Admittedly, most days in Byron are pretty super. There are several beaches, lots of fun people, good eats and plenty of time and space to chill out. Its happy times all around. Earlier this week (honestly it could have been 2-5 days ago, my concept of time is completely shot) stepped it up a notch and made it self extra super.
The day began as so many do, early (ish) rise, some tasty granola, and a trip into the beach for a little surfy. I decided to head to "The Pass" a point break notorious for its 100+ summer crowds. I hadn't surfed here yet and randomly decided to check it out. Some lovely little waves and basically no people. Amazing. Got a great ride straight off the bat. It was all happy days.
After a couple hours my parking meter was running low and I was fretting that I may had possibly forgotten to put sunscreen on my forearms. While deciding what to do, the shouts of shark from those slightly deeper in the water made my decision for me, looks like its time to paddle in. Curious me, I asked the spotter how big it was, he said it was a bull, pointed to a 9 foot longboard and said 'longer than that', which he measured as it swam under him, about 3 feet wide, this was later confirmed by the surfer next to him. Yikes. I joined the crowd at beach lookout to confirm this large shark was indeed making a pass of the beach and then heading out to deeper waters.
I was more happy than freaked out. After weighing how close me and sharky had been without trouble I was really just stoked on the experience not ending in any sort of tragedy and throwing respect at the ocean and mr shark.
What better way to celebrate than going for a surf. I headed for the old faithful Wategos, I've seen several dolphins here and have yet to hear of the water being cleared for a shark even though Wategos is only half a km away from the pass. Dolphin territory is the way to go.
After another couple hours in the water here I got out to explore and found abandoned train track graffiti, before meeting up with Kate and Heather (fellow Canadian) on main beach for some fun swim and tan time. Ran into new friend/random hilarity from Boston, who commented that I looked like a 'Portuguese disco' noting that 'style is better than no style' (which was unnecessary as I took it as a complement). Kate, Boston and I jumped on an abandoned trampoline in the woods and had some sunset g and t's before getting dinner and making our first visit to the notorious backpackers bar 'Cheeky Monkey'. I have to say cheeky wasn't nearly as slimy as I had been imagining, I ate delicious pasta for 2$!!! and drank 8$ pitchers. That said, it was Wednesday, not wet t-shirt contest Friday.
Topping off an awesome day Kate and I managed to be home and in our beds by about 11pm.
Voila! Super day with a dash of shark.
