Today's adventure was all about exploring the area around where we live: the gold coast. After renting a car we drove (on the left side of the road) all the way into the mountains for a tree top walk...which are apparently quite abundant in Australia. This walkway was rickety and old, made from wooden planks and resting 20m above the forest floor. Each plank had a small plaque with the name of one of the original patrons on it. Signs hung warning: only 6 people per span. This walkway was more yielding than the others I had found: it bounced and swayed under my weight, creaking slightly with each step. Old metal ladders climbed up a particularly huge tree and allowed visitors to scamper up for a better view.After the treetop-walk, we sat down to eat at a picnic table nestled in a shady grove. Andrea's Belgian boyfriend (Mathieu) began to feed a particularly brave bird with a puffy yellow chest and black eyes. He marveled at how cute it was and ignored my declaration of it as a soulless, flying stomach. A moment later, there was a rustling in the bushes and a large male bush turkey burst out; his yellow wattle flapped with each step as he hopped onto the table and advanced towards our sandwiches. Now, Andrea is no fan of birds and she explained this to the turkey by standing on her bench and screaming at it while Mathieu and I waved and kicked it away. We were distracted with this persistent fellow when Andrea screamed again and pointed to the trees. 10 more birds sat watching the scene with their inky, hungry eyes. Just as I assured her the birds were harmless (and the male bush turkey made a frantic charge at a female who was trying to get in on the action) another yellow bird dove out of the trees and swooped down at Andrea, missing her head by inches. It was at this point that my lovely roommate made the calm and sensible decision to shriek and run for a more distant table; Mathieu and I gathered the picnic and followed after her, laughing. Within seconds of arriving at the new table, our bird-ish entorage was back. We all decide that eating in the car would be the wisest move and packed up once more. Refusing to be rattled by the birds, I kept the Doritos with me and stuffed one in my mouth as we began walking. Suddenly the world was a blur of yellow! The same bird that had swooped at Andrea was flying straight at my face trying to snag the Dorito from my mouth! Claws + beak + my face = increased motivation. I turned away from the bird and quickly ate the chip, then we all ran back to the rental car and finished lunch there.
You might be amazed by it, but we were still up for more fun after that. So we drove down the coast to Byron Bay: a place famous for its beauty and for being the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. It felt like stepping into a fairy-tale coastline! Steep ocean-side paths curved out of sight, dolphins were surfing the waves below, and a picturesque lighthouse watched over the whole scene. We wandered down to the official most-easterly point and then cut off to the beach for the sun set. The light was so bright on the bay waters that it looked like a 
field of snow to my eyes! On the beach there were odd designs in the sand, looking like flowers made of sand balls. My theory is that they were the work of sand crabs; but no matter how many of them I followed I never caught them in the act!The sun set was lovely and everything around me was beautiful...but the thing that struck me most was that Byron Bay was the closest I had been to home in 4 months! I must admit I have grown homesick for the States: family, friends, accents, food, I even miss the US's more familiar form of bureacracy! Such a sucker, really. But! I'm flying home on October 1st...so not much longer to go at all.
*If I look grumpy in this photo it's because I had to climb all those quaint stairs to get there!
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