Pesky marine life

Byron Bay, Australia's most easterly town and HQ to the most unbelievable cookies. Yes, we stocked up prior to leaving.  15 days till xmas and Fe has just had breakfast in a bikini!

With our moods most definitely restored back to a more happy vibe we were back on the bus and heading 50km down the coast to Byron Bay which takes us into our final Aussie state, New South Wales.  The state of New South West have daylight saving so technically on New years eve if you're in the bordering town you can cross the highway back into Queenland and celebrate it all over again an hour later. On quizzing the locals on whether this carry-on did actually go on it seemed an almost given just so the celebrations could go on for that little bit longer!

Byron is classed as a very 'cool' town with plenty of youth around. You find the odd aging dreadlock hippy who apparently pitched up like we had but then never actually left. Easy to spot these folk, a group were sat on the beach drinking, whilst murdering another great classic on that old trusty but ever so slightly knacked acoustic guitar. X factor they most certainly did not have.

Parked up and quick to hit the beach we noticed that the lifeguards were still warning everyone about another beach being affected by the bluebottle jelly fish but this didn't deter Fe as she was pretty desperate for a swim. Not a second after she had dipped her toe into the very blue ocean lifeguards were sounding the 'everybody out of the water' siren. I joked to myself from the safety of my towel 'ah has a shark been spotted?'. But no joke, a couple of 5 foot grey nose sharks had been spotted dead centre of the bay.  Suddenly the blue bottles were a distant memory as all took cover beachside. Needless to say we both stuck to dry land for the rest of the day which wasn't the case for other folk as after an hour had passed the beach was back open for business as usual. Swim? no thanks.

As the sea was a no go for us poms we walked to Cape Byron lighthouse. From the safety of the high cliffs we could spot dolphins and turtles in the clear waters below. The BB lighthouse is the brightest in the southern hemisphere with it's beam stretching out for 50 km. You gotta love a lighthouse and cant beat a day at a one when hiding from sharks.

That evening BB were hosting 'Carols by the Sea' so after a quick supper we headed back to the beach for a sing-a-long of classics and met Santa, in flip flops no less. Made us feel a little more festive but the meet did lack mulled wine and mince pies!

Typically on the back of a day that brought sharks to the bay the next day the surf cleaned up, but had those pesky sharks done a bunk?  Must say it was pretty hard to think of anything else as we were signing the hire agreement for another long board. The paddle out to First Pass, the far end of BB main beach, was a case of just don't look down or back. If the leash spooked me once it spooked me a dozen times. If you get it right at First Pass you can pick a wave up and ride it right across to main beach. Had to watch out for the sand bars though, this bay had so many different levels it was untrue. You could be way out back and stand up then close to shore and its 10ft deep!

The rain started to fall and on arriving back into town to return the board there was major flooding in the high street with most of the kerbs disappeared under a couple of foot of water. Any deeper and I could have paddled the board right back into the shop. What with this, the thunder and lightening and those pesky sharks we were glad to be back in the van with a cuppa and BB cookie. Oz - the land of extremes hey.