Melissa Jeffcott

I am sure that many people feel that a trip to Byron Bay is life changing.  It could be surfing at The Pass, meditating at a yoga retreat, or dancing with a bunch of fire twirling hippies on the main beach. Byron is definitely one of those places where people come to escape the everyday and experience something out of the ordinary. But for me, my first trip to Byron Bay was spontaneous and life changing in a way I could have never predicted…

In 1991, I was young, footloose and fancy free (I’ve never really been sure why being free of fancy and loose of foot is so good, but anyway I digress). My sister and I had booked a much anticipated holiday to Thailand. We had our passports and visas at the ready, had the flights booked and the cocktails already being shaken in my mind, when the Australian Government issued a strong warning to avoid all non-essential travel to certain countries, including Thailand, due to The Gulf War. We reluctantly and disappointingly cancelled our plans, and I started to look down the barrel of an uneventful summer holiday before heading back to University.  A day or two later our housemate mentioned that her brother was about to drive from Melbourne to Byron Bay, and had a couple of spare seats in his car as his mates had pulled out.
“Where is Byron Bay exactly?” I asked my friend (yes, it may be hard to remember, but once upon a time in the deep dark ages we didn’t have all the information in the world at our fingertips). “I think it is about an hour north of Sydney,” she replied in a casual manner that truly belied the geographical blunder she had just uttered.

With no Gary Google or Sally Siri around to check in with, I took her word for it, and with the careless spontaneity of youth, I chucked a few things in a bag and off we went. Obviously, once we were on the road I saw it was much further than Sydney (thank you road signs- the Google Maps of the Nineties), but it was too late to back out then. The night we finally arrived in Byron, I was exhausted (as only a lazy 20 year old who has sat in a car and done nothing apart from singing out loud to The Cult, could be) and told everyone I would be having a night at home to recover.  Not surprisingly, I was easily convinced to go out for one drink, although I didn’t bother to get changed out of the ‘I’m Wild About Wilderness’ t-shirt that I had been wearing all day (as a side note in the early 90’s I usually sported a dance party/urban raver on a Sportsgirl budget look*, but as a typical 20 year old I had also run out of clean clothes, so just grabbed an old t-shirt to wear at the last minute).

At the Railway Hotel that night, not long after we arrived, I caught sight of a cute long haired hippie/surfie/Jesus lookalike (a winning early 90’s combo if ever there was one) wearing a ‘Youth Alliance for Wilderness’ tie-dyed singlet.  He came up to me and commented that he liked my t-shirt (Yes, it really wasn’t the best pick up line I’d ever heard!)  We got talking about the environment (well, I pretended like I knew what he was talking about), and continued chatting well into the night, eventually discovering how much we had in common.  Within the week, I had ditched my ride home, and we shacked up together in a caravan at Clarks beach (if by some chance my daughters ever read this, this was a very irresponsible thing to do and I do not endorse shacking up with strange men- even if they look like Jesus).  Fast forward twenty four years (OMG) and 3 kids later, and we are still talking, mainly about logistical parenting issues but on occasion about something meaningful. We lead an interesting and happy life together (in no small part due to the fact he got rid of the long hair and tie-dyed singlets many year ago!)  However, sometimes I do wonder- what if I never took that lift to Byron Bay during the Gulf War?

*Yes, it was as bad as it sounds, and thank God this was before Facebook!

What seemingly random encounter or spontaneous event has led to something life changing for you? This is a really fun and interesting way to look back on some of the big events in your life- I’d love to hear some of your stories…