoms... Neither were tye-dye or Bob Marley related.... We didn't do much on our first evening there, as we were getting up for skydiving the next day. I thought I'd get up even earlier to watch England vs Uruguay... (psst) After THAT disappointment, we walked to the bus stop to get picked up by the skydive company, and the weather was looking pretty gooood.... After getting there, signing in, and getting kitted up, I met the guy I was jumping out a plane with... It was some Man United fan with a big nose... He asked me where I was from and I said "England". Then he said "Cool!..... Where abouts are you from mate?"....(I swear I just told you?).... I was hoping he wasn't this forgetful when it came to pulling parachutes.
About 6 of us got in to the little plane. Cat hadn't seemed nervous or excited about the whole thing, and even before take-off she was all 'nonchalant' about it. But she was placed nearer the sliding doors and was gonna be jumping before me... I can't lie, I was shitting it a bit by this stage. We went up, and the views of Byron were amazing! We could see the whole town, beach, lighthouse, Bob Marley t-shirts, even some WHALES swimming in the ocean below us. Made me feel a lot less disappointed about the cancelled dive in Mission Beach...
The doors went up... NOW Cat was SHITTING BRICK! Ha! About 2 people went before her, then I saw her shuffled to the edge of the plane, and VROOOMP!! The suction took her... I didn't know whether to laugh of feel nervous for her, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it, as I was being shuffled next.... There was only one way down at this point... Sat on the edge of the plane, legs dangling for about 6 seconds, head back, then VROOMP... I was gone........
Opened my eyes, looked down, and there it was. Mother earth. And I was doing something very unnatural for a human being. But by this point... Fear had gone, and I was loving it! We had 60 seconds of free falling, and admiring the views, before the chute was pulled.... The first thing I said to the guy I was strapped to was "F*ck, thats the biggest wedgie of my life". Not exactly poetic, but my testicles were almost ground down to a powder... We floated down calmly, then landed safe on the ground next to Cat... Skydiving ticked off the bucket list! :) Hell yeeeeah...
We met up with Natalie after the dive, and she was playing tour guide to us again. She had been Byron once before with Shona... She recommended a walk to the lighthouse past all the nice beaches, and view points... We even got to see a bunch of humpback whales migrating again... Awesome as shiz... We went in the lighthouse, took photos, then strolled back for the evening... We didn't have much planned the next morning, so tonight was our night to get waste stained... That's when I found the biggest downfall with Byron... THEY DONT SELL GOON! :o ANYWHERE. What else is a decent backpacker supposed to drink with no gooooon!? We settled for cheap wine... Its no Fruity Lexia, but it does the job. After predrinks, we headed out... First thing we saw was a guy playing the banjo to a sheep... Yeah, a real, living, sheep in the middle of the street. Was a bit of a mind f*ck, but I have photo evidence, and it did actually happen... We went to a bar called Cheeky Monkeys. Its the most popular in town. We saw a bunch of the guys from Fraser Island there, so we hung out with them a bit too... Towards the end of the night, the bar staff started handing out free chips for everyone. In hindsight, it's a sad reminder that I'm back in NSW, and the drinking laws here SUCK! "Ooooh we don't want people intoxicated! Give them chips or they'll diieee!" So lame.... Of course this is all hindsight, and at the time I was loving life, shoving handfuls of fries down my FACE.... :o
Next morning - the girls got up early, and.went to one of the nicest beaches about. I decided to have a lie in, then met them with BBQ stuff later. Probably wasn't the best idea, as the bags weighed a ton, and the beach was further than i remembered... Was all worth it in the end though. Nothing beats a beach BBQ for a hangover cure... (Apart from swimming pools, magic water, and chocolate milkshakes) After spending the day there, we headed out for casual drinks at the "Railway Friendly Bar". I know it sounds like the gayest bar in town, but it's def not gay though blog fans... The building itself, is an abandoned railway station. You can see the tracks and platforms through the back windows. But what makes this place great, is the live bands they have playing there. When we were there, they had a folky, rock n roll type band playing. They were pretty sick... We didn't stay up too late, as we had a day trip booked to Nimbin for the next morning...
NIMBIN: "The Amsterdam Of Australia".
Stoners paradise... That's basically why people go there. Weed and weed cookies. Its pretty funky there, and has cool little hippy stores and markets. But no ever goes there JUST for that... Apart from me, Cat and Nats of course ;) I was innocently looking at a market stall, and a lady asked if I wanted some cookies... I was hungry, so I said "yes please". Coincidently, they were weed cookies... I was recommended to eat 1/2 a cookie at a time. So I had 3/4 - naturally... Cat and Natalie had just under 1/2. I think it effected me the most. Even though Natalie couldn't manage to step up a little brick wall for a photo afterwards, and just sat there and giggled about it. Pssst, Natalie... We took the rest back to Byron, and ate it before we watched "22 Jump Street" in the cinema. Unfortunately I didn't feel much of the effect until I left there. There was one part in the film, when they ate a cake full of a new drug called "WhyPhy" and they started tripping balls. Got me a bit paranoid that it was gonna happen to me whilst watching it lol. But I was cool... After spending the night with planet earths two loudest snoriners, we checked out of Byron for a night bus to Sydney. We hung around a while, and got some fruit for the journey. Cat got caught weighing everything as "carrots" at self-service to make things cheaper. Was proper embarrassing.... 14hrs later, we were back in Sydney...
Hello Sydney!
Feels good to be home! Arriving back here felt emotional... I remembered how I first came here over a year ago, and all the expectations I had when I first got here... We arrived at our old hostel we loved so much, Elephant. We spent many months here before, and was strange to be back. It looked so much cleaner! But it didn't take long for us to realize 80% of the showers and half the toilets were still not working. Ah, the memories. Emotional... Cat noticed she left her Kindle on the coach. We luckily got it back, but it's classic Cat.... We spent some time doing the old things we loved doing here. The walks, bars, and restaurants we liked. We then even visited our old place in Bondi! Our old home for half a year :( ... Emotional... It looked the same, but different... They had the mirror I bought, the shoe rack, all the dvds I got, even my big goon chalice that I used to drink from! ...Emotional!... Then - duh duh duh!! We get another visitor from home arriving to see us... AMBIKA!... Was the first time we saw her since the amazing surprise leaving party she organized for us in London... Emotional... We went out with her, got drunk, then woke up early to go back to the Blue Mountains....... Emotional...
Since then the rest of the time has been... Emotional... We had Rachel's birthday celebration, but also her and Shona, and Natalie, and Gemma and Roslyn all leaving... Forever...... Emotional!... Natalie has gone New Zealand, Shona and Rachel to Philippines, and Gemma and Ros back home. End of an error! Last few days we were busy with all the meeting up, BYOs, goodbye drinks, and plain ol goodbyes... It was pretty emotional... and then, they were gone... :( ... Ah emotions.... Since then, I've been playing tour guide for Ambika, and job hunting. Ambika might stay in Sydney a bit longer than expected. She likes it here... Obviously - we're here... But Cat and her might go off and do some more day and weekend trips from Sydney. Whilst I'm staying, and hopefully getting some cold hard cash for Bali :D
So... Guess that's all I gotta say for now. I'll let you know how the job hunt goes, and how Ambikas trip went (from my point of view - not hers) in my next blogtation... Keep one eye out, and one pair of shorts tight for that!
And if I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through the...ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa!!..........
(poof)
....I'm out like a rocket
x
Wow that's a long one (that's wat she said!lol) x
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