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Getting High on Ketamine in Byron Bay!
Hey dudes, we’re in Byron Bay!
We spent Easter in Port Macquarie dodging torrential rain, eating chocolate and laughing at the family of 7 camped nearby who spent all weekend shouting at each other. It seems Easter weekends are the same wherever you are! Saturday it just rained nonstop and a lot of the campsite was flooded. This gave us the opportunity to get out our rubber ducks, who have travelled in the shower room all the way from England – we think they were glad to stretch their legs! This was also quite fitting as on Easter Sunday we watched the annual Charity Rubber Duck Race on the nearby estuary. The race itself was quite amusing but the best bit was watching the local (really quite elderly) Rotary Club members trying to scoop up the 100s of rubber duckies before they floated out to sea. They only had two small boats, a few little fishing nets and even less communication. If it wasn’t for a passing kayak tour, we reckon they would have spent all the proceeds on replacement ducks for next year.
After almost 2 weeks in the same town, it was good to be back on the road, which took us to Dorrigo Rainforest Centre and their Skywalk, a walkway which juts out from a cliff and takes you to 20m above the rainforest canopy. Due to Bry helping the Forest Ranger jump start another visitor’s car, she turned a blind eye to us spending the night in their carpark. So not only did we get to experience the roof of the rainforest at dusk and dawn, but we could also wonder at the beautiful starry night sky without any light pollution. The sights and sounds were amazing and it was incredible to think we were only 40km from the touristy coast – it almost felt like we were back in the Laos jungle. While here we did a two and a half hour circular walk, which took us to some beautiful waterfalls, one of which we were able to walk behind. We saw loads of different birds, butterflies and even some witchety grubs – but we managed to stop ourselves from eating them!
We then headed back to the coast to Pippis Beach in Yamba, which was the typical beautiful expanse of white sand which we are getting accustomed to – however this was the first we have seen with a ‘Warning – Sharks’ sign! We still went for a paddle though, but decided to leave the bodyboards in Mario. The next day we went to Shelly Beach in Ballina, but when we got there it was closed due to dangerous surf conditions, so we headed up the coast to Lennox Head. Here we watched the ‘big boys’ surfing the point break by jumping into the swell from rocks and catching huge waves to the beach. Some of them were riding a single wave for more than 2 minutes – pretty impressive. A few days later we were browsing some local news stories and discovered that just a couple of months ago a surfer was killed by a Great White at Shelly Beach and the day before that, another was attacked by a Bull shark at Lennox Head!
So then it was on to Byron Bay, renowned as a new age, hippy, organic utopia, where anything goes and judging by the traffic, everyone goes. It’s the sort of place where ageing hippies live and mix happily with young yuppies up from Sydney and the coach loads of foreign backpackers. There’s a strong eco-vibe, although bizarrely there are no recycling bins and everyone seems to drive everywhere. We knew we wanted to visit but we didn’t know for how long, unsure if it was just going to be too busy for us. However, after negotiating the awful traffic, we found a decent campsite which is right in town but also really quiet, mainly as they don’t take kids!
Byron does have a very nice feel and although the place is busy, it still feels very laid back. It’s got long beaches, so there’s plenty of room for everyone and it’s also surrounded by beautiful countryside. One day we walked along the coast to Cape Byron (mainland Australia’s most Eastern point) to visit the lighthouse there. When we were just approaching the lighthouse we could see a storm rolling in from the ocean, so ran the last 200 metres and made it into the tiny museum just before the heavens opened. Not surprisingly we were soon joined by dozens of other wet, sweaty tourists and it got so hot inside there we decided we’d rather go back outside and get wet! The sun soon shone again and we were treated to a lovely, double rainbow – very hippy, very Byron!
Saturday night we decided to go out on the town. We had a couple of drinks in The Balcony which overlooks one of the busiest streets in town, where we just amused ourselves people watching – watching amusing people! Then we went down to the beach front for a couple more before deciding to head home for an early night, mainly because a disco was starting at 9 o’clock. However, on our way back we found The Rails bar which had live music and much cheaper drinks, so decided to stay out a while longer. It was like a cross between a Student Union, a biker’s bar and a working men’s club with the clientele to match – much more our sort of place than the hippy-chic bars in town.
