Taking flight...

During the week after returning from the Gold coast and in anticipation for the festival i settled back into the byron lifestyle much too easily. i'd get up early and go surfing everyday, it was so nice to just be able to grab my board, cross the road and be on the beach. Life seemed un-complex and uncluttered that week, i knew what was coming up so it was just a matter of living each day as it came. Because of this for the first time since perth i felt reasonably settled, just simple things like doing a big shop of groceries as we'd be sticking around or joining a video rental shop. Halfway through the week a massive swell came up from the south and the waves were pumping both in byron and at the nearby point in Lennox Head. It was even so big one day that we just sat an watched as guys got towed into 10 foot bombs in Lennox, which also ended up making the front page of the local paper the next day! It was interesting to see because we hardly ever see the ocean like this back home, it was like something right off a video but it was live.

Its such a beautiful spot in byron out in the water and one morning whilst sitting out there i saw about 5 dolphins 'surfing' the waves just 10 feet in front of me! it was an amazing sight, they were just jumping out of the waves and having fun. It was actually quite humbling. Then the surf went flat for what turned out to be 7 days, which was so crap and put me in a bad mood. One day i even woke up from a dream that there were finally some waves. Getting into the habit of going surfing every day is like any addiction, it gets to the point where you crave it. So in the meantime i decided to finally go about booking the hang gliding that i'd wanted to do for quite some time. I managed to get Dale to come too, so one afternoon in the knowledge that neither of us were covered by our travel insurance for such an activity, our 'pilot' Paul picked us up and took us down to Lennox head. When we pulled up it was perfect conditions, hardly a cloud in the sky. I had really wanted to do it over byron but apparently the wind wasn't right that day. After a quick tutorial which consisted of "run and jump when i say" i was in the air. I was just glad that my take off went smoothly as the glider directly before mine had crashed into a bush at the edge of the 100 foot sheer cliff drop upon taking off... yes i am actually serious! I figured that it happened just so it would add to the story rather than warn me of the risk I was just about to take. Pretty soon we had reached our maximum cruising height of 525 feet, which even Paul was impressed with. The views were pretty awesome to say the least, it would make a good surf spotting method, we were in the air for about 25 minutes, but my concentration on taking photos caused me to feel like i was gonna puke, a bit like reading a book when a passenger in a car. So when we finally touched down i was glad that i had actually managed to keep a hold of my lunch. Like surfing (or any hobby/activity for that matter) its another one of those activities that when you are doing it you are out there living that moment for what it is, not thinking about anything else... i think everyone needs an outlet like that.