One of the things people often ask me about my ’round the world air travel is did I plan and buy all of my air travel tickets prior to my trip? Or am I booking one way tickets as I go?  The answer is a combination of some pre-planning and purchasing in the beginning stages for places I knew I wanted to go, some future planning for arriving in a certain place at a certain time, and lots of unplanned time to figure it out as I go.  I have never been to most of the places that I am traveling to, so I can’t possibly know how I will feel about that place until I’m there.  I do have to plan where I’ll stay when I arrive, and most of the time I’ve done enough research and I actually have been incredibly pleased with where I’ve chosen to stay.  Australia is so big that I decided to only book a one way ticket to Sydney, and book my accommodation for 3 weeks. I would give myself 6 weeks to tour the country, which left me 3 “free” weeks to figure out.  I knew I wanted to go to Melbourne and the Great Barrier Reef, but I didn’t need to do it in any order, and I figured I would talk to people I met and hear their suggestions and maybe find some travel buddies.  If you talk to enough people, you hear a common thread.  “Go to Byron Bay!  It’s beautiful!  You’ll love it!  It’s a hippy/chic town full of surfers, divers, restaurants, and gorgeous beaches.”  I heard this many times, and then someone said, “If you’re planning to go scuba diving up at The Reef, why not stop in Byron Bay first and get scuba certified there, and THEN go up to The Reef.”  Ding, ding, ding!  We have a winner!  That made total sense to me. And that’s how I found myself in this glorious piece of paradise on the eastern-most point of Australia.

Byron Bay is a jewel.  It used to be a sleepy, little beach town with a hippy country feel.  The land has a great “roll” to it – it’s not flat like many beach areas tend to be.  And there are no high-rise hotels at the beach or anywhere in Byron Bay for that matter – thank god someone had enough sense when they set the zoning laws here, because they really have kept the beauty of the land and the natural coastline in tact.  It’s got a lot of young people and I kept thinking how much my kids would fall in love with this place – so many people to meet and hang with, so much to do, from surfing, snorkeling, diving, beaching it, to skateboarding, music in different places in town – it’s just a great walking town to explore.  But there are also people my age here, many from different Australian cities who are visiting, and then many locals who love this place and have adopted a lifestyle that allows them to stay. They may not make much money, but they can surf  or dive everyday or be outside and that’s good enough!  Everyone is tattooed here, I think it’s a requirement if you want permanent residence.  And everyone smiles and is happy.  The bay beach is the beach that everyone goes to – it has great waves and is the most enormous beach I think I’ve ever seen!  It never ends!  And it has that great hard-packed sand that you can walk or run on and never sink.  My mother would love it. I have to say, I definitely get my love of the beach from my mom. Thanks mom, for all those drives down to the Jersey shore when I was a kid. And then to Fire Island, and then the Hampton’s.  If I end up here, you can only blame yourself. 🙂  The ocean beach is just on the other side of the arm that divides the two, and it is just as breathtaking.

Byron Bay

Byron Bay

Byron Bay OCEAN beach

Look at the little dots – those are people – that’s how HUGE the ocean beach is!!

Before I arrived, I enrolled in the Open Water Diving Course at the Byron Bay Dive Centre, and I booked a room in a private B&B called Byron Bathers after finding it through stayz.com, another site similar to airbnb.com, but it includes hotels, motels, and more commercial properties as well.  I couldn’t have done better on location, because after booking it, I asked the owner if they knew of the Dive Centre and its location, and they laughed as they said it’s 2 doors down. I had to be at my classes at 7am every morning – fantastic!!  I also quickly realized, upon my arrival, that everything I wanted and needed was within 300 meters.  The beach, the town, and my classes.  And to top it all off, the house and it’s owners couldn’t be more lovely!  I know you hear me say that a lot, but I truly mean it!  Paul and Sam (Sandra, but somehow she is called Sam) built this 2-level house about 15 years ago with their entire residence upstairs and 2 full in-suite rooms with a shared kitchen on the lower level.  Each room has its own private outdoor patio as well as a large, beautifully furnished common outdoor area with plush comfy seating and an in-ground pool. Even though the house is in town, it is on a quiet little lane so it doesn’t get any foot traffic or town noise. The room itself is the perfect mix of modern beachy, with white-painted horizontal paneling on all the walls, high ceilings, natural maple floors, a really comfortable bed and sitting area  – Sam and Paul have thought of everything to make you extremely comfortable, from fabulous towels in your own luxury modern bathroom down to homemade muffins and fresh fruit waiting for you in the kitchen every morning.  Paul took me for a ride one afternoon up to the lighthouse which is part of the Byron Bay Preserve area and pointed me to a path which winds around down to the beach.  Heaven!!

The Lighthouse at Byron Bay, the easternmost point of Australia

The path from the Lighthouse

Walking down to the beach below

Ocean surf in Byron

The path down to the beach – do you see the color of that water???

Following the path down to the beach

That’s the BAY and those dots are surfers – look close!

Surfers on the Bay beach

So about that diving course…I really tried, I did!  And I’m still trying!!! But it just didn’t go as easy for me as I thought it would.  My instructor, Gaye, was absolutely the best. She is completely competent, smart, well seasoned, explains everything perfectly, and has a real calmness about her and I guess a confidence too that made me feel totally safe.  We spent the entire first day in the pool – learning about the equipment, learning how to put it together, and then learning how to dive and all the skills needed for that.  I had absolutely no problems at all that entire day.  I should also mention that there was a 6-hour online theory course that I had to complete prior to day one, and we then had to take a final exam in the classroom before the pool course. Cake.

