The Road to Becoming OZ Experienced – Byron Bay from Bingara

By: David Savage

Photojournalist David Savage travels Australia on the OZ Experience…

On the Bus…
The route to Byron Bay took us via ‘Raspberry Lookout’ where we had a picnic overlooking The Great Dividing Range. Apparently 80% of Australia’s population lives to the east of the range that runs along the eastern seaboard. From Sydney to Cairns the OZ Experience bus follows these mountains, taking passengers off the main highways to see some magnificent Australian countryside.

Byron Bay
On entering Byron Bay Trevor our driver gave us one last piece of advice,
“Go Hard, Go Often or Go Home!” Byron Bay is a favourite for most travellers to Australia. It is the Mecca for laid back surfer-dudes, community living and for the great Australian lifestyle that firmly revolves around the beach. I took the driver’s advice that night and I got a taste why so many backpackers stay on in Byron for week after week. It is party-hard mixed with beach-hard and the people here live by it.

Managing to get some sleep that night, I woke up early for Kayaking with ‘Byron Bay Sea Kayaks‘, (02 6685 5830), and the chance to see Dolphins. We used two-man Kayak’s and my partner for the morning was a young Irishman named ‘Mick’. We were the only all male Kayak on the water. Seeing as we found ourselves surrounded by females, we thought we would be cool by charging through the surf out into the open bay in record time. As it happened we chose the wrong moment to make our charge, picking a big set of waves that wiped us out and robbed us of our planned glory.

Forty-five minutes and several attempts later, we made it out into the bay with all the girls waiting for us. We paddled around the point towards Cape Byron were the dolphins regularly hang out. Unfortunately the dolphins must have had better things to do and we returned to the beach for breakfast. Surfing the Kayaks in is as much fun as paddling them out and certainly as wet. Breakfast was laid out on the beach and the hot drinks, with a few teaspoons of sugar, gave us the extra energy we would need for the second half of our Kayaking adventure.

Back out into the surf we paddled, by this time we were moving with the stealth of Pro’s… not quite but it was a hell of a lot easier than our first attempt. My paddling partner this time was an American girl named Karen. We paddle back around the point to try to find some dolphins again. We waited awhile. There were some big waves rolling in but our instructor assured us the water was too deep for them to break. “You’ll be right here, the waves won’t break, too deep mate!”

Five minutes later Karen screamed, “Oh my god!”

A wave had broken in front of us and more than a bucket load of furious white water was speeding our way. Funny enough, only our Kayak was in its path. We straightened up the Kayak as we’d been taught to do and we paddled like madmen (and women) for the wave. In the collision, Karen, in the front of the Kayak, disappeared in all the white water, but before we knew it we were on the other side of the wave, still both were we should be, sitting in the Kayak.

It is unusual for dolphins not to turn up, but sometimes they just don’t show, as we found. But that wasn’t a problem, it was a good buzz just handling the Kayaks in surf, some of the wipe-outs making our sides split with laughter.

My next challenge for the day was a surfing lesson. You cannot come to Australia and not have a surfing lesson, and where better than Byron Bay. My instructor, Simon, of ‘Black Dog Surfing‘, (02 6685 8858), has been instructing for seven years now and has a unique assistant at his side to demonstrate technique. Where else in the world can you go for a surfing lesson that involves, as the name suggests, a black dog named Jessie demonstrating balance and a four legged switch-foot.

Whilst living in Cornwall I surfed Bodyboards for six-years, yet I never did get the balancing thing going on surfboards. Andy and Jessie were patient with me and within only a few waves I was standing… then falling and so on. In all seriousness, if you want to surf in Australia and are completely new to the sport, then get a lesson. It is money well spent and the Black Dog team will get most people on their feet and SURFING, MAN! by the end of the lesson.

I arrived back at the hostel with Beach Boys tunes whirring around my head and thoroughly exhausted. I was staying at The Holiday Village Backpackers, (02 6685 8888). The accommodation is pretty ‘Sweet, mate’ with all mod cons. The village includes a pool, spa, free surf and bodyboards, basketball, TV and video library, email, phones… do I need to go on? The staff at the resort also take the hassle out of booking activities by doing it for you.

Staying On…
Byron Bay has a great history. It formed as a spin off from the Aquarius festival back in the 60’s and still has that bohemian-hippy type feel to it. There is not a Macy-D’s in sight but many an organic fruit shop. There’s loads of stuff to get your teeth into here too. Scuba Diving, Kayaking, Surfing, Hand-gliding, Sky Diving, Rainforest walks and lots of beach life to watch and drool over.

Australian Saying
“Sick Man!” (Big Waves)