Byron Bay

We got up relatively early on Monday, and went to the beach, as Alex wanted to try out surfing again. The waves seemed really big, so we both went in, but they turned out to be much bigger than first expected, so I got out after about 20 minutes of body surfing. Alex stayed in there for another hour, trying to catch the waves, but they were all dumping waves, so they were hard to catch properly. We then went to the local kebab shop to get our lunch, which was really good, but nothing compared to the greasy English ones! We went back to the house and packed up our things, and went to the shops to buy Jack & Vicky some presents. We bought them some alcohol and other little bits to say thank you, but they deserved much more! We then got in the car and drove down to Byron Bay. It rained quite a bit along the way, but when we arrived, it had stopped. We checked in to the Holiday Village and then went out for a curry at one of the local restaurants. Jack & Vicky had been here before, so they knew where to go for the best food, but it was quite expensive (for our budget anyway!) We then said our goodbyes and we went to the hostel to find Mike, Joe, Emma, Charlie and the others. They were dotted around the hostel, so we went and said 'hi' to them all before settling down in Charlie's room. We stayed there for a while, and then went to a bar, which was a bit further along the main road. I couldn't be bothered to drink, so Mike, Alex and I went back to the hostel and watched The Bourne Ultimatum (film), before going to bed.

I woke up just after 9am to some devastating news; a 16 year old boy had been killed by a shark, about 15 miles away from us. It made me realise how much of a threat sharks actually are when swimming/surfing in the sea. We were going to rent out surfboards for the day, but our beach had been shut, and the hostel wouldn't give them to us anyway. We heard lots of different rumours about what had happened, and what kind of shark it was, but its most likely to be a Bull Shark. A fisherman said that he had seen a few of them circling his boat shortly before the attack. Here's the link from the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7336293.stm

The horrible thing about it is, that he wasn't actually in the sea; but in the river estuary, and only 50m out.
Anyway, after finding out about it, we rented out bikes from our hostel, and rode up to the Lighthouse on Cape Byron, and went to the most Easterly point of Australia (excluding islands) and looked out to sea. I think we were all looking for sharks, but we didn't see any. We did however see a few dolphins swimming around the breaking waves, and among the surfers that had braved it out. The weather was still awful; it rained on and off for the whole morning, and as we cycled back, it started up again. We got back to the hostel just before lunch, so we went to Woolworths to buy some food. We didn't really do much in the afternoon, apart from go to the beach to play Ultimate Frisbee, but it started to rain really heavily about 30 minutes after we got there, so we had to give up with that idea. We got back to the hostel and all had showers, before going to Cheeky Monkeys (the local bar) for a cheap meal. I had fish & chips (a big portion) for only $5, so I was happy! We stayed there for most of the evening, and we played in a few games to get free jugs of beer. Alex won one, as he was the second person to throw a ball through a hole (sounds easier than it was!!). The person organising it kept on asking for random amounts of money, in certain coins, and the first person to give it to him would get a jug of beer! Mike managed to be the first person to give him $4 in dollar coins, so we got another jug. We went back to the hostel at about 11pm, and we ended up staying there, as we were all tired from the day's activities.

We woke up a bit later today (before 10am though!) and we hired surfboards from the hostel, and went straight out to the beach. The beach was open today, and we didn't feel as bad going in it today (yesterday we felt we wouldn't go in as a mark of respect) The waves were really big (there was a big storm out to sea and it was raining heavily), so we got in and started getting pounded. The rip was really strong, so it was quite a struggle getting out to the big waves. Mike managed to surf a few, but Alex and I failed miserably. I did manage to stand up on one, but I fell over straight after. It was still raining heavily at this time, and Mike said he thought he saw a shadow in the surf, but it turned out to be a rock. It was probably the worst time to go in, as after heavy rain, the sharks are usually more active. We stayed in the sea for over an hour, and then went back to the hostel to have showers. We then met up with Joe & Emma after the showers and went out in the town to come here!

Tomorrow we're going to Surf Camp for our included surf lesson, and then its on to Sydney on Friday!