Kayaking With Dolphins

Mondays definitely don't always have to be bad. Like this morning.  One of the benefits to working in the tourism industry, especially with Loka, is that companies want you to experience their tours so that you can send business their way.  

With Loka, travelers get to hop-on and hop-off of their Loka buses in different towns and cities, such as Byron Bay.  If the travelers decide to stay in Byron for a few days, we will have several tours that they can book directly through Loka.  This would obviously be the most convenient way for travelers to book activities, so there is a major benefit to being one of those recommended companies.

Cape Byron Kayaks is one of our Byron featured companies.  Out of complete luck, I was at the right place at the right time (the Byron Bay Brewery for a work meeting at about 4 PM) last Thursday.  The owner of CBK knows my bosses, and sat down to have a beer with us.  She told us we all needed to come out for her kayaking tour someday soon.  My bosses agreed on Monday morning, and told me to come as well.

I was excited, yet still a bit nervous, only because I had been sea rafting at Spot X and our raft tipped over twice, trapping me underneath for a few seconds each time.  Plus, I have always had a bit of a fear of kayaks because I was always afraid of tipping my kayak over with my legs stuck inside, unable to escape.  Luckily, I knew that sea kayaks were a bit different, and do not secure your legs inside them.  You just sit on top of the kayaks, basically.

I am so glad I went this morning.  We got all geared up and headed out, paddling fiercely to get beyond the breaking waves.  Once we truly made it out into the ocean, it was incredibly peaceful.  We kept our eyes open for whales and dolphins mainly, but even when you looked straight down in the water, you could easily see the sea bottom.

We didn't get to see turtles or whales, but we did see several dolphins up in front of our kayaks, maybe 10 meters away.  It was awesome just to see the dolphins that close to us.  They were diving in and out of the water very lazily,careless of the 30 kayakers gawking at them.

We even got to ride waves into the beach.  My first attempt was awesome and we rode the wave straight into the beach, where TimTams, tea, and coffee awaited us.  We headed back out to look for more marine life, but eventually just headed back into shore, riding waves in yet again.  Our second attempt was less successful.  The waves were much bigger, and I probably wasn't steering as I should have been.  Our kayak tipped, but our helmets eliminated any risk of injury during the crash.

I really didn't have much of an interest in sea kayaking before this experience but I have to admit I thought it was really cool, and I would do it again for sure.  And definitely with Cape Byron.

Beyond just the great experience overall, on thing that really means a lot to me is when instructors remember your name, and one of mine today kept referring to me by name, even giving me a hug at the very end, asking how my experience was.  All of the instructors were truly having a good time while they were out there, which was contagious to myself and the other travelers.  If you have the opportunity to go while in Byron, I highly suggest doing this tour.

Sunrise in Byron

One of things I have wanted to do while in Byron is see the sunrise at the lighthouse, seeing as it is at the most eastern point in Australia.  A large group of us, maybe 10, decided this past weekend that we were going to hike up to the lighthouse for the sunrise.  We planned on getting up at 4 AM, getting pies at the 23 hour-a-day bakery, and then trek on.  The problem is most of us stayed up well beyond midnight; it was, after all, a Saturday night.  I went to bed at around 2:30 AM myself and was hoping I would be able to wake up.

I actually woke up to my alarm.  Very, very tired, I shuffled my way to our meeting spot outside of the AFL to see who made it up.  Not a soul was to be seen.  I went to the bathroom and saw that Coner had actually gotten up.  We waited till about 4:15 to see if anyone else was getting up.  No one did, so the two of us made our trip up.

According to my phone, sunrise was meant to be at 5:45, but we could already see the day breaking in the distance.  We started speed walking because we didn't want to put in all the effort and then miss the sunrise.

Huffing and puffing, we finally made it to the top.  A few random groups of people were up as well.  We found a spot to sit and just waited.  Conor saw a whale jump in the distance but I totally missed it.  You could see them spraying up water though, which was cool anyways.  A pod of dolphins as well were circling in the water.

