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The Coach
Here is Jim's Alternative Bus. I’m not sure where to begin on this one. Despite all the stories I had heard about this place, nothing could prepare me for the day’s events. We started at 10am at the corner across from my hostel in from of Cheeky Monkey’s (nightclub). I was booked to go on Jim’s Alternative Tour to Nimbin Australia. I had a free voucher for the 35 dollar tour so I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Like I’ve said in previous blog entries, “free” is music to my ears. So Jim came rolling up about 5 after ten in his 36 seat tour bus. I forgot to take a photograph of the bus but I’ll try and get one tomorrow when he comes by to pick up the next curious travelers. It was painted with rainbow colored stripes. Very cool. He picked us up and informed us that we were going to have a full coach. We made a few stops to get everyone and then we were heading West to Nimbin. Jim’s bus had a great sound system in it that I must say he was obsessed with. He had put together a soundtrack that took us from start to finish. Each
Typical Nimbin
The nimbin museum is a wierd and wacky place. Here is a shot from the outside. song had a story that went along with it. To make things even more interesting, each story told corresponded to a place we were driving through, or some deep message he was trying to convey to us. Jim rocks!!!!!
Now Nimbin is known worldwide as the Marijuana capitol of Australia. While possession of pot is illegal, the police tolerate it. Nimbin consists really of one street which you see in the photographs. Its not very long and at every corner there are people trying to sell you pot or old women trying to sell you special baked goods. While this is the main attraction for most travelers, I was most interested to see what kind of people had settled down in this town. From what I had heard the people that live here are all ex Byron Bay residents. As Byron Bay has been more and more commercialized many of the hippies from the 70’s who used to live here have ventured out to Nimbin. Safe to say that I was not disappointed by the people I met on the tour. The locals were very nice and welcoming and had radical views of the world. I couldn’t go
Inside the Museum
Thought I would give you a recent photo of myself. As you can see I got a haircut. It is too short. Might as well have cut it myself....buzzzzzzzz. into a store without some stoned out employee telling me the secret to life, or at least why George Bush and the US are poisoning the world. For the most part I just kept my mouth shut so as not to give away my country of origin.
While Nimbin was fun and interesting, the tour had to go on and we had ourselves about a 3 hour drive back to Byron Bay through Nightcap National Park. This was absolutely breathtaking. Real Indiana Jones stuff. I felt like I could have been deep in an African Jungle. Along the way we stopped off at Minyon Falls to take in a very nice view of the Australian Countryside. The falls are about 115 meters high. We were looking right off the edge. The pictures didn’t come out that well but my mental picture won’t fade anytime soon.
But the best part of the day was yet to come. Jim’s long time friend, Mr. Paul, is an American. He is from New York and came out to Oz many years back when he dodged the Vietnam draft. He has been here ever since. When he arrived he purchased 80 acres of
More Museum
Thats Aaron. He's Welch and I hung with him and his buddy Rich for a few days. They were good dudes, great accents. land, 40 of which he has devoted to regenerating the rainforest, and the other 40 acres is his self created jungle. Every plant on this land was planted by his own hands. He has build a house to live in and a second house down by his pond. He grows all sorts of fruits and nuts and spices. His land has been recognized by the Australian government as a certified botanical garden. One of the most interesting fellows I’ve met yet in Australia. He had some really interesting insight into the world.
About 45 minutes after we left Paul’s place we were back in Byron Bay and the tour was over. Not soon to be forgotten…
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