Byron Bay - The Sequel

A few of you have asked what I am up to here in Byron - and apart from desperately trying to upload photos (-- however blogger's photo upload is experiencing an upload malfunction) -- my time is spent something like this:

morning: spinning (studio cycling) class with Monique

afternoon: take your pick from any two of these: kayaking/snorkeling/surfing/reading on the beach/shopping/sightseeing the hinterland

evening: barbecuing, movies, night club bouncing

quite rough, I know...

I've been quite excited about this 'program' as it has allowed me to pick up several new skills in no time. Spinning for example, is something I had never done before and have been a bit weary of, given my general tendency to feel bored when cycling long distance, however it's turned out to be quite addictive and fun. It's also a darn good workout, so for any of you out there contemplating how to address the amazon/google/yahoo-15 before bikini season this year -> this is what you have been looking for.

Sea kayaking here is excellent for two reasons: first the surf is great pretty much everywhere and yes you can actually ride waves in a kayak and it is pretty fun, second, dolphins galore. We went out yesterday and for half an hour just sat on the water watching the dolphins jumping in front of us, next to us, everywhere. I was most fascinated by how much they seem to like waves: jumping out of them and 'surfing' them on their backs. Towards the end they came right up to us and did a few rounds around the kayak to say hello - very cool.

Snorkeling, the Byron Bay Marine Park is where the southern, cooler, currents meet the northern, tropical, currents, which makes for great snorkeling albeit lacking the coral of the GB reef. It's been fun to see an abundance of larger fish: eagle rays, leopard sharks (these do not have teeth I hear, eh hope...) and several large see turtles that in these waters seem to be patient with visitors and just hang out while people dive/snorkel around them.

Surfing, alas, my surf lesson will be later today, so no real update on this one yet -- if it goes anything like my last lesson, it will be a story about swimming more so than surfing...

I've also been able to add a new job experience to my resume: Night Club bouncer. Monique and I worked the doors at Cheeky's this past Saturday and it was a riot. They cater mainly to the backpacker crowd, so it was a good chance to talk to people from all over them world, which led to some fun observations, such as, for example, that Fabio haircuts are really popular among 20-year-olds in Sweden at the moment (unfortunately I never found out why! :)