Woke up early today at 7:30am today as my Nimbin Tour was supposed to be starting at 10am in town. However when I was at the Byron Visitor Centre at 9:30am looking for places to visit tomorrow, I was interested in checking out Crystal Castle. But since the Crystal Castle tour is today at 12:30pm, the counter staff helped me swap my Nimbin Tour to tomorrow.
With about 2.5 hours to spare, I headed off to Byron Main Beach. It was a sunny day, a great day to take photos of the beach and breakwater. Finally I had a chance to use my tripod and ND1024 filters in Australia. Though it was really sunny and hot, I found a shaded bench and parked myself there for more than an hour. Sitting there enjoying the view and people watching, it was pretty relaxing.
Soon it was time to head to the tour. It was a small minibus filled with Australian aunties who were from Sydney. The guide was pretty knowledgeable and friendly. Crystal Castle is a place filled with large imported crystals and a ton of New Age Mumbo Jumbo such as palmistry, auras, meditation and mindfulness. I departed from the guided walk and explored the place on my own instead. I tried to fly my drone to get aerial shots that was better than the brochure but after a while, a visitor came over and asked me if I had permission to fly it as it was disturbing the peace of the place. I kept my drone and roamed around for a while before grabbing a chocolate milkshake at the cafe. The cafe had an awesome view and I enjoyed sitting at the cafe, looking out over the forest.
Once the "Peace Experience" at 3:10pm to 4:00pm was over (I did not join it) , I quickly headed to a deserted corner and set my drone free. Even though people to spot and hear the drone, it was difficult for them to find the drone's controller. Thankfully, I managed to grab a few shots of the place that bettered their brochure!
On the way back to the minibus, I rejoined the group and we spotted a koala all the way up in the tree tops! Pity I could not photograph it as it was too far away. Would have been lovely to see it in front of me! Back in town after the 20minute ride, I dropped off at the main beach and grabbed my dinner at a nearby fish & chips store.
Walking back, I saw that the sky was really clear and I rushed to a nearby unlit carpark and tried to take photographs! Unfortunately after ten minutes, I could not get any photos of the stars and I decided to head to the beach instead. On the way to the beach, I kept wondering if there was any camera setting that I had messed up.
Turns out I had left the lens cap on!!!!
I spent almost 3 hours at the dark and secluded beach capturing the milky way. After seeing it once at Mt Bromo and another time in China, I could recognize the milky way formation easily. In fact, I'm very excited to process the photographs when I'm back home. The beach was so cold that the heat from the camera sensor constantly caused the lens to fog up! Imaging stand in the middle of a dark empty beach with strong waves and wind coming from one side and quiet forest on the other! Quite an eerie and otherworldly experience!
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