Byron Bay

Hello friends,
Here few random thoughts about Byron Bay, north of Sydney: you can still see what this place was about in the late 70's; glimpses of a lifestyle based on alternative thinking, environmental consciousness, and eastern philosophies can still be found in the faces of who has been living here since the mid-sixties, although, in the past 20 years, the real estate skyrocketed and rental followed as usual; the rich came and the hippies gradually got kicked out. Money can maybe buy the image, but we are talking about an empty shell. If you ask me how Byron Bay looks nowadays, I would say "Del Mar meets Leucadia/Ocean Beach!”. Elegant boutiques will lure you to try a journey to self realization; they will invite you to a workshop such as " a world in transition: finding spiritual security in time of change" or "Inner peace: how to be calmly active and actively calm". Bottom line is that you will have to pay $ 2.99 for 4 leaves of lettuce and $ 2.50 for a microscopic slice of vegetarian pizza! General services will cost you a fortune as well. If marketing rules the world…..well, at least here it is coated with slogans such as "Love to all beings and thank you for shopping here", and the car in front of you will show a sticker saying "Practice acts of random kindness"; fortunately the hippies won few battles and their legacy holds on: the city code doesn't allow to build tall condos and Club Med has been refused to settle here. Best of all, from a surfer's perspective, waves are still flawless as 30 years ago, when Nat Young fell in love with this place; the region is going through one of the worse flat spells in ten years and it could be hard to believe these places are great, but it is true: Lennox Head, Tallows, Broken Head and Angourie are amazing spots. I usually surf every morning, at dawn, knee high waves in 78 F. turquoise water. I'm just waiting for bigger waves. The scenery is breathtaking; the lush tropical forest meets the surf and everything feels all right. So far this is a great place to be in; it is charming, there's a good vibe, plants are beautiful and you can still see a lot of wildlife roaming around.