October 19, 2010

So my goal for writing was to do it at the end of every city but I’m doing a few cool things here so I wanted to get all the details in writing asap. So there may be a few Byron entries. Yesterday I didn’t do much. When I got picked up from the bus stop the driver suggested that I go straight to the beach. Took his advice. There’s a bit of a path from the hostel to the beach, through some trees, over a train track, through more trees, up a hill, BEACH! Sounds longer than it is. Anyway, hung at the beach all afternoon and there’s not much to see. There weren’t too many people at the beach and it was a bit further from town so chill. After a few hours there I wandered town for a bit. When I got back I went to the beach again until it got cooler, then went back to sit at the hostel. Met two Aussies from Melbourne. They had just gotten back from Nimbin and were quite stoned. We went out to eat and had a few drinks and wandered back to the beach where they smoked a little more and then came back and went to bed. Cool girls. Today I decided to go for a walk. I wanted to see the lighthouse and the eastern most point of Australia. Kind of a long walk, uphill. There were a bunch of cute lookouts and the water was perfect, the temp was perfect, the breeze was perfect, just a great day for a walk. There was this cute little stand for cameras at the easternly point sign, so I got to use that, which I thought was so clever. Before I saw it I was waiting around for someone to walk by so I could have them take my pic, but then, BAM, here was this cute little stand. Anyway, got to the top of the hill, few pics of the lighthouse and then kept walking. Some guy came up and tried to sell me a hang gliding ride. I was so tempted but didn’t have money so told him I couldn’t even if I wanted. When he said that was fine and that I could pay later, I said that I’d think about it and maybe come back tomorrow. I was honest and was really going to think about it but as I kept walking I didn’t think I’d have time and I passed the actual hang gliders and turned around and decided to suck it up and do it. So I got all strapped up and the guy, Pete I think, was telling me how to take off. There’s a ramp that we stand on, all strapped in, and we had to RUN off of it!! Oh my gosh! I didn’t know if I’d panic and eff up the whole take off. Once we got strapped in I could feel the air lifting up the kite-thing. Us leaping off was more like the wind taking us up. So, off the ramp was basically a steep hill/cliff down to the beach, so possible death below. The take off was pretty graceful, and there we were, off and in the air. We got higher than 500ft I think and just cruised around for like a half hour. He sort of tried to persuade me to take lessons saying that it’s not hard to learn and not many women do it and could be cool. Honestly thought about it. If anything, it could be a cool pastime. Doubt I’ll do it, but maybe! Anyway, there were a few dips that were scary and we did a few tight turns that freaked me out a little, but overall, the whole thing was so relaxing and thrilling at the same time. It was just a really great time. Got dropped off, paid them, and went to the beach some more. Went to town and booked my great ocean road trip, booked scuba diving for tomorrow, a trip for Nimbin (big stoner city in Oz) for the day after that, and horseback riding for Friday. Should be a busy few days.