I went to check out the farmer’s market here on my last day.

I then packed and got a shuttle to the airport to fly back to Sydney. Luckily there was no flight drama this time around, but the flight itself was definitely somewhat of an experience. Around 15 mins in, we hit some very bad turbulence, the worst I had ever experienced! The plane was being thrown around, and would then drop, then thrown around some more and then drop some more. Everyone started freaking out! Suddenly it was like the ice was broken and we all became friends united in trying to figure out what was happening and if we were going to survive! I wasn’t really too worried, this was the 20th flight I had taken in 6 months and although it was bad, I wasn’t as alarmed as some of the others. One lady started hyperventilating so badly! And because we all had to stay in our seats with our belts fastened, no one could go to check on her. It only lasted around 10 minutes and then the pilot apologised. He described it as clear turbulence and told us that he hadn’t received any warnings about it so couldn’t avoid it. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and I arrived in Sydney an hour later.

I decided to walk up to the lighthouse this morning. It was supposed to be an hour walk and I thought it would be good exercise. It was difficult though, walking uphill the whole way and I was breaking in some new flip flops so my feet were in pain by the time I got to the top. It felt good to get to the top though.

I walked back down and then spent a few hours at the beach before a thunderstorm hit and I was rushing back completely drenched! I headed out to the gig later that the guy I had met in the cafe had told me about. It was just at a bar nearby. At 1st I wasn’t so sure about going on my own. I would never go to a gig on my own back in London but I figured I would give it a try. I wasn’t actually on my own for too long, a guy came and sat with me and we got chatting. He was from Sydney but moved to Byron Bay for a job teaching and he loved it here. He liked how laid back it was compared to the city. I was quite amused about how normal it was to just chat to strangers here! 2 days in a row. He said he lived on a farm nearby and had come out because he had lost electricity during the storm. He was nice and was good company for a few hours but I drew the line when he offered to drive me to the airport the next day!

After the gig, I went to say hi to the guy playing who I had met the previous day. He introduced me to his singer and she was so excited to be chatting to a fellow Londoner! We were talking about our experiences in Australia and how different it was. She was encouraging me to move here for a while which I had already been thinking about! I can get a working holiday visa here as long as it is before I am 30 so I have less than 2 years to decide! It does seem like a cool idea…!

We woke up early the next day and headed out for breakfast together. My friends had to drive back to Dalby after breakfast as some of them were working later that day.

It was sad saying bye to them! Especially because we weren’t sure how long it would be until we saw each other again. I was back to being a solo traveler. I spent a few hours at the beach and then went to check into my new accommodation. I had booked a room through Airbnb where people rent out spare rooms in their houses to visitors. It was my 1st time of using it but I had picked a place with very good reviews so I wasn’t too worried. I found the place and got into my room. It was actually a 4 bedroom self-contained apartment above the owner’s house. It was very nice, with a nice lounge and kitchen. There was just 1 other girl there, a doctor from Ireland and we chatted a bit. She seemed nice. I headed back to the beach, read for a while and went for a walk, and then stopped off at a cafe for a while.

Soon after I had ordered, a man and woman came and sat on the next table. They were both older, and they started chatting to me. They were quite intrigued about my traveling, where I had been and what I had been doing. The guy mentioned that he was playing a gig the following night and the girl singing with him was from London and we would get on so I should come along. Soon after, a couple they were friends with came to join them and the conversation changed dramatically! The guy was an organic farmer and definitely a hippie! Some of the things he was saying were quite funny to me. Talking about how Mother Earth is like a dog with fleas on it and it will only take them for so long before it shakes to get them all off and we are due a shake up soon! And about how the world is just full of greed and it will take another world war for us to start loving each other again! I certainly wasn’t hoping for that! He was talking about some of his ideas to make the organic food market more commercial and get rid of all these American franchises like McDonalds from the country. Because this is Australia and everything here should be Australian! And we don’t need to go to America anymore because America is here! His ideas were pretty extreme to me! One of the ladies there was clearly deep into astrology and was telling him that he was born between the years of the lion and the snake and what that means for his future. I politely excused myself from the conversation and left chuckling inside about how what I thought would be a quiet coffee ended up! I had definitely experienced the hippie side of Byron Bay though! I headed back to the apartment and chatted to my flat mate for a few hours before calling it a night.

We left Dalby very early on the Monday morning so we could make the most of the day there. It was a 4 hour drive to Byron Bay. It’s funny how normal it is to drive long distances here. A 4 hour drive is considered pretty close! I don’t think I realised how big this country was until I got here! I had heard a lot about Byron Bay before I got here. Everyone had described it as hippie-town so I had my expectations but it was actually quite different to what I expected. It was very trendy with lots of cool shops, cafés and restaurants and very pretty. We headed up to the lighthouse which is one of the big attractions here and it was really cool. The views from up there were amazing! Here are a few pictures.

We then checked into the hostel where we were spending the night and then headed out. We wandered around some of the shops here and then headed to the beach where we spent the afternoon. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot. Later that evening, we went to a pub for dinner and they had a musical bingo competition so we joined in for a few rounds and I ended up winning one round! So I got a voucher for a free lunch at one of the places here. It was a really fun day.