21 August 08

Yesterday we saw a whale and her calf, a snake that would have got Steve Irwin excited and 1000's of bats swooping out across empty fields as dusk set in. I know I am showing my age by harking back to the 80's but honestly the song 'Great Southern Land' by Icehouse sprang to mind. I think the reason I have to draw on songs of old for descriptive purposes is that since having the boys the only music I have really listened to is either ABBA, the Nursery Rhymes CD I won from Little Treasures Magazine or the Gymbaroo disc that Emily burned for me. The reason for this being that when it is quiet in our house I am just so grateful for the peace. Now that we have established I am a bit of a saddo in the muso department I am going to change the subject and rave about Byron Bay. Paul took the day off (he had put in two 6 hours days on Mon and Tues poor love so he deserved a break) and we headed down the Pacific Highway to the famous beach. My knowledge of Byron Bay stretched to it being a surf beach where there has been the odd great white attack over the years and that it is a backpackers and hippy haven. I wasn't prepared for how beautiful it was going to be. I said to Paul, "I could live here." I wavered a bit on purchasing my slice paradise when we stumbled across a python. That and the fact we don't have a couple of mil lying round. There we were huddled in a small group looking aghast at this gianormous snake sunning itself brazenly on the beach boardwalk when a barefoot young lad wandered past and told us it was only a carpet snake. It didn't take away from the drama of the moment for me because no matter what it was it was still big and ugly. Having exhausted the delights of the Byron Bay play area we headed up to the lighthouse where the views over Cape Byron were truly magnificent. I kept saying to Paul, "This is so beautiful!" while waving my camera around. He got a bit shitty when I tried to take a photo of him and Josh climbing the steps up to the lighthouse. I dont know if he was worried about the camera angle on his backside or concerned with keeping his first born on the stairs rather than over the edge. He still bought me a double scoop of overpriced icecream though and soon not only was I full with icecream I was full with the delights of mother nature as we spied a whale with her calf in the surf below us. We decided to head inland on our way home via the timewarp town of Nimbin and all I can say about Nimbin is, "Wow far out - freaky man." With it's psychadelic shop frontages and smell of all things green drifting down the street not to mention it's paranoid long haired inhabitants it was kind of cool man. Dusk was setting as we wound our way home in time to witness the shadowy shapes of the bats sweeping across the sky. Australia is growing on me.