A very wet Byron Bay and Brisbane

With the first Premier Bus navigated safely, we arrived in Byron Bay ready to undertake the highly anticipated activity of surfing. Under the guidance of the surfing Guru ‘Wapu’ and his stunning assistant Diva we hit Lennox Head beach and attempted to rip curl some waves. However, even with excellent tuition and skilfully crafted, sand-draw pictures, surfing is not easy, especially with conditions not playing into our hands. By the half way break all we had really managed was being experts in how to fall off and sometimes not even get lying on the board at all! But, whatever they put in the oranges during the break worked as afterwards, both of us began to drastically improve and managed to stand up and enjoy some wave-powered propulsion. Also, as Wapu had said at the start ‘the best surfer is the one having the most fun’, and we certainly loved every minute, even if our bodies weren’t agreeing.

Our hostel in Byron was a little out of the way/4km outside of Byron itself. It also seemed to have more staff than guests with most of Tel Aviv staying there. However it did an excellent job in allowing us to take a few days out to relax after rushing around for the last six months. We did however also manage another trip to Byron beach with a hostel surf board for attempt two, but the board was far too small to do anything too crazy but a nice way to kill a few hours and watch some pros up close. Any other beach trip was avoided due to east coast beach being on a Tsunami warning after the recent Chilean earthquake (yet another natural disaster that has followed in our wake), cue chilling by the pool and adminating heavily.

Now, unfortunately, I have to be honest with you. For a while we have been bragging about the weather, and rightly so, but it has come back to bite us. Since mid-way through Byron and the last 3 days in Brisbane it has not stopped raining! Not once! It has got to the stage where Ark building is being debated. And it’s not just light drizzle either; this is monsoon-style stuff! Don’t ever let an Aussie tell you the weather in England is crap. This has meant that our time in Brisbane has been spent playing hostel Bingo, a pub quiz, a rain fuelled self guided tour of the city with Northampton ladies Jamie and Ruth, getting malaria tablets, Steve getting medical advice on possibly being pregnant and a few Goon fuelled evenings. However things took a turn for the better on finding that the Socceroos (Australian national football team) were playing Indonesia in a 2011 Asia Cup qualifier and World Cup warm up game, so we snapped up some $25 tickets and prayed to the heavens for a let up in the rain.



Come 7pm by some divine miracle, the rain finally stopped! With our free banners and tea towels at the ready, along with another 20,440 spectators at the SunCorp stadium, we watched the Roos in action against a somewhat diminutive and hopeless Indonesian side. We were lucky enough to be next to the Indonesian fans who didn’t stop singing and cheering all game, even though their side only had 20% of the possession and spent more time laying on the floor than playing football. Saying all this however, the Roos’ could only labour to a 1-0 victory, even with over 20 shots on goal. The final whistle brought an end to an up and down time in Brisbane, next up Noosa and hopefully some sunshine!