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So there I was off to Byron Bay on the Greyhound. I spent most of my journey trying to get comfortable this led me to being laid down on the seats with my head hanging in the aisle and my legs sat against the window. I assure you that it's a lot comfier than it sounds. I eventually arrived in Byron Bay and a new state New South Wales. We have been travelling 1,781 kilometres and only now just arriving in a new state! Imagine that driving from Nottinghamshire to Derbyshire and it taking 19 hours and 33 minutes! You only really get a feel for how small England is when you are here and its hours' drive from town to town. Anyway I'm sure you are not reading for a Geography lesson so back to Byron. I was greeted at the bus stop by a drunken Tom. He had already been there a few hours and had been taking part in the trivia night. His team come sixth out of ten, I'm pretty sure they missed my knowledge. Tom was up for carrying on the night so I checked in and dropped my bags off and we headed to a club. We never made it in the club as it was $10 entry and Tom had conveniently forgot his wallet and I didn't want to spend that much when I was sober. So we headed off back to the hostel and got some sleep.
The next morning I woke up early and decided to finally have a shave. What stated off as Movember turned into just being a full grown beard. I fully intended to do Movember until my Facebook friends picked the "Chaplin" tash for me to grow. I'm not going to lie to you, I bottled it. The moustache would be associated more with Hitler's than Chaplin's and I couldn't risk the wrath from fellow backpackers and also it was Remembrance Day in November, how disrespectful would that be, so instead of doing nothing I was lazy and just let my beard grow. I liked it. It's not the first time on my travels I've sported a beard and it won't be the last. But shaving it off is hard work. It must have taken around two hours. Granted I was messing about shaving into various other styles. Tom finally woke up and we cracked on with our day. First stop was to book another night at the hostel, second was to book a trip to Nimbin the next day. The rest of the day we spent exploring Byron, walking around town and visiting the beach. One thing worth noting about our expedition around Byron is we got a great Burger at a little place called After the Surf. It semt somewhere like Adam Richmond would go on Man vs. Food. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Byron if they are feeling a little peckish. The rest of the day saw us going in and out of a hat shop several times. I do love a good hat but for once it wasn't down to me. Tom had spotted a cowboy hat, one that actually suited him. He had been craving a hat like this since his time in Australia. The only stumbling block was the $59.95 price tag. He was in and out trying it on before eventually reaching a decision. Yep he bought it! After the drama of the hat we both needed a power nap, so that we did until it was time to have our free meal. They were also playing Bingo downstairs later on with a host of prizes to be won so we wanted to play this too. Nap time was over so we ate a delicious Beef potato curry and had a few beers. We were joined by a girl from the U.S., New Jersey to be precise. Her name was Dawn and she was thirty. She talked a lot. She also spoke really fast. Tom and I had trouble really understanding her, she semt a nice enough girl though. Bingo got underway and I was disappointed it was slow, boring and the caller had nothing on my Dad and his legendary Bingo calling! It was a bit of farce and the callers didn't really know what they were doing. I was beginning to lose my head but then bang I won! I won the last game, I won the top prize! A 3 day open dive course worth $500! I was happy as Larry; In fact I was probably happier than Larry. We had some drinks to celebrate and then headed to the Beach where Dawn went from being kinda nice to very insane. So we made are excuses and exited for the night.
The next morning I woke up and went to book my Scuba course. I was faced with a dilemma I couldn't get on a course until the 14th December; we wanted to be in Sydney by then. There was not much to do in Byron, we both wanted jobs to earn some money and we had places still to visit, we didn't really have the time. I had to put my thinking cap on. It could wait anyway it was time to take the bus tour to Nimbin. If you haven't herd of Nimbin it's a little town in mainland Australia and it's most famous for its Marijuana culture and hippy lifestyle. The guy running the show Fred was a good laugh and had some terrible jokes for us. Our first stop was meant to be a waterfall but because the weather wasn't too great we made the call to go straight to the next stop. A little country pub, I was expecting something like in English countryside but it was just a standard pub in the middle of nowhere. A couple of schooners later and it was off to the main event. Nimbin. We arrived it was strange, there is one main street about 100 meters long with shops, cafes and many drug dealers trying to sell you a bit of weed or space cakes. We had two hours in Nimbin and that was far too long you could see it all in thirty minutes visiting every shop and the museum which was also strange. I imagined it to be a lot like the sixties, it was like going back in time. We exited and made our way back to the hostel.
The rest of the day mainly involved sleeping and conjuring up a plan and by George I had come up with a cunning plan of action!
But to hear about that you will have to read next time
Stay Safe and Take Care
Adi
xx
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