When I came to Byron Bay 6 years ago, it was a relatively busy place with some crazy pubs to go to and an awesome, not too crowded beach to relax at. Now, it was full-bore wall-to-wall people with hotels charging $200 a night and 3 night minimum stays, hostels charging regular hotel rates, and people clamouring over each other just to get down the street. I've read it's the first district in Australia to elect members of government from the Green party, as they're trying to prevent the town from becoming known only as a tourist Mecca, but even while limiting the amount of development in the area, it's still hard to find a more crowded, bustling place. A lot of attitude too, which was unfortunate, but it still had a very lively vibe.
We did a little big of everything while in Byron - surfing, scuba diving, sightseeing and just relaxing on the beach. Our scuba diving trip was a little crappy, as the visibility was rather poor, and since it was Shannon's and my first time in ages, we were through our oxygen 10-15 minutes early and had to head up pretty quick. We did get to see lots of cool stuff like sharks, manta rags, and other weird things that you only get to see on the Discovery Channel, but it could have been better. Anyway, after 3 nights in Byron, we took off, feeling that maybe 2 nights would have been better.
However, our second in Byron did give us a chance to check out the coolest street performers I've ever seen. It was a guy on drums and a guy on the didgeridoo playing some fast-tempo dance music. These guys were so good, they had nearly 100 people crowded around, and when it was done they sold all the CD's they had plus must've made plenty more money from people dropping some cash for the show. Anyway, we bought a CD, and if you're bored, check out "Wild Marmalade", it's a lame name, but a great band.Our next stop was unknown to us until we actually got there. The plan was to head to Rainbow Beach, a small, rarely visited beach town 4 hours north. But, along the way we stopped at a tourist info spot, and met perhaps the sweetest little lady the whole country had to offer. We must have talked to this elderly woman for an hour, though she did a good portion of the talking while we were there. She was largely deaf, so her accent, her age, and her subtle inability to pronounce words properly gave her the cutest speech I've ever heard. She managed to convince us to go to a place called Tin Can Bay, a sort of English rip-off of the aboriginal name of Tuncanbar. Once there, we stayed in probably the only accommodation in town - it was the motel, the backpacker hostel, the town pub and a drive through liquor store - and it was only $45 a night for the two of us, which was awesome.
Tin Can Bay was a really quiet, slow moving town. There really wasn't a lot happening at all, but the main attraction was pretty cool. Every morning at 8, a couple of dolphins cruise into the bay and wait around for people to feed them. The harbour staff have started to do some minor management of it, mostly just stopping people from swimming out with them and getting too close, but basically, you can show up, go out up to your thighs, let the dolphins swim around and feed them once the staff give out food for everyone to toss (only so much though, they don't want them getting dependent on people).
There was also a rather obnoxious pelican down by the water. I'd never seen a pelican before, so standing within a few feet of one was rather unsettling. They've got these bizarre, buggy eyes, and everything about it reminded me of an annoying neighbour, one who hangs on the edge of the fence just waiting to be invited over so he can steal all your food.
When the thing opened it's mouth to take a jab at the harbour staff holding fish, I seriously began to wonder if he might try and get the whole staff member down his throat.Our next stop was at Airlie Beach, another once quiet town that now exists entirely to service the Whitsunday Islands and the tourism that comes with it. And wow, is there a lot of tourism. Back in the day when Cap'n Cook came through and mapped out the area, he named the islands the Cumberland Islands (or something similar to that), but when people saw the potential to make some money touring the islands here, they changed the name to the Whitsunday's, and now the whole town is just swamped with people coming through to sail around for 3 or 4 days, then take off somewhere else, as there's not a lot else to do. Well, maybe there is, but it certainly kept hidden to all but those who are really looking.
We shipped out with 30 or so others on a boat called The Clipper. It was a nice boat, Shan and I had our own tiny room, and we met some really great people along the way. Our crew was a little unusual though - I think they were paid to be as much entertainers as they were crew members, and the constant "yeah! Let's Party!" attitude they exuded was a little tiring. We got to do lots of great snorkeling, and some questionable scuba diving. Shannon wasn't given enough weights to stay under, which meant I had to hold her down with one hand to keep her from surfacing every 2 minutes (which usually happened anyways).