And then the sun broke.  Slowly but surely, the sun rose with the most beautiful hues of pink, orange, and yellow.  We just sat and watched while people snapped pictures.  It was one of the most beautiful and serene moments I had had in Australia.

Fitness in a Foreign Land

Every morning, I wake up at around 6 or 7 o'clock.  I don't need to be at work until about 9:30, so I have a lot of time on my hands.  Even after making breakfast and taking a shower I have plenty of time at my disposal.

One of my goals while in Australia is to get fit and healthy again.  I used to lift weights 5-6 times per week until stress got the best of me.  I wasn't eating nearly as much as I should have been. I couldn't figure out why I was neither putting on muscle or burning fat, but I discovered eventually that I was just starving my body.  So I sort of gave up on fitness for my American summer and just partied hard.  After giving up smoking for nearly 9 months, I went back to smoking about a pack per day.  And I drank. A lot.  I held two jobs over the summer so between the stress, the smoking, the drinking, and the inactivity, I was a pretty unhealthy person.

Since I have been in Australia, however, I have lightened up on my drinking (mostly because I can barely afford it), I have been walking into town nearly every day, and have almost quit smoking altogether.  When I do drink, I have been smoking off and on.  At least I've eliminated it as a daily habit.  And this morning, I even went for a run on the beach.

That felt fantastic.  I was red-faced, sweating, and could barely breathe, but the beach is so gorgeous at 7:30 AM.  A number of people were out with dogs or children, doing the same thing I was: being active.  I would say the vibe was definitely contagious.  My goal now is to do the same thing at least 4-5 days a week.  Hopefully that will get me back in shape.  When I'm not just a poor backpacker, I'll be looking forward to hitting the weight room once again.

The Most Eastern Point of Mainland Australia

I woke up with a bit of a buzz and certainly a head ache from the night before. I was wearing an over sized sweatshirt that Conor had given me the night before.  I lazily made my way to the rec area and ran into Conor who said, "I'm glad you didn't lose my hoodie."

I sat down and started talking to him.  As I drank a Jungle Juice from the cafe (which is amazing), Conor told me all about his night in jail because of his drunk driving.  I was shocked but at least Conor didn't seem too worried.  He doesn't plan on going to court, which means he will have a warrant out for his arrest in Australia.  The life of a criminal.

Since I hadn't made it to the lighthouse the day before, I decided I wanted to go to sweat some of the alcohol out of my system.  Conor knew the way so he led me there.  I tried to get Yuan and Maren to come but they had other plans for the day.

 I had no idea what kind of a walk I was in for.  You have an easy, yet somewhat long walk just to the base of the trail that heads up to the lighthouse.  Then you have a very steep up-and-down climb through the bush to the lighthouse.  Then you'll eventually make it to the most eastern point in Australia.  We continued on and eventually made it down to a beach just off of the rocks.  The weather was pretty gloomy but the breeze felt great after such a hike.

It began lightly raining as we got closer to the main beach.  We walked up to the parking lot and the couple who's Kombi had died the night before was still there.  Conor wanted to go say hi so we walked over.  The look on the man's face was pure sympathy because he had to watch as Conor got arrested the night before.  He apologized but Conor just shrugged it off and tried helping the couple once again.  He had no idea what was wrong so we walked back to the AFL.

Conor, myself, 2 Swedish girls from the night before, Doug, and few other people just had a lazy afternoon/evening. It rained off and on all night.  We met a couple from the UK who was travelling the world, one country at a time, until they found a place they wanted to call home.  I admired their lack of planning and adventurous attitudes.  I thought it was quite brave.

Before long, we were headed back out on the town yet again.  This time we went to a small cafe called the Ginger Pig.  One of the guys who was staying at the AFL had a gig for 3 hours in the evening.  We got there and the guy was playing his own version of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. He was an incredible musician.  We stayed until he finished his set, grabbed some food, some wine, and wandered back to the AFL.  For the rest of the night we listened to music and talked about anything under the sun.

A short clip of the performer from the Ginger Pig