Byron Bay, Australia

Jason gave me a ride from his house back to the highway the day after I slept on his couch. He was headed north for an audition while I was continuing south to Byron Bay. Getting a ride was not much of an issue but I met another interesting character. Again there was no exchange of names, so I am going to go with Mack this time. Mack was a local to the area who grew up outside Byron and lived in the region his entire life. He does not do much of anything. He supports himself by selling various substances across the street from the Woolworth's in Byron Bay. Later I learned that he is known throughout the area for being a reliable, though overpriced, source for these substances. He dropped me off in the middle of town and advised me to stop by his spot if I needed some of the substances he sells or just to chat. Yeah, right, I will be doing that for sure.

The plan in Byron was to work at a backpackers for a week or two in exchange for accommodation while waiting to hear about my India visa (I could check the status online). This plan failed. Not only were none of the backpackers looking to hire anybody, but there was a waiting list of travellers looking for employment just as I was, and the all required a minimum of a 6 week committement. I resigned to paying for a room. This would be only the third time I had paid for accommodation in Australia, excluding packaged tours. So I not happy about doing this but I was felt with little option. (CS is almost non-exist in Byron and the few hosts are swarmed with requests. One has even taken to charging rent.) I did not have my passport to fly far from Brisbane, travelling far by hitching makes getting back in a timely manner to pick up my passport complicated and high risk, spending the entire time in Brisbane would have been too much, and of all the places near Brisbane, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast were the only ones I had any interest in visiting that I had not already. So, a backpackers in Byron Bay it was.

At first I did not like Byron very much. This is partially because I was in a bad mood about having to pay AU$20/night for a bed but also the weather was subpar. Also I found hanging out with people in the backpackers to be a task. Everybody seemed to have their own thing going on and I was a little out of practice in the whole hostel scene. After a couple days of exploring the area (there is some really nice hiking and views) I was almost decided to head back north to either the Gold Coast or possibly back to Burleigh Heads (I was invited to return). Then I realized that I had not yet surfed in Australia and Byron Bay is a good place to do so. I decided to rent a board and go out and leave the following day.

Renting the board was easy and reasonably priced. Unfortunately the surf was terrible and given my novice surfing skills catching a wave was a once-in-30-minute occurance. It boosted my confidence that other people were struggling as well but that did not make it any more fun. Though surfing was still enjoyable it was really frustrating. I was headed out in the afternoon to try surfing on my rented board once again when I started talking to two English guys, brothers that I later learned were twins. The offered me a wetsuit (yes) and said they had an extra board that I could take borrow until they leave in a few days (yes and awesome). With some difficulty I put on the wetsuit and headed out again and again the surf was bad, but I decided now that I had access to a free board that I might was well stay until it was no longer available. In addition, I had adjusted to the backpackers scene an was hanging out with people during the days and nights as I pleased and geting along swimmingly. (I was going to make a bad joke there and write "surfingly" but it was just too bad of a joke.)

Other than the (poor) surfing and walking around I did not do much in Byron other than hang out. I had forgotten about the drinking culture of hostels and was caught a bit offguard and underprepared. I like couch surfing a lot but it was nice to get back to in hostel mode and experience that kind of living again. It ended up being hard to leave Byron Bay despite its unfavorable first impression but once I saw online that my passport was being sent back to Brisbane for me to pick up it was time to leave.