Byron Bay
The weather forecast in Byron Bay was not good. According to the internet, I had a few hours of cloud followed by a day and a half of rain. I was overdue a rest - even more so having spent the last night on a bus - but decided to prioritise seeing Byron while I could. I put my bags down by my bed and immediately headed out to explore. On the recommendation of the hostel I headed for the lighthouse walk, a pretty walk around a few beaches dotted along a peninsula of rugged coastline. I was pretty tired, and stopped at a couple of the beaches to ‘take in the surroundings’. Or if I’m honest, close my eyes for a second. Even a large cappuccino from a sweet cafe en route didn’t do much to energise me. I pushed on through my tiredness, and was well rewarded for it.
There was a lookout at Australia’s most easterly point, and I decided to spend some time there, just looking out in to the sea. Suddenly, a couple of hundred metres away I saw a huge tail come out of the ocean and fall back in to it creating a huge splash. It’s humpback whale migration season, and they’re a common sight along the east coast as they migrate from Antartica to mate and give birth in warmer waters. The same couple of whales were playing in the water for quite a while, and I just stared. A particularly memorable moment came when both simultaneously leapt out of the water in perfect synchronicity and crashed back down next to each other. I felt lucky to see this from a distance, and luckier still that the man next to me (@marks_wild_life on Instagram) happened to be filming it with a drone, so I now also have a close up video of the special moment I witnessed.
As I continued the trail I ran in to a young wallaby in the bushes and spent a while quietly watching. It looked at me a couple of times, but mostly just continued eating. At the lighthouse I found a couple of seats facing the ocean and decided it would be a nice place for a quick snack. I kind of assumed they belonged to someone - they had nice fluffy cushions on them - but I thought I’d sit there for as long as I could get away with. I woman came up to me fairly quickly and I immediately went to stand up, but unexpectedly she didn’t ask me to move. It turned out the seats were there for the humpback whale census they conduct each year to monitor the population, and they were short one volunteer. She asked me if I wouldn’t mind helping out, and with no plans for the day I thought watching whales with an expert would be an excellent way to spend the rest of my afternoon. I sat with Livia, an actual trained volunteer, for two and a half hours, counting whales pass, trying to keep track with binoculars of which were new whales, which were actually pairs close together, and which we’d seen already so shouldn’t count. Livia told me all about whale behaviours and stories of her previous volunteering. We saw around 20 whales pass, less than the morning, but quite the haul for me, considering I’d never seen one before today.
I headed home (even more) tired and made it just before the rain started. I took advantage of a cheap hostel deal for pizza and a well earned glass of wine and chatted to other backpackers that were around. An early night, a morning of planning and research, a bus to Brisbane, an evening with some Australians met in the the hostel and a bus to Noosa followed. Still no real rest, lots of moving, and I’m really feeling it this morning. I’m going to try and take some rest time for myself in Noosa, but it’s so difficult sometimes. Adventure calls me!