Week 47 Byron, Nimbin, Brunswick & Ballina - OZ

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I was determined to see some of the inland areas as I had been told how pretty this region was, so I gave up a day of beach time in Byron Bay for a trip on The Happy Coach to Nimbin, a rather sad little outpost in the hills that probably doesn’t bear much resemblance to the original hippy communes that settled here in 1973 after holding the first Aquarius festival then stayed on, wanting to practise free love and enjoy all kinds of mind altering substances. It has been hailed as the dope capital of Australia (many would argue that is Canberra) but nowadays its a tourist trap with a weird mix of locals, some of whom are normal and are just cashing in on the tourist dollars, some are old stoners who are completely shot and some are new young dealers who will sell you any type of high you desire.

The bus was great, colourful and only half full and Fred our guide was cool. On the way we travelled through the beautiful Nightcap National Park passing steep forest covered hills and rolling pasture land that looked very much like the Peak District in UK - be warned it is a long twisty route that makes you feel fairly travel sick. We stopped briefly at a waterfall and did a very short forest walk then travelled on to Nimbin. On the outskirts Fred stopped the bus to give us some tips and three rules. 1. Don’t take photographs of the dealers selling drugs - they don’t like it. 2. Don’t take photos of the police arresting the dealers - they don’t like it. 3. Don’t use the toilets in the park - you wont like it. After this sage advice we headed into town where the shops are all named with puns about dope or weed, the Hemp Embassy fights for legalisation of cannabis and promotes the Mardi Grass (sic) Festival and we had dealers tapping on our window before we had even parked.

Many of the old stoners had lost their teeth as well as their ability to concentrate so when you saw a few of them sitting together nodding and grinning at you, it felt like the finals of a gurning competition. I wandered into all of the shops but most were selling crystals or dream-catcher type stuff or rainbow coloured clothing, much of it made from hemp, which is not really my thing. There were several places to eat and you could buy normal cookies and brownies as well as the loaded ones, so I grabbed a coffee at a pavement-side table where I could people-watch and spent an amusing half hour seeing how people handled Nimbin.

We had the option of joining Fred after an hour for a BBQ in the park (away from the famous toilets) or staying for an extra hour in town, so I joined half the group for Fred’s yummy sausage sandwiches as we swapped stories of funny sightings of wasted people around the town. Most people had bought hash cookies to take back to their hostel and one young guy had obviously eaten some of his before he got on the bus and was completely spaced after a while and when we stopped at the lookout for an amazing panoramic view of Byron and the coast, stood with his back to it, finding a thorn hedge incredibly fascinating instead.

We drove back via a different route and passed farms growing coffee, macadamia nuts, bananas, mangoes and various citrus fruits. In the town of Lismore Fred pointed out the flood marker in the middle of town that was near the top of a telegraph pole - it floods here badly and regularly. Its also the regions lesbian capital. Our last stop was at a lookout overlooking Byron with a grand view of the lighthouse and the beach. I had enjoyed seeing the area but had been a bit underwhelmed with Nimbin.

I managed to negotiate a good deal to extend my stay in the studio apartment in Byron and even got an extra discount as they had cocked up the TV and satellite, so for 6 days I had the choice of several stations that could be heard sufficiently well to follow but only one that had any kind of picture that you could make a guess at. The rest were complete snow with sound that faded out completely for up to 10 minutes at a time. I pretended it was radio and its surprising how little you need to actually view to appreciate most of the crap that is broadcast. They gave me free wifi as part of the deal which was nice but painfully slow.

