I finally got a good night sleep in the small 4 bed dorm, mainly because of the fact I was genuinely tired after the night bus and the hostel by the road before. Despite the very high amount of backpackers in Byron with it's nightlife tailored towards these people it is still a really quiet and peaceful place. I got up early this morning to follow the Saints game which kicked off at 6.45. It was frustrating however because the common room which had the channel which aired the game live didn't open until 7.30.
I therefore went down the local Woolworths supermarket and bought lots a fruit, and also wafers for breakfast. This led to me sitting down on a bench in town where I knew I could get free WiFi constantly refreshing my twitter feed for updates. It was then back to the hostel and it turned out there was a Hull fan in attendance which you tell by his accent! We watched the 2nd half together and luckily I was the one with bragging rights by the end!
Today I treated myself to another tour simply entitled "Nimbin". When booking this tour I didn't really know much about it other than Nimbin was a colourful place. I also didn't realise that the tour was a full day which was an added bonus for me! I knew more about it after talking to people in Sydney though! After being instructed to meet at 10, this old bus turned up painted in rainbow colours and booming with music to give us a lift to the small town. We then followed these country roads full of potholes, stopping off via an outback bar, to the edge of the town. I still don't really understand the full history of Nimbin, but as far as I can make out aboriginals moved here with the belief that things like cannabis should be legal. It was here our scruffy looking guide joked about the weed and cookies sold in Nimbin, and also the fact that it was illegal in New South Wales, winking whilst saying it.
We then entered the town to this aboriginal music about marijuana before stopping at the end of this colourful street. We were given an hour and a half here to look round. All in all there were these quirky little shops and cafes, and also this museum which baffled me as it had so much going on like chopped in half camper vans and the Mona Lisa smoking weed. Nimbin was the kind of place which took half an hour to look round and you come to end of the street and you're like "wow". The thing that got me however was the fact people were selling weed and cookies in the street, making it so obvious who it was because they were aboriginal, yet the local police were just letting people including people from my tour group buy this stuff! It will be interesting to read into this small town in more detail when I get home, the whole experience was a complete culture shock for me.
After leaving the town we headed off to Rous Water, going via another outback bar where I opted for a couple of local beers. I got a local one from Byron Bay called Stone Wood, and also a Tooheys. After driving through more remote country roads and heading upwards, we arrived at the country park ready for a bbq lunch. The area included a large lake and a dam, surrounded by woodland which made it a brilliant area for lunch. I forgot to mention that I bumped into someone from the Blue Mountains on this tour amongst the group. We then all tucked into burgers and at last proper sausages compared to what I ate in Thailand, although we were joined by this large lizard. I keep seeing lizards everywhere out here. I forgot to mention I bumped into one whilst walking to Cape Byron yesterday.
After finishing lunch we headed off along this very bumpy dirt track into the rainforest to visit the Minyon falls. It has been so dry in Australia that the flow off here has now stopped, so we were left with this damp cliff overlooking the dense rainforest below. Listed as 100m, apparently an abseiler once took this literally and took 100m of rope and found himself dangling about 20m from the bottom whilst trying to abseil it! On our way back to the minibus we picked up two extra passengers who had got stranded here!
We arrived back in Byron by 6 after an interesting ride home with a few people high on marijuana from the cookies. From here I spent some time on the computer in the hostel, before heading into town for dinner which was one of them supermarket meals after our late lunch. It was then time to relax in my room. A lot of people have come out here to drink, but I don't really want to do that too often out here as I want to try and do as many tours as possible!
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