Week 3 - Surfing & Snorkelling in Byron Bay
I’ve met sharks and I’m still alive!
But first things come first: As the 26th of January is Australian Day and therefore a national holiday, I had a long weekend. To make good use of it, I went to Byron Bay which is a smaller town south of Brisbane.
On Saturday morning I went surfing. During the security briefing about currents, sharks, rips, rocks etc. We were all freezing to death in the down-pouring rain. However, as soon as we got into the water and started, I forgot the weather and enjoyed the moment. Surfing is amazing even though it’s also amazingly difficult to keep your balance while standing on the board. Standing up, on the contrary, isn’t that difficult… So why do I like it even though I only catch some waves and hardly get to the beach without spectacularly falling off the board? I can’t really explain it but I think the moment when you actually catch a wave makes up for all the failures. It is simply an amazing feeling and it feels like ages and like a blink of an eye at the same time. I would love to stay in Australia and surf every day: The one thing I miss in Switzerland is the ocean…
Sunday was crazy: I went surfing in the morning - again - and then, although tired and exhausted, went kayaking hoping to see dolphins as promoted from the
kayak company. However, the animals didn’t like us and didn’t turn up. So almost everyone was disappointed as the trip was extremely exhausting and without reward… As for my part, I was
completely happy to see a (real!) sea turtle. That was all I needed. I went back to the hostel smiling, completely worn out and almost fell over a water dragon when leaving the shower (picture).
Last but not least: On Monday we had to go back to Noosa (4hours by bus… ><). Before that, I went snorkeling and it was as amazing as the surfing if not even better. By boat we went to a rock in the sea and stayed there for an hour. The time went by way too fast: I saw various types of fishes, two rays and even a sea turtle. And then, there were also sharks: Not the ones from the recent movie ‘Unbroken’ or ‘Finding Nemo’, but friendly ones. They were just hanging around on the ground and didn’t care about us. I was quite happy about that fact and was completely stunned by those animals. As the water was quite misty, it looked pretty mysterious when a 2-meter-shadow passed below you. The only dangerous thing was the fins of all the other snorkelers trying to catch the specie with their “Go-Pro-Camera”…
So in conclusion: It was a great weekend and I would have loved to stay there for a while. However, since I'm mainly here for improving my English, I had to go back to Noosa writing Essays and Reports with strict structures. As I’m more accustomed to write in a free and unrestricted way, it is quite demanding for me to ignore my own style and write pre-formed sentences and paragraphs… However, I’m at the language school for no more than eight days now and I’m running out of time. I hope I’ll live through it and pass my exam in March.