March 19 - Australia: Byron Bay, New South Wales
One With the Wave, Dude.
Another tough morning of surfing! We met Gary and the Style Surfing Van around 9:00 and headed to Belongil Beach, where we surfed yesterday. But a local gave Gary a beach report, which included blue bottle jellyfish. No fun! So we all hopped in the van (there were about 10 of us today) and went to Tallow Beach, which is just to the south of Cape Byron. There, the waves were higher than yesterday but Gary set us up in a relatively safe area. We did our pre-surfing stretches and Jon, Kim, Fiona and I hit the waves. The rest of the class stayed on the beach for their first day of lessons.
Gary's assistant, John, was in the water helping us and giving us pointers. I had a hard time warming up, and couldn't seem to get up on the board. But once I relaxed I seemed to do fine. Jon was surfing like a natural and made it look so very easy.
My Own Beach Boy
Then we all tried our hand at catching our own waves, which is where we left off yesterday. This really is harder than it looks. Half the time, when we went to catch a wave, we would invariably paddle too slowly and the wave would pass us by. Such a drag. Other times, we would catch the wave but jump up on the board too late and the board would take a nose-dive into the water. That's even more of a drag. Salt water really is nasty. But every once in a while, we would successfully catch a wave and that made it all worthwhile.
I'm, like, a TOTAL Betty.
So while yesterday was an absolutely fabulous day, today was a little tougher. The waves were higher and steeper, which - for an experienced surfer - would be perfect. But for us novice surfers they were a bit intimidating. Gary and John helped us pick which waves to try, and they kept us in an area of the beach where the waves were less full. But some of those bigger waves just pulverized us. I'm not sure if I was more exhausted from trying to catch the waves or trying to dodge them! All four of us (Kim, Fiona, Jon and I) were a little bummed at the lack of success today, compared to our general euphoria from yesterday. But Gary had a good point for us: the second day is always tougher. The first day is great fun because our expectations for ourselves are pretty low, and so we're ecstatic when we get up on the board. But on the second day, our expectations are much higher and therefore it's tougher to fulfill those expectations. I think this is a very valid point, and since practice makes perfect then I'll just have to keep surfing!
The Surfing Connals
I had two casualties of the morning's surfing - both of which were my own fault. First of all, I lost one of my toe-rings. This is the second time I've lost a toe-ring on this trip. The first being in Nepal on the Trisuli River. This was no big trauma because it was only 110 Baht in Thailand which isn't even $2.00. But the second casualty was devastating: I lost the Egyptian scarab bracelet Jon gave me for Christmas. I never take it off, and wasn't even thinking about it when I went surfing. Next thing I knew, it was gone and I was so upset! The fact that he hauled this Christmas gift around the world and in secret meant so much to me. And I've wanted a scarab bracelet for years. This one had turquoise and lapis lazuli scarabs. It's a really big loss for me, but I have no one to blame but myself. I should have taken it off before hitting the beach. I suppose that later, when it doesn't hurt so much to think about it, I'll laugh and say that it was a sacrifice to Huey the Surfing God. But right now it's just sad.
The Afternoon in Byron Bay
Back at the apartment, we made bean burritos and watched "The Mexican" which Jon rented yesterday. Pretty funny movie, actually. Later in the afternoon, we made our way into town to return the movies and to call Bruce about the truck. He said it was ready to go so it looks like we'll be catching the bus tomorrow morning! Very excited to have our truck back. We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening wandering around the little town of Byron Bay and window shopping. As it neared dinnertime, we stopped at a bottle shop to buy a bottle of wine for dinner.
Dinner at Curry House
The Curry House is a southern Indian restaurant near the beach. At 6:00, they weren't ready to open yet so we asked if we could just sit and drink our wine. (It's BYO). They said no worries so Jon and I sat on one of their little tables out front and drank an entire bottle of wine on two empty stomachs. Yeah, we thought we were pretty funny too. It's been a really long time since I've been drunk. And it's not that I was drunk but I was definitely tipsy. Everything was suddenly very funny!
And that was before Jon went to buy a second bottle.
When he got back from the bottle shop, we were ready to order our dinner and settled in for some Indian food and a bottle of chilled Riesling. (Hey. Don't knock it 'til you try it.). Needless to say, by the end of dinner we were a mess. And we'd been at the Curry House for going on two hours, having a very jolly time laughing at each other. Around 8:30, we figured it was time to make our ways back to the apartment. Did I mention that the apartment was about two kilometers away from town? Normally, we walk back via the street. But tonight we decided to walk back on the beach.
Late Night Stroll on the Beach
The path down to the beach was rocky and a bit steep, but we were determined to make it. Although we didn't have flashlights, we were lucky that the moon was pretty bright. In fact, there wasn't a cloud in the sky so it was pretty clear.
Once we made it onto the beach, we strolled (okay, stumbled) down the beach laughing at ourselves. I told Jon about my first beach kiss, which was a guy named Hans during Beach Week my senior year of high school. But that's for another journal entry some other time. Jon got a real kick out of the name "Hans" and that provided endless amusement for a while.
At the end of the walk, we weren't sure exactly where the path to our apartment was. So we used some lights as a guideline and ended up near the apartment but blocked by a tall fence. Of course, we did what any resourceful drunk people would do: we jumped the fence! Not very gracefully, but we did make it home in one piece.