Monday 7th February 2011 – Byron Bay has been just what I needed, rest and relaxation in beautiful surroundings. The campsite is right on the beach and therefore benefits from cool sea breezes as well as warm sunshine. Its a bit of a hippy town – lots of massage clinics, art galleries and shops selling brightly coloured clothing. And more campervans than I’ve seen in my entire tour of Australia! Its a big surfing destination.

On Friday night a group of 20-something lads, then a group of 20-something girls, checked into the lodges next to mine. As you can imagine the 2 groups instantly bonded, the music was cranked up and the booze began to flow. God bless them, they very kindly asked if I would like to join them, so I had a cocktail, then politely left them to it. Just as well I’m pretty deaf as I managed to sleep through the ensuing din.

Saturday was spent cleaning the bike, wandering around and acquainting myself with the town and walking up and down the beach in my bikini in an attempt to get a tan. I mention this only because in a town full of 20 year old stick insects, one does become particularly conscious of one’s “fuller figure”. Anyway, I managed to get a bit of a tan and second degree burns on the areas that I missed with the sunscreen.

Sunday I went sea kayaking. This was brilliant fun and as they didn’t have enough canoes for everyone I got paired up with one of the guides, Shane, a very attractive man from New Zealand. Shane encouraged us all to stand up and see if we could see some dolphins from an “aerial perspective” which resulted in me nose-diving into the sea. Later, a shoal of fish were having a feeding frenzy on the surface but no dolphins were to be seen. Shane then leant over and said “Just between you and me, it probably means there’s sharks about.” Jesus Christ, thank god he didn’t tell me that before I had my little dip! On the way back in, a lady got a bit panicky so Shane offered to take her back in. This, of course, meant I had to get onto her kayak – this time I managed not to plunge into the water but I ended up on my back with my legs split between the 2 drifting canoes before I finally managed to pull myself aboard – not the most elegant manoeuvre!

Today it was wet and windy so I did a pile of laundry in the morning then took a walk up to the lighthouse. Oh, it was so nice to feel the cool wind and rain on my skin after so many days of sweltering heat.

Tomorrow I shall leave this wonderful place and continue heading south to Sydney. Probably stop at Port MacQuarrie.