| Myrons Daily Journal - Page 11 April 18, 2004 Biked monstrous 12 clicks today from Ballina to Lennox Head. Found out that the Easter holiday for the schools in Queensland is over but for NSW it is not over until 4/28. That puts their Memorial Day, which is Sunday 4/25, on the last weekend of the school holiday. Will have to "play it by ear" concerning the crowds this will generate. This area is known as the beach and surfing capital of the East Coast. The lonely planet says " Lennox has some of the best surf on the coast, including long right-hander breaks." This must mean the waves break from the right as you are facing the beach. The YHA I am at is a stone's throw from the beach. When I was at the Ballina hostel I left my camera with the owners of the hostel for safekeeping. When I got to Lennox I realized it was still safely back there in Balloon. The owner here called back for me. A girl from Switzerland that I met there had not left yet for the same hostel here, so she took it on the bus with her. It would have been 22 hilly clicks on my bike to ride back for it. This is the second time I have done this. Today I made up for the short ride on my bike by doing a long walk on the beach. Lennox Head to Jew Point is a 10-click beach. Later I saw a sign that said 7-mile beach (they used imperial measurements here until sometime in the 60's.) Walked this beach both ways so I got in 20 clicks of beach walking. It is a beautiful beach. It is at least 100 meters wide and not crowded at all. Most of the people were surf fishing. They would drive onto the beach with their private vehicle. Every once in a while a car would pass me while I was walking. Southern Californians would die for a beach like this. Every bit of it had surf as good as that in Encinitas, but not one surfer. Understand the best surfing conditions here are in the winter. Plan to stay here Sunday and Monday nights. I am enjoying sitting having coffee and talking to locals and other Australians on vacation. April 19-20, 2004 Took my bike and rode the beach I walked yesterday. I crashed 4 times doing so, hit soft sand. I never crashed so softly in my life on a bike. It was a beautiful ride. Rode at low tide for maximum hardpan surface and to keep the bike away from the saltwater. Forgot that the tide would start coming back in. when I got to the end of the beach to turn around at Jew point at broken head I noticed that the water was reaching further up the beach. In returning I had to pick up the pace to beat the water reaching soft sand. That was a workout in semisoft sand with thin tyres (know how to spell tires the English way; that's how you see it spelled here.) anyway, made it back in time. I would have hated walking my bike for many kilometers. I am afraid if this trip lasted much longer I would make less and less distance each day. Again I had to stop in Byron Bay because I stopped for coffee somewhere earlier and got to talking with the locals, cutting into my biking time. I am lucky to find that with Queensland's kids back in school the crowds have thinned out, making it possible to find a place to stay. When I went into Woolworth’s here in Byron Bay for food to carry on my bike, the majority of the customers were young people. It looked like I had walked into backpackers. Woolworth is the store that made Betty Hutton wealthy until her 7 or 8 husbands drained her of her wealth. It is the famous 5 & 10 cents store of the early 1900. It is alive and doing well down under as a general store. Many of them also sell petrol. I understand it is big in Europe also. I overheard someone talking about Woolworth here like someone would talk about Walmart in the states. They didn't like the store moving into an area and killing the small stores. You also see a lot of K-marts and IGA stores here. One thing you don't see here is good old UPS. Have seen only one truck and I think it was in NZ. When I went around the edge of the US I saw UPS everywhere. I sure see why coke is the most recognized logo in the world; you can't escape it. Shiangold lived on it. I believe he carried 2 quart bottles on his bike at all times. I am staying at the YHA in Byron Bay. The crowds have really thinned out. One girl from the states and a guy from Ireland are sharing the bunkroom with me. The girl had her 25th birthday yesterday. I told her to turn that around and add 20 years. She was surprised. She had just finished woof'ing. That stands for "working on organic farms." this she says is practiced in many countries of the world. She would work 4 to 6 hours a day for room and board for a day. She had been clearing overgrowth. I asked her about snakes. She said they had warned her to look out for them and kill any she came across since they could be poisonous. You won’t catch me woofing. Told her I doubt this practice occurs in southern California. Our illegals fill that bill. Will see what tomorrow brings. April 21, 2004 Have decided to stay another day. Byron Bay is a nice town. They do not allow high rise buildings or any traffic signals. They also do not allow any fast food restaurants in town. You see no Mc Donald’s, Burger King or KFC. They do have a Subway. Enjoyed my evening at the hostel. It is not crowded as I had expected. Was enjoying the evening with two sisters from England. We had met quite a few hostels ago. They have a delightful accent, which we were having fun with. They were trying to speak like me and I was trying a few words in the English fashion. The subject got around to what country they were from. Are they from England, Britain, Great Britain, Commonwealth, United Kingdom, etc. I mentioned that I had a pen pal when in elementary school some 60 years ago. Still can recite his name and address, so I did: John Dyke 101 Inverness place Roath Park Cardiff Glems South Whales Great Britain. At that point another girl sitting near us said; pardon me for jumping into your conversation, but I live a few blocks away from that address on Inverness place. Everybody almost said at the same time. What a small world. She said she was going home in a few weeks and would go to 101 Inverness place and see if John Dyke still lives there. If he doesn't, she will try to track him down. We swapped email addresses. I will be waiting impatiently for her finding. On another subject: remember Shiangold's bare-all incident. Well, the reverse happened to me. The guy in our room had left at 6:30 AM. I had shaved, eaten and was getting my bike for a ride to the light house here in Byron Bay. It is on the eastern most point of land in Australia. The girl was up and also getting ready for the beach. I forgot my suntan lotion so I popped back into the room to get it. You guessed it. This time we both handled it well like the girl with Shiangold. I am getting used to Hostel living. It is definitely an alternate lifestyle. |
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