Day 2:
5:00am the next morning we are awakened by a loud pounding on
the van. I wake up confused, unsure of where I am, and assumed it was JP
knocking. Brett climbed over me and opened the door to be greeted by a security
guard that informed us we had to move. Calvin started up Serpent Fire and told
us we needed to be up this early anyway. We soon arrived at the top of a
hill, looking at Byron Bay’s lighthouse in cold, damp, cloudy weather. Suddenly
the sun began crawling up behind the clouds resting on the horizon to reveal a
beautiful sunrise at the most eastern point in Australia. I didn’t think I’d
ever be able to appreciate a sunrise at that hour, but after running down a long
forest path out to the beach to jump into the ocean that was warmer than the
air and watch the sun rise over us and reflect on the water encompassing us, I may need to reevaluate my views.
After awhile we took our time moseying back to the van where
we immediately passed out for a few hours only to be awakened by some lunatic
laying on his car horn for what must’ve been ten minutes. Calvin drove us back down
into the town of Byron Bay where I think I could’ve made the move and stayed forever. Byron Bay
is the coolest, most hippie surf town you’ve ever seen with the streets lined
with beachy clothing stores, surf shops, unique jewelry, restaurants and
outdoor bars.
We walked around and shopped for a little before renting out
some surfboards for the day and heading down to the beach. The current was
really strong with an awful riptide so Casey and I paddled out but did more
lounging and talking about life than surfing. The boys really "shredded the gnar" as they like to say, or at least did so to the best of their abilities. On our walk back we ran into a completely free barbeque
where there was live music. Again, we were approached by drug dealers looking to sell us weed. I realize we might be looking a bit beat up and battered after only our second day of travel, but did we really appear like five stoners looking to get smoked up?
That night we all took full showers with shampoo and soap in
one of those little beach rinse off showers. I have never felt so homeless in
my life. Little did we know this would be our last opportunity to shower for
five days. We then walked down to the "bottle shop" and bought a bag of goon that would be shared between us in our little home. We hit the town and headed straight to a big outdoor bar that just seemed to ooze this summertime vibe to be happy and carefree, dance to live music at the local open-air watering holes and soak in the essence of the town and
each other.
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