Australia Day for Non-Australians

Yesterday was Australia Day. It's a country-wide holiday that commemorates the day Capt. James Cook landed in Sydney (I've seen Aboriginals marking it as "Invasion Day"). While the Constitution of Australia came into force on 1 January 1901 (which meant they were a unifed country, not just a set of colonies) that doesn't get much press. Australia Day is the much bigger day.

(On the other hand, do you know that the United States didn't really become the United States until 1789, when we got the constitution we currently have? It's not like we get all excited about that ourselves.)

It's celebrated a bit like our 4th of July. It's a nationwide holiday. Everyone heads to the beach or a BBQ. The Australian flag is everywhere. Well, everywhere on people -- being worn as a cape, on t-shirts and bikinis, as temporary tattoos on faces and body parts. I didn't see it flying as a flag in as nearly as many locations!

It's also the end of the school summer/holiday break (Queensland students went back to school on the 24th; most others go back to school on the 31st). Since the school year runs January - December, this is the beginning of a new school year. So this is also the last "fling" of summer break for students.

So it's a big day out (though there is another day that's officially known as the Big Day Out, though I haven't figured out what that's about yet).

Jeff had the day off and we haven't formally been to an Australian beach yet (not to do beach-like things anyways) so I suggested a road trip. We drove 2 hours south to Byron Bay. It's known for its beach, it's lighthouse, and it's woo-woo vibe. I just had to check it out.

We started at the lighthouse. It was a brilliantly sunny day and hot but not too oppressive. Plus, there was a regular beautiful breeze everywhere. The lighthouse is more than 100 years old and just gorgeous against the blue sky and the blue of Byron Bay. It has a very small visitors center and display area but Barrie -- the volunteer on duty -- had lots of good information about whaling, about lighting the lighthouse, and navigating the coast near here.

More impressive? Barrie and I worked for the same company at the same time! He retired from GE Information Services in the early 90s. I left GEIS in 1996! He was the head of the Australian division; I worked in corporate HQ in Rockville (which he was quite familiar with). That came as a surprise because GEIS was never a large part of the GE empire and I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist any more.

The other thing that Byron Bay has going for it is that the point of land out by the lighthouse is the eastern most point in all of Australia. So, while I stood there I was as close to home as I could get without getting wet or boarding a plane. I thought of all my US family and friends. :)

(Standing on the eastern-most part of Australia.)

We drove down to the center of town to the information center for a map and a place to park. It's a pretty little town. Lots of cafes, shops, restaurants, shopping, pubs, etc. We walked towards the beach, looking for a pub or cafe that actually looked out on the beach. We found one that was quite busy. Bouncers and a BBQ, full of people cruising for a place to sit like a parking lot at Christmas. We scored two bar stools quickly (luckily for the guy on crutches) and had drinks while we gazed the blue of the bay and covertly pondered the Gym Apes leaning awkwardly against the bar.

Byron Bay, like a lot of this part of the country, is quite young. This was a heavily 20-something crowd. All cruising for a drink and/or a pick-up it seemed. Made me glad to be way-the-hell past my 20s!

After finishing our drinks (and feeling guilty about occupying prime seat real estate if we weren't going to keep drinking), we decided to give the beach a try. We'd hoped for a bathhouse where we could change but there was none so we decided to spend our time on the beach in our shorts and t-shirts.

There was a broad swath of parkland between us to the beach and there were as many people hanging out there, cooking out or just having a snooze, as there were on the beach. What was the advantage to the park? Shade. You can't ignore the power of the sun here. Though the day was comfortably in the low 80s, the sun was fierce. You can feel it on your skin in a way you don't usually in DC, even on our hottest days. Skin cancer is rampant in Australia and even the bikini-clad babes were opting for the shade as much as the sun.

Even with crutches (and the sign warning about "blue bottles"), Jeff was game for the sand so we spread our towels and plopped ourselves down, alternating between book-reading and snoozing. Jeff looked up "blue bottles" on his Blackberry -- an Austrlian nickname for the Portugese Man-o-War. They won't kill you but they can make you supremely miserable.

Oh. Well. Yes. Perhaps we will stay close to shore.

Well, OK, we had to wander into the surf a little. Jeff's crutches (and the fact that we weren't wearing our bathing suits) limited our incursion to the ankle-level. The water was warm and full of tiny little blue floating thingys: the blue bottles of the warning I presume. There were about the size of a US nickel, dark blue, with a fringe of tiny tentacles. Apparently, they are the juvenile version. They were actually quite pretty. We avoided them nonetheless.

After a little more time on the beach, we gathered up our gear and went in search of some dinner. There were some tempting take-away (carry-out) places but Jeff wanted to sit down. Quite a few places were closed which is surprising for a major holiday in a tourist town until you remember that the owners have to pay a holiday-bonus rate to their employees. For smaller restaurants, it's cheaper to just close for the day.

We ended up at a sushi-go-round restaurant, which I enjoy. Sushi is never cheap but I really have to watch myself at sushi-go-rounds. All you have to do is snag a plate as it goes by if it catches your eye. The plates have a ring of color around them that tells you how much each plate costs. The prices ranged from $2.50 - $6 per plate.

It didn't take me long to accumulate a nice little stack of plates next to me (organized by color, natch, which gave the waitress a smile when she came around to write up our check). The food was excellent so we were glad for the choice.

Our car was parked next to a small park where a band was entertaining a small crowd, maybe 2 dozen people, and hosting a free BBQ. They also introduced themselves as we walked by -- 5 Americans and one Kiwi. That got a few murmured comments from the crowd about it being Australia Day but no one felt strongly enough to leave.

We drove home and yours truly was in bed by 8:30. With no sunburn! We call that a successful day.