Hippie towns and the Lost World

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After leaving the mountain villages of Mullumbimby and Burringbar, we traversed around Mount Jerusalem, through rolling hills and lush pasture land and remnant big scrub, where I continue to wage war on the arboric poisonous invaders, the dreaded Camphor Laurel tree. Although such a majestic tree of delightful scent, I cannot sit idly by and let its poisons enter our streams via its toxic berries, truth be known we stopped roadside for a nature break. I could not help but be horrified by the continuing insidious invasion of camphor seedlings springing up roadside, creekside, relatively unchecked, until now.

Enter Bilbo, who is on a mission to restore the balance of native vegetation by removing these unchecked invaders at will, I do realise that in the process i am removing some carbon soaks of tomorrow, therefore I am mindful of restoring carbon balance by collecting native seed and planting it surreptitiously and serendipitously in suitable environs. After peeing and pulling (out weeds, silly!!), we soon arrived in the beautiful hippie village of Uki nestled in the shadows of majestic Wollumbin, (Mount Warning) so named by Capt. Cook as a warning for mariners of nearby coastal Point Danger. We stocked our provisions of food and water, and planned a camp at Mebbin National Park, nestled on the obscure western side of Mount Warning. A large downpour of overnight heavy rain had resulted into quite wet and muddy roads with several creeks fording the road, cautiously we persisted on to eventually arrive at the magic clearing in the immense forest that is the majestic Mebbin camp ground. We were alone, no one else camping, deafening silence of the bush.

There was an inexplicable uneasiness in the wild, lost world of Mebbin. Wollumbin holds very sacred significance to its traditional Bundjulung people,and often we the uninitiated stumble into sacred ground, oblivious of the intrusion into the reverent. I felt something was telling us our presence was not appreciated. The combination of the eerie uneasiness of Mebbin, ominous thunder head clouds hovering over the rainmaker mountain, the flooded roads, all added up to a decision to retreat back to the blacktop and return to Uki, where we had an overnight stay in a creekside park on the outskirts of town.

Morning came and we decided to revisit the nearby ultimate hippie town of Nimbin. The colourful shop facades are only outcoloured by its people, who collectively rainbow their culture through the entire spectrum of new agedness. There seems to be a conflict of hope and despair with the Nimbin experiment into the success or otherwise of alternative cultures. Blindsiding the obvious in ya face drug abuse of a proportionate populus, which could be deliberated as a necessary component of its call to arms for peaceful living, there is an overwhelming brightness and vibrancy in its fabric of culture. that leaves one, when one is leaving, to believe in a bright new hope of living harmoniously with each other, the other 99.9%!o(MISSING)f creation and our spaceship earth in which Nimbin could be regarded as the helm.

If only we knew, being the dominant species of planet Earth, where we are, as a humanitarian society are going.

Hopefully not 'on the road to nowhere'. but maybe there is just too many

talking heads in Nimbin,

if you know what i mean.

Love to all, keep on smiling, even if its only to bring happiness to oneself, all happiness is worth your while,

love Bilbo and Basho

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Photos

The Big Bong
Coffs harbour has the big banana, Nimbin has the "Big Bong"

Nimbins drug alley
can't drink. can deal and mingle and if the cops beat you up, there is recourse nimbin style!