Byron Bay

So we were feeling refreshed and ready to take on the next challenge when we decided to take the shuttle to Nimbin.  This place is LEGENDARY.  During the early 70's hippies congregated here for a concert and ever since, Nimbin has become synonymous with counter-culture (by which I mean drugs) alternative living (by which I mean drugs) and colourful local characters (by which I mean drug-dealers).
 
Nimbin itself is an Aboriginal word meaning (I think) "wise old man".  The story was that two giants took a wise old man and imprisoned him, but managed to escape, turning the giants into stone.  The Nimbin stones, just outside the village are VERY impressive and dominate the landscape.  It is said that if you visit them without Aboriginal permission you get sick or have an accident, so it's a bit like going to the Reading Festival really.
 
Nimbin is actually a very small place, the only tourist sites are an art gallery and the Nimbin Museum.  This is more a continuous piece of art - a collage of posters, newspapers, drug artefacts, bits of bicycle and a couple of actual CARS that illustrate the changing face of the alternative culture and Aboriginal rights over the past 30 years.  Then there's the Hemp Embassy, with a big sign above the door saying "Legalise It", and posters, t-shirts and other paraphenalia inside.  All interesting, but I had pretty much seen the whole thing within half an hour.  Then Caro visited the gift shop, at which the following interchange took place:
 
CARO:          (Looking at hash tins)  Maybe we should get one of these for Jim and Mechelle.
SHOP GUY:      Those are five dollars each.
CARO:              Ok.
SHOP GUY:      Or fifteen for a full one.
CARO:              Huh?
SHOP GUY:      I'll fill it for ten.
 
Now at this point I should point out that the guy was off his head and kind of muttering.  The result was that Caro couldn't make out what the hell he was saying (I told her later).  The result was that he seemed to perceive her a cool negotiator, whereas she couldn’t actually figure out what the hell he was saying.  In the end she just smiled and nodded and breezed out, but I was just waiting for him to say, "Okay!  Okay!  Five dollars, but that's my last offer!"
 
That was just the beginning.  We got so many offers for "smoke-o", "cookies" and everything else in Nimbin, because essentially that’s why you go there.  A non-smoker going to Nimbin is akin to a eunuch in a lap-dancing bar.  So everytime we turned around, we were offered drugs.  In shops, walking down the street, crossing the road, from hippie chicks, from guys sitting outside shops, from 10 year old kids.  

Now  I'm not down on grass, but there was a negative vibe to the place.  It wasn’t at all relaxed - there was a tenseness and a desperation in the air.  Odette explained that this is because heroin has taken hold in the town.  "I wouldn't go there after dark," she added.
 
So after an hour, we had seen all we wanted, and given the size of the place, were pleased we had decided to avoid the "Hempalympics" which were to be held that weekend.  It would have been HEAVING - although part of me would quite have liked to witness such events as "speed rolling", "artistic rolling" and "bong throwing".

We reported all this to Odette the next time we saw her.  She was now house-sitting for someone else and was staying in a real mansion of a place.  I made dinner while Caro and Odette relaxed on the veranda, having coffees and luxuriating in the wonderful view to Cape Byron and the lighthouse there.  

Once again, we had a fun night of filthy conversation and watched the Australian version of "Big Brother" which had only been running about a week but already looked a LOT more fun than UK version – Odette reported that they had already had a bit of sneaky hand-job action and were were on the verge of evicting Andy the Randy Brazilian Dominatrix - her husband was interviewed to confirm that, yes, he would be aroused if he saw her shagging someone.  

Odette also took us down to "The Alien Beach" which is a beautiful stretch of seafront and also the place where the most Alien Encounters have taken place in Byron.  It was lovely, but I didn't see anything.  At least, I don't REMEMBER seeing anything...  Coincidence?  I think not.