Sunday, October 18, 2009
Memories of Byron
In 1989 at the age of 20 I hitchhiked the 200kms to Byron Bay, Australia from my university town of Toowoomba.
I and my friend Ben were on our way to see Canned Heat. We had about sixty dollars between us and a bag of good dreams. We got to Byron Bay and spent the days hanging out in the park or on the beach. We discovered that the main members of Canned Heat were all dead (Wilson and Hite). As well tickets to see them were thirty dollars each. Way too much for us. So we slept in the park along with a group of art students from Brisbane (among others) and spent our days just hanging out in the street or on the beach. We met a German sitar player named Sangeet, who played in the street and lived in his station wagon. Hours were spent free listening to his drone and tones.
We ate once a day, a vegetarian burger from the same organic cafe at midday. We spent two weeks in Byron, until the money ran out and we hitched home. It was a turning point in my life, I am just not sure in which direction.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I have some great memories of Byron Bay in my youth. I used to go there regularly up to about the mid 90's. I had a great time down there.
I used to love camping out on the beach under the stars. It was so rural you could see the entire Milky Way. The ocean beaches are so clean and nice to swim in. Then you could go into town and just hang somewhere for the day and chat to people. There were markets on regularly around Northern Rivers Shire to visit as well.
I remember one fond night after a big weekend heading home from the markets with a bag full of custard apples and eating them with a pretty girl in the back seat of my huge old Chrysler Valiant.
Post a Comment