Byron Bay, Australia
Ok. I realize that I tend to have a rather positive description of most of the places we have visited. But here I make the strongest statement I could possibly put forth. I am right now sitting in Paradise. You may think that I have said it before, and perhaps I did, but that was spoken in ignorance of what perfection of the human experience I was yet to encounter. Here we are at Byron Bay.
The guys kept mentioning how magnificent it was, and I was sure I’d enjoy it. But I Had No Idea. Our hotel is situated in the middle of a subtropical rainforest on a floodplain. There are more wild animals here than in a nature preserve. I have seen egrets, bright blue kingfishers, parrots, giant ravens, bush turkeys, and so many more birds I don’t recognize. Rumors of wallabies and snakes permeate the staff-tourist conversations about the rainforest. Crickets and frogs serenade us at night and birds exotically chirp, squawk, and squeal us awake in the morning. Walking on the wooden footpaths they have constructed right through the middle of the forest you can actually feel the trees. Everything is moving, alive, as if the forest’s breathing is parallel with my own. According to the hotel staff this specific portion of the rainforest was an aboriginal healing ground, where women would come and spend extended lengths of time soaking in the energies of the forest.
The Hotel is constructed so that these wooden footpaths take you through part of the rainforest to your room. When we first arrived it was night-time (keep in mind that it gets dark here around 5:30 PM) so we walked through the screeching forest of crickets and night birds to our “bungalows”. See the picture of how our hotel is constructed, like little clusters of houses. Immediately after putting our luggage down in our very over-the-top "bungalow" rooms (my very favorite bathroom ever!), we went out to explore the darkness of the winding footpaths. Of course it didn’t occur to us to bring a flashlight. I cannot describe to you the darkness. We were out just after the sun had completely set, and just before the moon had risen. Ohhhh blackness! I cannot describe the feeling when you look and in your entire field of vision there is absolutely nothing. The only light I was able to detect were glowing things off to the sides of the footpath. I only assumed they were creatures of the night ready to pounce... (later I found out that there is a type of glowing fungus native to that forest). But to describe the feeling when above, below, and to the sides of you is sheer black, it was like actually floating through space. Our footsteps were very slow since the path was quite winding, and it felt like I was nowhere, in no time; it could have been day, night, before birth, after death; I could have been in Savannah, Antarctica, on the moon, in another universe. By the time we found the gravel walkway to the beach the moon had risen just enough for us to clearly see the fruit bats. Oh what majestic giant flying black creatures of the night! These bats flew from tree to tree sometimes swooping down very close to our heads, sending powerful blows of wind through our ears. We made it to the beach and to our utmost surprise the moon was completely full. The tide was all the way up, forcefully lapping into the "cliffs" it was creating in the sand dunes upon which we stood. It must have been 30 minutes, no, an hour we stood there, maybe more, gazing out into a wild ocean and squinting our eyes at the brightness of the full moon before we turned to go back through the thick, black, alive rainforest.
Such a special moment, I thought it deserved a detailed description. The time we spent at Byron was the best yet. Enjoy these pictures of paradise!
Love, Luci
The hotel
The beach in front of our hotel
The Byron Bay Lighthouse
Sunset on the Pacific
The guys kept mentioning how magnificent it was, and I was sure I’d enjoy it. But I Had No Idea. Our hotel is situated in the middle of a subtropical rainforest on a floodplain. There are more wild animals here than in a nature preserve. I have seen egrets, bright blue kingfishers, parrots, giant ravens, bush turkeys, and so many more birds I don’t recognize. Rumors of wallabies and snakes permeate the staff-tourist conversations about the rainforest. Crickets and frogs serenade us at night and birds exotically chirp, squawk, and squeal us awake in the morning. Walking on the wooden footpaths they have constructed right through the middle of the forest you can actually feel the trees. Everything is moving, alive, as if the forest’s breathing is parallel with my own. According to the hotel staff this specific portion of the rainforest was an aboriginal healing ground, where women would come and spend extended lengths of time soaking in the energies of the forest.
The Hotel is constructed so that these wooden footpaths take you through part of the rainforest to your room. When we first arrived it was night-time (keep in mind that it gets dark here around 5:30 PM) so we walked through the screeching forest of crickets and night birds to our “bungalows”. See the picture of how our hotel is constructed, like little clusters of houses. Immediately after putting our luggage down in our very over-the-top "bungalow" rooms (my very favorite bathroom ever!), we went out to explore the darkness of the winding footpaths. Of course it didn’t occur to us to bring a flashlight. I cannot describe to you the darkness. We were out just after the sun had completely set, and just before the moon had risen. Ohhhh blackness! I cannot describe the feeling when you look and in your entire field of vision there is absolutely nothing. The only light I was able to detect were glowing things off to the sides of the footpath. I only assumed they were creatures of the night ready to pounce... (later I found out that there is a type of glowing fungus native to that forest). But to describe the feeling when above, below, and to the sides of you is sheer black, it was like actually floating through space. Our footsteps were very slow since the path was quite winding, and it felt like I was nowhere, in no time; it could have been day, night, before birth, after death; I could have been in Savannah, Antarctica, on the moon, in another universe. By the time we found the gravel walkway to the beach the moon had risen just enough for us to clearly see the fruit bats. Oh what majestic giant flying black creatures of the night! These bats flew from tree to tree sometimes swooping down very close to our heads, sending powerful blows of wind through our ears. We made it to the beach and to our utmost surprise the moon was completely full. The tide was all the way up, forcefully lapping into the "cliffs" it was creating in the sand dunes upon which we stood. It must have been 30 minutes, no, an hour we stood there, maybe more, gazing out into a wild ocean and squinting our eyes at the brightness of the full moon before we turned to go back through the thick, black, alive rainforest.
Such a special moment, I thought it deserved a detailed description. The time we spent at Byron was the best yet. Enjoy these pictures of paradise!
Love, Luci
The hotel
The beach in front of our hotel
The Byron Bay Lighthouse
Sunset on the Pacific
posted at
1:22 PM