So I woke up at 6am Wed morning and got ready for my first ocean dive.  I could tell I was a little nervous, but that’s normal – I’ve never done this before.  I managed to get a small banana down as I walked over to the centre, and met up with my classmates – Indie, my dive partner, an adorable 14- year old, and then there’s Ben & Josh – no they’re not a couple but they may as well be. They are best mates from Essex, England, and they are hysterical, like a comedy team. Everyday with them was like watching the Ben & Josh show. When one starts singing a tune, the other joins in and they don’t even know they’re doing it.  They finish each other’s sentences, comfortably rub sunscreen on each other’s bodies, they are well aware of how their friendship looks to others, and are happy to play the roles and go with it. But the truth is, these two would never be mistaken as gay, they’re just refreshingly comfortable in their own skin.  They’re both very good-looking and masculine; hell, Josh shared with the group within the first 5 minutes of class that he had gotten lucky the prior night – Ben interjected that thankfully he  slept through it in his bed 3 feet from Josh’s.  But anyway, I have no clue why I’m spending so much time on them other than the fact that I laughed a lot everyday and I love to laugh.

Ben (Big Red), Indie, Me, Gaye, & Josh. You’re welcome BR 🙂

So back to that dive…ok…so the morning was rainy and the seas were angry that day (sorry, joke)  – actually the swells were quite high, and we took the boat  (light rigid inflatable, thanks Gaye!) out to Julian Rocks where we anchored.  As soon as the boat stopped, a huge wave of nausea overcame me.  I thought it was probably nerves and I just distracted myself and tried to get my fins and my mask on and then the rest of the equipment.  One by one, the divers fell back into the water.  I went last.  I was not comfortable and Gaye could tell instantly. I hadn’t even gone under the water yet but I was already freaking.  My mask kept filling up with water, and I kept trying to clear it above water but the swells and the current were making it incredibly hard.  She was helping me, and trying to calm me.  I had the regulator in my mouth so I could breathe, but the truth is it was HARD to breathe!  So I was thinking to myself, if I’m having this much trouble breathing OUT of the water, how the fuck am I going to breathe under water? ( I didn’t know it gets easier under water.) Gaye got my mask working correctly and slowly took me down the rope line, reminding me to equalize my ears as we went.  We were only going to 12 meters, but it felt like miles! And of course, I was over thinking everything.  My breathing was not normal and consistent like I knew it had to be.  And my mask was making me crazy and scared because it was hard to keep clearing it, and I just wanted to pull the register out of my mouth and breathe air!! At that point, I REALLY freaked, and I signaled to Gaye that I had to go up.  She grabbed both my hands and told me to calm down. She said she would take me up, but she first had to tell the other 3 to sit down on the sandy bottom and wait for her.  In those 3 seconds, because she was so firm with me, I started to calm down and I thought to myself – maybe I should stay….can I do this?  Nahhhhhh – go up!!  So I went up.  And I was exhausted and had to lie on my back and kick my way back to the boat and wait for the rest of them to finish their dive. The adrenaline and the whole panic situation mixed with the swell of the sea made me sick – literally.  I puked up some neon green bile as soon as I got in the boat.  Now THAT’s a sexy visual, wouldn’t you say? We got back to the beach, and took the 5 minute ride back to the dive centre, and I knew I couldn’t do the second dive that day.  I felt like shit and I was exhausted.  So I opted out, and didn’t beat myself up about it.  I rested for a while, and then took myself to the beach.  Ahhhh….finally started to relax and feel better.  Such peace here.

Bliss

Too big to be crowded!

I told Gaye I would try again the next day.  Up again at 6am, feeling better than the prior day, I walked myself over to the centre as I ate my banana.  I actually thought I wasn’t going to go, having made that decision when I woke up.  But Gaye gave me a pep talk and I found myself getting my equipment ready to put on the boat.  Oh, can we talk for a second about putting on a wetsuit?  Oh my fucking god.  If I ever thought Spanx was hard to pull on with all the jumping I have to do, it’s a breeze compared to this. Seriously.  And then once you get it on, you can’t get it off!  Diving MUST be worth the effort, right?? Well, I did it.  I stayed down for 20 minutes.  And then I freaked again. And then I puked again.  But that dive counts. This time, I got tired from trying to swim and found myself breathing heavy and then panicked because I felt like I wasn’t getting enough air.  NO, I didn’t go on the second dive of the day and therefore didn’t get my scuba certification either.  I am leaving in the morning to fly up to Airlie Beach/Shute Harbor where I have plans to sail on a boat around the WhitSunday Islands for 3 days.  I will try to complete this course. But if I can’t, or rather…don’t, I’ll be ok with it.  I’m trying it, and I might find it’s not for me.  Or, I might fall in love with it!

One more note – about food, because it seems all I do is eat.  I’ve been having some really good meals!  It’s always good to eat what the locals eat, right?  My friend Rosanne mentioned “Bugs” to me – and I thought, is she crazy? I would NEVER eat bugs.  And that’s actually true.  Until I learned that Australian “Bugs” are a type of crustacean that is somewhere in between a lobster, a crab, and a prawn.  What could be bad?  Mixed with some garlic, olive oil, basil, parmesan cheese, and some linguine…..uh huh.

BUGS!!!

The PERFECT lunch. Proscuitto, feta, olives, beet root, avocado, humus, roasted peppers, sour dough toast, and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc

Spiced Tahitian Fish with Basmati Rice. And live music!