After Airlie, we made the 14 hour drive back to Brisbane, stopping just outside it in a nice town called Noosa. Actually, the area was called Noosa, and we spent plenty of time trying to find our way between Noosa Heads, Noosaville, Noosa town centre, and every other patch of land with Noosa in the name. Shannon, who used to competitively race small sailboats, finally got a chance to take me out on the water, though the wind was pretty light and our boat was terribly rigged. Of course, I wouldn't have known either of these things to be true, I'm just telling you what she told me. And yes, she can indeed curse like a sailor when out on the water, though I think a foul-mouth makes a sailor better, cause the more angry she got, the faster the little boat seemed to go.
We spent our last night in Brisbane and decided that the only way to truly get everything out of our adventure was to blow as much money as we could before leaving town. We got a somewhat nicer hotel than we usually allowed ourselves, spent a whole day power shopping (we actually had to split up to cover more ground), then went out for a somewhat fancy lobster dinner. Oh, and I bought a didgeridoo, which is freakin' awesome.
I could write a whole blog entry on the search put in for this and the possible flaws it may have in authenticity, but I think I'll just keep it simple here. It looks good, it sounds cool, and I'm getting to be an okay player. I'm probably the best didgeridoo player in Korea, though that's more because there's no one who plays here I'm sure than a reflection of my skill.But yes, that was the end of our trip. After Brisbane, it was off to the airport for a 14 hour plane ride back to Seoul, where we were able to catch a train right to home that same day. And that's when we found our gas turned off, meaning it was a cold, cold night of no heat that first evening back. Brrrr....
I'm going to take a moment here from some quick social commentary, which you're welcome to skip over if you feel you've read enough. This blog has been rather lengthy, but there's always lots to say, and I'm hoping at least one or two people out there enjoy taking a few minutes to skim through it all.
While the list of countries I've travelled to over the past 6 months is by no means lengthy, I have started to feel a slightly better understanding for how life and people go by in places around the world beyond just Canada. I by no means want to come across as a worldly, experience traveller who has "seen it all" and "knows the ways of the world", but I have seen some, and I've learned a bit, and I've been having a tough time lately feeling comfortable with the challenges and difficulties countries are having as a result of both their own actions and those of other countries. I think the main thoughts I'm having are "global warming is terrible" and "love your environment", but I think those conclusions are a little to simplistic for what I'm feeling right now.
In Korea, there is a constant fog in the air. When I first got here, I thought that the country just never really had sunny days. Then I realized that heavy exercise outside was leaving me with a minor cough each time. A few days ago, at around 5 o'clock, I was able to stare directly at the sun as it was setting. Of course, it didn't set for nearly an hour, but the pollution in the air was so thick you could look right at the sun, and the whole town, rather than being brightly illuminated, had more of a redish glow to it.
If you take a few moments to google newspaper headlines in Australia, specifically the province of Queensland, you'll probably find every news site has something regarding water levels. While we were there, every, EVERY, newspaper had on the front page an article regarding the current water crisis the area is going through. Water levels are so low that the government is currently building water recycling systems. These aren't sewage treatment plants like at home, but systems designed to allow water that goes straight from the gutter, the toilet, wherever, right back into the drinking system. If they are successful at installing this, and the population continues to grow at the rate it has, their dam levels will reach 40% capacity in 3 years.
We met an Australian girl working at a bar who nearly started crying while talking about this to us. Apparently there's been a 5 year drought of sorts - there's definitely rain, just not much, and the population is growing. Everyone knows it's bad because they're told it's bad. There's signs everywhere - "Conserve water", "Do less laundry", "Only use what you need". This girl however had just come back from a trip to the outback, and had seen what was happening to the farming communities. Animals were lying dead on the ground, starving to death and dying of thirst. Sheep were eating dirt in hopes of something being in it to keep them alive. She mentioned that pretty soon they may have to start charging for water instead of just giving jugs of it to people when they sit down at the bar.
I've been reading lots of headlines at home about unusually strong and frequent winter storms that have been coming across Vancouver Island this winter, and I hope people are thinking about why the weather can be so extreme and bizarre these days. I don't know if global warming is necessarily the end of it all or a planet killer, as it's often made out to be, but it certainly seems capable of completely shifting the way people live. I mean, if ice caps melt and water levels rise, that doesn't mean everybody drowns, but it certainly does make for a long, painful and sad population change inland.
Well, I certainly don't know enough about it to speak with anymore authority than I have, and hopefully I haven't overstepped my boundaries too much. I've heard, though, that Britain is making everyone in the school systems watch "An Inconvenient Truth", which I think is a great idea. If you're tired of reading my blogs, or if you're bored until the next one comes out, I suggest you go and watch it to. Till next week...
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