Byron Bay,
Australia
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Yesterday was unbelievable. A surreal experience. We woke up and myself, Dylan, and this real cool Canadian dude named Jeff loaded up the surfboards and headed south to Lennox Heads for a surf. The sky was a little grey and it was a little windy outside...foreboding. We pulled up at the beach at Lennox, put on the wetties and walked towards the beach when all of a sudden some old lady stops Dylan and says: "I wouldn't go surfing if I were you." Dylan is amused and asks why. She replies, "Because there are sharks here, heaps of them, and they've been around for the past 2 days." We decide to go surfing anyways...Dylan says, "To hell with it! Let's go surfing." and we conitnue walking towards the beach when all of a sudden...wham!! I look out into the ocean, just off the beach (where a father is teaching his son to surf) and see nearly 20 giant fins circling and birds diving and fish jumping! A feeding frenzy! Giant sharks...probably great whites...they are everywhere! To hell with surfing! We watch in amazement and then pack up the boards and head further south to a place recommended to us by some locals...We pull up 10 minutes later at Flat Rock beach. The waves looked tasty and big so I paddled out with Dylan and Jeff...there were no other surfers out there but we didn't care. I was way out there catching a few of the bigger sets and I grew tired and paddled in ...Dylan and Jeff were 30 or 40 metres down the beach in head high water when all of a sudden...Shark!!! Dylan is swimming and running as fast as he can towards the shore. Jeff catches some white water and darts into shore running up the sand and pointing out to sea. A father lifts his kid up above his head and runs from the water (ending the family day at the beach)...I get out of the water and we all stand there watching this 6-7 foot Bull shark swim in 2-3 feet of water, circling in the waves looking for a meal. We were nearly on the menu. This thing just hung around and swam thru the water real close to the shore...an amazing thing to see...like watching shark week but real. Bulls are known for coming in real close and attacking in murkey water - they are the most dangerous shark to humans, responsible for the most attacks and aggresive behaviour. These things even eat their own babies.
So we walk back to the car and are stopped by a few locals who told us that it was definitely a shark and that thousands of em' live in the area and that attacks are not uncommon. Made us feel real good. No wonder nobody else was in the water (minus the kid and his dad). One local says "yeah, there are thousands of em out there...but at least its not like dying in a car crash. You'll at least be remembered." Aussies are crazy.
So we drive back towards Byron Bay stopping at a lookout to watch giant whales breaching and jumping...truely amazing. Then we head to the bottle shop to have a few beers in celebration of being alive. Then we headed back to Byron Bay and went surfing til' nearly dark. haha. Sharks aren't going to keep us out of the water.
A close call, that makes for a great story over beers.
