Hippie Central

Ok, back from a sand-filled trip to Fraser Island, but first need to catch up on the previous week.

After Brisbane I headed down to Byron Bay, which has a very hippie-slash-new-age reputation, but also is supposed to have one of the best beaches, especially for surfing, in Australia. Which it does. Although it was a bit too chilly and windy for me, so I spent the first day at the hostel by the pool. A lovely, warm, salt water pool, actually. Not what you likely picture in a hostel! The first evening I visited the local backpacker bars with one of my roommates, an Israeli girl who is between jobs as well. We laughed at the crazy antics of Cheeky Monkeys (think Daytona Beach of South Padre Island spring break) and couldn't stay up late enough to make a go of Cocamangas. (There was one person dancing when we were there and it only took us 3 seconds to finish our free drink, courtesy of the hostel, that was the equivalent of a thimble of fruit juice.) We wandered the town for a while, but that doesn't take very long either. Picture Boulder, Colorado plunked on a beach in California and you get a picture of what Byron Bay is like. There are offers to read your aura everywhere. I don't think I appreciated the delights of Byron as much as many people, as I had my fill of the hippie vibe at Colorado College and am a bit old for the backpacker antics of the spring breakish bars.

There's also the upmarket side of Byron, but I couldn't participate in that either, given that it would have meant spending hundreds a day on accommodation and even more at the local clothing boutiques. The 2nd morning in Byron I spent sea kayaking off the beach, which was fantastic. Our tour guide was from Manhattan Beach, California and had quit his engineering job after 15 years to "enjoy life." It was great both for the exercise and for the wildlife. We were kayaking amongst a pod of dolphins that would come right up alongside us and then dive down below to check us out. I'm not sure if we were on a dolphin-watching cruise or if they were on a human-watching one. My fellow kayaker, a Danish girl, and I did really well together - we didn't tip and had to keep slowing down for the other groups. However, she had never kayaked or canoed before and kept paddling with really fast, short strokes instead of the longer strokes the guide had told us to use. I was in the back and was trying to keep up and was exhausted by the time we were done. I couldn't figure out a polite way to tell a stranger that she was doing it wrong!

Back on land one of the English couples was telling us about their trip to Thailand the previous week. They were on a 5 week honeymoon and had started in Thailand. At the very end of a boating trip the guide offered to take a picture of them and then promptly dropped their camera over the side of a waterfall, never to be seen again. They were so upset. They had lost all of their honeymoon photos including an elephant trek. Needless to say I immediately went to the internet cafe and uploaded pictures and also burned them onto a CD. I am so paranoid of losing my pictures! That and booking the rest of my time in Queensland took up most of the rest of the day - I finished with "gourmet fish & chips" which were amazing and then stayed in for the rest of the night. Three of my dorm roommates - I think they were Swedish - were in bed before 7pm and were still asleep when I got up at 7am. Apparently they went on "Jim's Alternative Tour" to Nimbin, known for its lenient drug laws. Not a great ad for that tour. Although it was a difficult decision, I decided to skip that.

Off the next morning to start heading back north to Cairns. First stop, Noosa!