Surfcamp and arriving in Byron Bay

So off we went for surfcamp. A wicked track we were supposed to follow from Sydney to Byron Bay, along the Eastcoast, hopefully ending up somewhere along the coast preferably in no man's land.

And that's exactly what happened.

First of all the feeling of driving around with a bus or van when the hot sun is shining, with the windows open and the wind flowing into your face and body, with the right tune in the background is, to me, an awesome feeling of freedom of which I want to taste more. It is that experience that made me thinking to rent my own van. Now all I need is find someone to close the deal with and we're off. So that's what I'll try to do after I reach Brisbane. :-)

Back to surfcamp. The first two days actually sucked due to excessive rainfall. When you're from Belgium this is unacceptable! I do not want to see rain!!! (It's raining now btw, that's why I have time to blog :))) On day three the sun kicked in tho.

The surflessons were sweet and we got a pretty good idea of how the waves do their thing and the ocean controls these little waterhills. And of course, how to ride 'em. Now I did some surfing camps some years ago in France, but we did not get too much explanation there what to do, just take a board and go figure it out. So that really sucked compared to this.

The Australians take surfing way more serious then the French. It's a way of life here as compared to in France. We learned the different types of waves, the tides and the ocean bottom and how it influences the waves, we learned about curls and rip curls, righthanders, lefthanders and general board control.

The parties were not too shabby either since most of the folks ended up pretty smashed night after night. Especially Tuesday night was big since the second group arrived too and the general programme was "drinking games". We were complete and ready to kick-off the week. There were about 70-80 of us. Result: bad end :-P Or depends how you see it of course :-)

We stayed on some sort of old farm with cabbana's spread around the domain and a central cabbana with swimming pool and a large room for eating, partying and bar etc. The domain was filled with kangooroos, possums and probably snakes too. For more insight I refer to some of the pictures on facebook.

We drove the little bus back and forth everyday to different beaches, most of which quite deserted and people-less. Good for making a fool out of yourself while learning :)

On the fourth day we moved to a new sleeping place to surf our final day. I guess it's too much writing to explain everything that happened, so to sum things up: lots of new people, lots of surfing - almost every time after a hangover - and lots of beer, sangia, goon and other tasty crap.

Highlight of the whole camp: Surfing is THE medicine for hangover :)

Once in Byron Bay the group spread out to many hostels, some of them leaving Byron and others staying for a few more days of partying, surfing, tanning, hiking, or whatever you wanna do. The memorable ones I have on facebook so I will skip mentioning names of people i've met :)

In Byron the first day I arrived in a cool "island resort" in the Arts Factory, surrounded by mosquitos, reptiles and weird-looking black chicken-like creatures with red heads. Seemed like a combination of a chicken, a turkey and a vulture. They looked like birds of death lol :P ugly as hell and they could kinda fly a little bit since they got into the trees too (unlike chickens). A must-see when visiting Byron. I met up there with Sara again too. It was time for a few days of Byron Bay.