The weather stayed perfect with fabulous sunshine and blue sky without a single cloud in the sky for a couple of days, so I ran barefoot along the beach in the early mornings. Well I did in my head. What I actually did was hit the beach for several hours and occasionally went for a gentle stroll and some brief swims. I had more chats with my eccentric neighbour, who worryingly seemed more normal every time I spoke to him. One day was bright but very windy so I attempted an extravagant construction in my sand dune, this one had damp-sand ridges on the windward side above head height and stopped almost all of the blowing sand. I got some funny looks from passers-by when I sat sunbathing in my hole, as they were wrapped up against the chill wind and flying sand, but I was snug, warm and protected from the sand as long as I kept my mouth shut and my sunglasses on. Just as I was packing up to leave some girls politely asked if they could share my dune and so I offered up my new sand/wind-shelter. They were thrilled and argued about who got it first so now I am considering a new career in architecture and construction, specialising in beach buildings. I spent the afternoon chatting to other residents around the pool at the apartments. From Friday the town was much busier as it was the start of the Writers Festival.

I kept trying to organise another tour around the area and ended up speaking daily to two women who run excursions. Eventually one of them (Wendy) must have felt sorry for me and agreed to take me out for a half day trip. After a pleasant drive through some stunning scenery inland and passing views of Mount Warning, Wendy dropped me at the Crystal Castle giving me a couple of hours to explore the grounds, look in their shop and to have a smashing piece of cake and a pot of English tea - my Dad would have loved the cake choice. The gardens were lovely and filled with interesting plants and shrubs as well as huge blocks of crystals and quartz stones. There was an impressive collection of statues scattered through the gardens and some beautiful views across a wide forest-filled valley. The shops sold books about meditation, healing and transforming your life and a wide selection of calming music. You also had the opportunity to buy every colour of crystal known to man, either set as jewellry or whacking great lumps of the stuff. There was a grass labyrinth and a rainforest walk. All very Zen if it hadn’t been for the hoards of screaming kids who were running riot around the place.

We headed back towards the coast via Mullumbimby where many of the alternative therapy retreats are located, then Wendy offered to show me her home town of Brunswick Heads. We visited the marina where all the rich people from Byron moor their boats and then took a walk along a long breakwater where the river meets the sea. The tide was coming in and often dolphins can be seen feeding at the head of the river at sunset, but sadly we didn’t see any. The river is very pretty and the beach is wide and clean. We walked over the little footbridge that crosses the river and chatted to the fishermen who can clearly see their prey in the clear waters. The riverbed is sandy and there were plenty of people kayaking, swimming and just enjoying the start of sunset, which goes down behind the spiky mountains. We passed by the packed pub where local musicians play all afternoon (it was Sunday) and Wendy explained that apart from a couple of caravan parks there was not much budget accommodation so Brunswick Heads had managed to keep itself as a bit of a secret from the normal backpacker route. Its lovely and I wish I could have included a few days staying there but I had already made plans for my next stop.

I had a bit of a bad day on Monday when I left Byron Bay heading for Ballina. Firstly the original bus I was all set to catch was cancelled, leaving me in Byron town with all my bags and 2 hours to kill. I spent some of it in a cafe where they had a mini drama and had to call the police as somebody had broken in overnight and stolen one of their large sofas. I eventually caught Blanche’s Bus, a local service that goes on a long route with many stops but is the best way of seeing more of the little coastal towns. We passed through the south side of Byron following the beaches down to Broken Head before doing a loop through much of Lennox Head and Skenners Head then finally through East Ballina. When I arrived in Ballina I made the mistake of asking a local for directions to my hotel. The daft woman sent me in completely the wrong direction and I walked for several blocks lugging my bags before finding somebody who put me right, then just made it to the hotel before the heavens opened and it started to pour with rain. The hotel was not great either and it was too far from town in the wet to go out for dinner, so I ate in their restaurant, which was OK but expensive. The only thing it had going for it was free high speed broadband, so I spent most of the evening loading all my photographs onto Flickr.

In the morning I changed hotels in a tiny window of calmish weather in the middle of a huge storm which stayed over Ballina for the whole of the day. I braved the rain to go to the RSL Club for lunch but the normally great view of the river was marred by a deluge so heavy that you could not see the opposite bank and winds so high that the rain was horizontal. I got soaked to the skin getting back to my new room. I am sure Ballina is very nice, but I only managed to explore the main street and the river front area.

The weather tomorrow looks pants with an improvement the next day, so I will use the wet time to catch a bus to Coffs Harbour.

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