Soon we were talking to Douglas, Australia’s blonde Tommy Cooper. He had the same build, mannerisms and floppy hair, and also the same speech, but that may have just been the beer. He was with his friend, Tigger, yes that’s his real name, he showed us his driving licence! They were both a good laugh, there was much piss-taking and friendly banter, specifically about Aussie/Pommie/Welsh sporting rivalries. Bangladesh was mentioned on more than one occasion. We went on with them to a club where they introduced us to DJ Bango, a charming 60-something year old dude who you could tell has been there, done that but was too cool to wear the t-shirt! It turns out he’s got his own Wiki page if you’re interested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dumakude_Bango
By the end of the night the ‘beer-swilling Aussies’ were drinking margaritas (which obviously prompted more piss-taking) and Douglas was insisting we camp on his front lawn for as long as we wanted! It was no doubt a genuine offer and one which we may have taken him up on if he only could have remembered his phone number!
This hasn’t been the only instance of hospitable locals. On Tuesday we met a long haired dude on the beach, who drove us to a place in town where Bry scored some free ketamine and midazolam!!
Perhaps we should explain! We’d spent the day bodyboarding and watching sea kayak tours having fun in the surf. About mid afternoon the waves were getting quite rough, so we ditched the boards but decided to go in for one last dip before heading back. Some of the waves were very powerful and would knock us over, but we always came up smiling, it was good harmless fun. However, one huge wave came in just as the shallow water ebbed away. It picked Bry up and dumped him onto the hard sand with enough force to dislocate his shoulder!
The ‘long haired dude’ was Rob Lynch who is a tour guide for Cape Byron Kayaks, who had just come in with one of his groups and who Caroline had asked for help. He was straight on the radio to the lifeguards but suggested they would only call an ambulance anyway, which when the lifeguard turned up on his fast response tractor, turned out to be the case. So ‘Lynchy’ said he’d take us to the hospital himself and promptly booted his customers out of his Land Cruiser. While this was going on a kind gentleman helped Caroline pack all our kit up and carry it to the Land Cruiser. Lynchy then drove us to A&E, dropped us off and then took all our kit back to the campsite for us. What a legend!
Once in A&E the staff recognised that Bry was in a lot of pain and immediately took him through to ‘Resus’. Dr Irfraan assessed Bry and as he thought he appeared to be a ‘co-operative’ patient decided to reduce the dislocation using a technique not requiring any pain relief or sedative! After about 10-15 minutes of massaging and pressure the doctor decided it wasn’t going to work so went to plan B, which involved gas & air and brute force, but that didn’t do the job either. Bry was now shouting with pain and so it was decided to go to plan C. This meant Bry was sedated using a mix of ketamine and midazolam and required an extra pair of hands - Gary, the hospital porter.
Thankfully Bry doesn’t remember what happened next. A tug of war between Gary and the doctor, using a sheet wrapped around Bry’s chest. All Caroline could do was hold his hand and keep explaining where he was as he kept on asking! 20 minutes later and finally Bry’s shoulder pops back in. The doctor told Caroline it was the hardest one he’d ever done, including a Rugby League player! Caroline has never been so relieved, Bry wasn’t sure what the hell was going on! Four x-rays later, a sling and a can of coke and we find ourselves walking back to camp. Thankfully this is only a 5 minute walk but we’re both still covered in sand and by now freezing as our clothes and swimming costumes are still wet.
It didn’t really sink in until later exactly what had happened. It was all so quick and we suddenly found ourselves a bit emotional – from the shock and the trauma but also from the realisation that it could have been a lot worse. Caroline has never been so grateful to have Bry back in one piece and even though there is now a long road of recovery to manage, none of that really matters as Bry is okay. Well, except for now worrying about Caroline doing all the driving for a while!
We’re both really grateful to Lynchy for all his help as well as everyone at the hospital – which, we might add, didn’t cost us a penny! Here’s to being British and the good old NHS!
This has meant we’ve stayed put here in Byron for an extra 3 days while Bry convalesces. As it’s unlikely now we’ll get much use out of our bikes, we sold them today to the local pawnbroker – for only £20 less than we paid for them! Result!
Tomorrow we are off to Brisbane to catch up with Jude, best friend of Bry’s big sister, who has known Bry all his life. The fact that she is a nurse is purely coincidental! Apparently we’re going to an 80s fancy dress party, we knew we should have brought our dressing up box from home!
On a completely different note and continuing on our ‘Big’ theme – check out the photos of Big Banana and Big (meaning absolutely massive) Prawn!
Hoo Roo (Ouch)!