well well well....another episode of the long way round has arrived and it has arrived in the style of a typical couple of days in Byron Bay!

as previously mentioned, Byron bay is a party town where everyone is so laid back they could crack their head on the pavement! again, been pretty much a hectic week in terms of surfing, tanning and going on the johnny cash (the lash!)

Thursday night, the three amigo's that are Nutkins, Koala and Sam (Lloydo's cousin) verntured into town for a few swift halves; and a Malabu and Cherryade! We made our way to a bar called cheeky monkeys where lonely planet recommended we go for a decent night of alcohol. this was true. Jugs of Beer here are $10 which makes it about 4 squid for 3 and a bit pints of lovely jubbly lager! as we walked in, we found the place to be rather quiet but things started turning rowdy when more of our fellow travellers ventured in the place to be! So imagine this - Long metal tables with that criss cross rugged grips on them.....What is that for i here you ask. one answer - table dancing. WOOP WOOP! i have never laughed so much at the number of people (when i say people i mean Yanks, Krauts and your average Diego) stacking it from the table and landing either on top of people or on the floor. it was hilarious to say the least, especially as they were German! i mean thats what you get for using a table instead of the floor to try and impress that fraulein at the bar!

of course, nutkins and koala were far too cool to be messing with table dancing (Health and Safety in mind of course). So Lloyd decided to start to make friends with Mr Daniels and we're not talking about that short little magician guy. Jack was definately having a party in Lloyd's head the next morning. During all of this, Koala decided to stick to lager and use some of the old Del Boy lingo on passing Germans. some major tough crowds here.

The next morning (FRIDAY), we were S-T-Ruggling to say the least and what better way to say Au Revoir to a good hangover than to go to the beach and get smashed by a way or two. Trust me it works. Doubt it would work over in the Gower as the water in freezing and you'd probably catch pneumonia.

after a good kicking in from the Pacific Ocean, we decided to chill out from the midday sun, have a kip then hit the beach for some more surf shenanigans in two or the nearby beaches in Byron - Watego beach and The Pass. Watego's is a very chilled out beach, kinda reminds me of Fall Bay in the gower or Blue pool bay but the water temperature here is about 18 degrees and as clear as glass. Now that koala and nutkins are beginng to be pros's at this surf business, we decided to move onto a beach with a bigger swell. not the brightest idea, but we decided to not push our luck here as they do what is called "proper surfing" on the pass. Funny as though when you see a surfer cutting up another surfer on the wave - or as it is called in surf lingo "dropping in". Koala and nutkins were too busy trying to dump tackle each other in the swell to be watching the nearby duuuuuuuuuude's on their ironing boards. next thing is we here this Aussie "Whaaaat yoooou doing yoooou pillock?! Drop in on me again and oi'll snaaap yooour board in haaaaaaaaalf!" not talking to the two hardest men on the East coast obviously but another surfer dropped in on this guy and nearly came to blows. Awesome. perhaps as good as the banter you get on the rugby pitch? i think not!!!