Dave and Jen For Oxfam

If you have kept up with our posts about training rides you might notice the amount of times the word “rain” has washed across your screen. Living in our home city of Brisbane, Australia, ensures us the kind of weather our home state of Queensland is famous for. Or “infamous for” if you aren’t a fan of the heat. Once again rain threatened to drip through our helmets and down to our madly spinning tires as we spent another training session under a collection of clouds. So much so that I could be forgiven for saying something cheesy like “we put the raining in training”. But I won’t, because it’s more interesting to read what we did in Byron Bay, despite the weather.

Byron Bay is many things to many people. If you ask most people what the history of the township is, they would likely respond that it was a small hippy township in the 1960’s or 70’s. If you ask them what it has become now the answer would range from a hippy hang out, alternative lifestyle township, yuppie weekend getaway, stoned backpacker Summer destination or just a typical commercialised sea side city. In that regards, they are all correct. As for the history, well that’s a little surprising. There’s no denying the influx of what we can peacefully call hippies in the 1970’s was a major contributor to the perceived image of Byron Bay, but the regional history for diary, meat and whaling isn’t often as discussed. I can only assume the warehouse ruins I used to marvel at near Belongil a few years ago, which are now completely bulldozed and cleared, were some remains of the whaling sheds cited to be in that area. For those interested there are some notes on the history here and here. The reason I mention this in a training post is that Jen and I have had some adventures down this way that are completely different each time. From attending Splendour In The Grass festival to simply ending up on the beach at 4am talking to backpackers and swapping travel stories, it’s a unique place. It seemed a good idea to head down there and tackle the famous lighthouse as a training ride. We didn’t consult the weather channel.

Before we hit the highway however, we had a few chores to run. The first was a visit to Brisbane’s first Crumpler outlet, which is the very funky store with the very funky bags. Whilst I’m not too endeared with the word funky, it’s probably about as neat a summation of the quirky, bizarre, amazing and creative bag company as one might come up with. Crumpler are cited as stemming from bicycle messengers making their own bags, and have blossomed into a world famous company designing incredible backpacks, messenger bags, camera bags and all sorts of bag like goodies. We were very excited to talk with Crumpler about sponsoring us for the Oxfam Cambodia Challenge for 2008 and they were very excited to do so. About as excited as Jen and myself running into the store to hassle Shannon for some new bags to test out. Kids in a candy store. Dumping all my gadgets out on the counter we managed to squeeze into a Soupansalad with ease and I spent a few minutes getting my head around the clever fasteners. We’ll have some more exciting Crumpler news in a few weeks but we thanked the Crumplorz (my just-made-up-name for them) for their help and hit the highway in earnest.

The further south we got, the more the clouds crept into the frame. By the time we checked in to our accommodation, the first drops of rain were dropping down. By the time we got the bikes ready and hit the road, it was raining proper. We rode through the small township into the late afternoon and worked up a hunger, before reluctantly heading back to the room, stowing the bikes and strolling back into town for dinner. We settled in at Byron Orion Curry House with its very cosy interior of dark wood and padded red walls. Many reading this now would be thinking we were crazy to eat there, and the internet has a fair bit of condemnation and bad reviews for the restaurant. Despite this, we were in the mood for a curry and a curry we had. Admittedly a watered down Tiki Masala from a planet where chickens are close to extinction, but the organic lamb was nice. You can’t really get upset at a prime positions tourist trap restaurant in a hip township with its own identity issues that is staffed by bored backpackers. Well, you can, but you shouldn’t. Of course it’s overpriced and of course it’s not authentic, but it’s never going to be Brick Lane or even New Farm. Making the most of the mass of food in front of us, we ate and ate until Jen sat watching me eat and eat and eat and, basically eat. Normally we eat at Beach Hotel itself, which surprisingly has yielded some creative and delicious menus, but a curry must when a curry is want. Even a curry that is judged as wanting.

For those who don’t find lengthy essays on meals interesting I will leave the topic with a truly fascination parting comment that our Eggs Benedict in the morning were delicious, thank you very much. On the topic of riding (in a Training post?? No way!) we happily hit the bikes and pedalled across the railway tracks into the town again, riding down the beach to warm up. With legs ready to rock, we pulled out towards the lighthouse and discovered the ride there is a lot shorter than we actually thought. Soon enough we have pedalled with ease up the steep approach and ride right around the lighthouse itself. All too soon we tapped brakes to pull up and gaze out over the beautiful bay. We take photos, film some video and get ready to ride away, before noticing a pod of whales playing below. Whilst the whaling station is long gone and without a trace to my knowledge, the days of steeply declining whale numbers are gone with it. Even from our high and distant vantage we can’t help but smile at the ridiculously large and playful leaps and slaps on display. There is no clever explanation needed for the brilliance of such a sight, and we linger long enough to feel our legs go cold and nudge each other into action again.

Continuing the ride down and around, we head over to Belongil and find a deserted stretch of dead end road with the odd cement overhand to practice some technical riding. We spend some time between determined frowns and self effacing laughs as we practice monos, wheelies, bunny hops, jumps, braking, balance and technical pops. In short, we are terrible. At length, we must head to the car and depart, finding our way back north with Squishy acting as GPS. With the recent rains in a typically beautiful selection of rolling hills and sudden mountains comes a renewed intensity to the greenery and we don’t doubt for a second why hippies, movie stars, rock gods and organic producers wish to claim a corner of this playground for themselves. As for us, it’s the city we yearn for and all the hustle and bustle that Brisbane can offer. That’s not a lot of hustle. And not a lot of bustle. Certainly not much compared to Ho Chi Min, which we will be riding through in 3 weeks! Argh! Until then, please help us continue to progress towards our fundraising targets!

Check our FlickR Gallery for Byron Bay training photos.