Arrived in Byron Bay after a 14 hour bus journey (the smell of bad breath!) and made it to our hostel. Shared an 8-bed tiny room with lots of girls, heat and a large dusty fan in the centre of the room. Luckily we were only booked for 3 nights so spent our first afternoon on a recce for somewhere nicer. Found it at Middle Reef Beach House, where I had a slight crush on the manager (those eyes!) we found ourselves sharing a two-bed apartment with an older Italian couple who could barely speak English. I managed to communicate that Daniel Craig is bellissimo to them one afternoon during Casino Royale but that's as far as it got.
Why were we watching DVDs in Byron Bay? Because the rain hit for a couple of days and the place flooded. Byron's not cut out for rain so what else is there to do. Also went to the cinema to see Milk in our rainmacs which was fun.
When it was sunny we body boarded and did 90 minute classes of yoga overlooking the sea. Charlotte was instructed at one point to direct her groin towards the ocean. I managed not to laugh, even when one of the instructors started to 'ommm' loudly. Were we to join in? Who knew.
We also hired bikes one afternoon and found a deserted beach and a large lake which stank of serenity. Once the rain cleared we took the Happy Coach to Nimbin - a tiny town famous for its lack of policing on drugs. The Happy Coach was driven carelessly by a cheery chubby hippy called Fred you would not want to take home to meet your Mum. We stopped at a waterfall along the way then spent a couple of hours in Nimbin which is literally just a street with lots of shops selling tie dye clothes and special cookies. You would not want to have eaten a special cookie before making the hairy journey back to Byron I can tell you. But it was surreal place to visit.
That evening met some IWC people who had just finished filming Phil Down Under all over Australia. Was great to see some people we knew and I had the best food at Balcony Restaurant ever.
Most evenings we drank cheap wine at the Rails bar where lots of live music was played. Met two brothers called Paul and Daniel (not a lot), the latter looked like the missing member of Right Said Fred. Paul worked at a recording studio where lots of famous bands have recorded albums so spotting our talent, naturally we accepted their invite to visit the studios and record a track of our own. Only problem is we could only think of singing Last Christmas for some reason. Expect it in the shops very soon.
After a week by the surf we got another night bus back to Sydney. Less stinky this time but took the same route past various roadside service stations. One was made to look like Ayers Rock and another had a large prawn on the roof. Don't worry, you'll see the photos soon enough.
Kathryn
