Byron Bay Day 6: It Burns! The Goggles Do Nothing!

When we got up this morning, Tanja decided that we required exercise, so suggested a walk up to the lighthouse and down the promontory that the gods has sent us away from last time. We got dressed and headed out. Well, sort of. I, wearing my usual t-shirt and shorts combination, made it about 5 seconds into the full sunlight before making a sort of “arghargharghargh” sound and pulling a u-turn back into the apartment. Sunburn, you see. You know when you spray a cockroach with pesticide he runs away and then starts to run in a circle, slowly dying? Yeah. Like that. I then slathered on about an inch more sunblock and put on the only long-sleeved shirt I brought. That way, instead of feeling like I was walking under a blowtorch, it instead felt as if I had already been seared and was placed under the grill to cook further.

We walked up to the lighthouse and were lucky enough to spot a pod of dolphins off of one of the cliffs. And me without my camera. It was very cool. We went down to the promontory, and then when we went to go back up, arrived at an impasse: we had walked down approximately 5 hobillion stairs to get there and after the first 30 or so I was knackered. Maybe it was the sunburn messing with my stamina, but I couldn’t do it. Tanja found another path around with far fewer stairs, but I was worried there for a moment.

Once back in town, Tanja talked herself into letting herself go lingerie shopping. She got things. That’s all I’m saying. After the thing-getting, we got some giant sandwiches for lunch. I got a tshirt with an octopus eatinga guy on it (it’s cooler than it sounds!) and new CDs from Jackson Jackson and Gogol Bordello (whose gypsy-punk stylings Tanja liked, shocking me). Picked up groceries, and a mixed six-pack of beer (Grolsch, Byron Bay Premium Ale, Kokanee, Northern Rivers Stout, James Squire I.P.A., and Coopers Sparkling Ale, and a pint-bottle of Little Creatures Pale Ale because it came in a friggin‘ pint bottle). Came back, went swimming in the ocean, lazed around drinking beer (the Grolsch, which was excellent, and the Byron Bay Premium which was equally excellent) then headed out for dinner.

We went to the Byron Beach Café, which we found by the strangest way: we followed the big arrow on the sign reading ”Byron Beach Café”. I had tempura prawns, one hell of a steak, and a molten flourless chocolate cake with strawberries for dessert. Tanja had oysters with salmon roe and champagne, Atlantic salmon in a dill reduction sauce and a white chocolate and raspberry crème Brule for dessert. We shared a lovely bottle of Mornington Peninsula (NZ) Pinot Noir. The restaurant is right on the beach so we had the most incredible view at sunset. Then we came back, watched some Star Trek , and drank some Northern Rivers Stout (which tasted EXACTLY like chocolate-covered coffee beans).