Wow, the last couple of weeks have disappeared in a haze of sun, sea, sand, surf and... um, backgammon. A day or two after my last update, we had a bout of bad weather. It bucketed it down for a few days along with strong winds. There was even a level two cyclone warning, if that means anything to anyone. This was all slightly inconvient as I am, amongst other things, trying to learn to surf. I'd already had one lesson and enjoyed it immensely, so I wanted one more lesson to build my confidence enough so I could just hire a board and head out. Lesson number two had to be continually postponed because, I quote, there was "too much motion in the ocean".
Still, I had plenty of other things to occupy myself with. It's been a while since I had time to indulge in a serious reading binge so I've been devouring books since I got here. There are at least three really note-worthy reading spots. Firstly, there's the sofas in the common room around the open fire which gets lit in the evening. Secondly, there's the reading room, which is much quieter and is frequented by a fat, affectionate cat. Thirdly, there's the hammocks by the tea-tree lake, although the large lizards are a little distracting as they chase each other slowly round the lake. Waddle, stop, waddle, stop.
Then, obviously, there's the social side. The other people that work here are all really friendly and it's good fun to get to know the steady stream of folk that pass though the hostel. During the bad weather, we played a great deal of cards, chess and Risk (huzzah for geekery) and some Dutch folk taught me to play backgammon. I'd always thought it was one of those games that you had to be taught by an old man in a pub, but apparently not. It's interesting what an international bunch of twenty-something year olds kept inside by a rainy day will find to keep themselves occupied: hide and seek, treasure hunts, 'Giants, Wizards and Dweebs'...
The rain and the winds didn't last too long and I've been out and about a lot this week to make up for it. I finally got my surfing lesson and have been out once with a hired board too. I'm rubbish but enthusiastic. The times I do manage to stand up and ride the wave more than make up for the many, many times I flail around and fall off.
The walk along the beach, through the rain forest and up to the light house is a lovely one which I seem to end up doing every few days for one reason or another. I took a tour inside the lighthouse and finally saw whales from the top. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I've seen a fair few more. Not managed to get a picture of any whales or dolphins though, largely because I'm too busy looking at them to think about getting the camera out. The top of the hill where the lighthouse is situated is also a great place to watch the sun rise and set, to star gaze and to watch the lunar eclipse. That last one was one of my favourite evenings in Oz, where we sat out for a few hours watching the moon slowly get covered up and change colour. Unromantic as it sounds, once covered it did resemble a large Malteaser in the sky. The lack of light pollution there makes it a great place for looking at the stars and once the light from the moon had gone, things were even clearer. You could see the Milky Way and I spotted a number of shooting stars. All the while the owls and bats (HUGE bats) flitted around and the hippies played their drums somewhere in the background.
I fully intend to stick up some more photos today so keep checking the galleries for pictures of all the pretty places I've been.
