Actually, as we found out yesterday, Byron Bay was not named after Lord Byron the poet, but he would have fitted right in. As someone who liked a drink, he would have been able to sympathise with the surfing culture which is still deeply embedded in Byron Bay:
Lord George Byron
“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”
We had a lovely morning discovering the town – Samantha and Dominic doing a great job of showing us around. We started at the lighthouse, immediately spotting a pod of dolphins. Byron Bay apparently has a resident pod of around 100 bottlenose dolphins and we spotted some off the headland. The water is so clear that they are easy to watch, even from quite a distance. We then walked down to Wategos Beach, stopped at a very nice cafe for some interesting smoothies (Anne’s blue spirulina smoothie making an interesting colour contrast with my mango one!). from there on to the main beach and a wander round the monthly market on the beach front – the history of Byron being evident in some of the stalls. My immediate assumption that the ‘hemp’ stall might have some interesting rope goods turned out not to be quite right …..
In the afternoon we went for a swim on main beach – a process which, given the surf, was actually more like being hit by a battering ram of water every few seconds, though it was very refreshing. The day was rounded off with an excellent meal in town with Anne trying a kangaroo steak … Apparently best eaten either rare or medium-rare as any more than that and it become a long process to eat it (very tough …). It was actually very nice – a lean meat.