NEWS # 067
Hi everyone!
I met many crazy people in Byron and must give special mention to a few.
The boys from Birmingham, Stu and his girlfriend Cle, Ruthie, Brian, Will,
Veronica, Kara and especially all the boys from room nine, Jeffery, Martin,
Soeren, Raf and Rhod. I had some great times with all of them and will
certainly see quite a few of them in the future.
Kara, Soeren, Jeffery and I decide to visit Nimbin, said to be the cannabis capital of
Australia and set off early one morning, in search of narcotic nirvana.
Thankfully, drugs have never done it for me but I am curious to visit the
place nonetheless. We head off inland in my car with the music thumping
and pass mile after of macadamia orchards. We arrive in Doonoon, the
macadamia capital and buy half a kilo of shelled nuts for five dollars, less
than two pounds. We munch these as we continue on to Nimbin.
Eventually, we arrive and are rather taken aback by the place's appearance.
It seems stuck in the 70's and only needs Matthews Southern Comfort, to
complete the illusion. We park up and walk up through the High Street. It
seems that everyone has something to sell, be it bud or leaf, cookies or
cake. We are amazed that this is allowed to go on, apparently with the
sanction of the local constabulary.
We arrive at the self styled Nimbin Museum, where you can see how cannabis
has affected local society over the last thirty years. There are several
rooms in the museum, whose walls seem to be made up of bits of old V-Dub
campers.
Opposite is a shop selling about a hundred different types of cigarette
papers and many different pipes, each guaranteed to make your smoking
experience that bit more enlightening and uplifting.
One of the boys buys some cookies and we go in search of some lunch. We find
it nearly next to the museum and I have foccacia, filled with sun dried
tomatoes and cheese and it's really good. There is live music and a girl
singing who sounds great. We relax in the sunshine and listen. As some of
the cookies have been ingested, it's not long before there are broad grins
on some of the faces.
I am not disappointed to leave Nimbin and find it sad that apparently
everyone, from small kids to grannies, seems to derive their income from the
sale of drugs, of one sort or another.
We head for Hanging Rock, following some very dodgy directions and travel
for miles, down an old dirt road. After nearly an hour, we think we have
found the place and park up next to some cars and head off into the bush.
Five minutes of walking brings us to a clearing and a dried up stony
riverbed. We continue along and reach the edge of the rock ledge, which
would be a waterfall in the rainy season. There is a large rock pool, into
which the water flows.
The drop off the ledge is about ten feet and we dive in. The water is great
and very deep and refreshing. Soeren is crazy and continues to leap off
higher and higher ledges, eventually throwing himself off a rope which we
calculate to be about fifty feet above the water.
Seeya,
Halesy
