“Innocent but still a little wild child”- November 21, 2019
I slept just about 12 hours last night. TWELVE HOURS!! I cannot tell you how much I needed that. While I probably could have slept a few more if my alarm didn’t go off, I felt good. Refreshed and ready for the Grasshoppers Nimbin tour. Unfortunately the terrible wild fires have forced the company to alter the plan for the day. We can no longer have lunch at the Rocky Creek Dam and we are also not able to access the Minyon Falls, but I’m still excited about what the day will have in store.
Waiting for the grasshopper tour bus, I realize I have a few spare minutes and decided to order a takeaway coffee. It was taking forever! The bus came before the latte was made but I really needed that coffee. I ask Elle to walk really slowly to the bus so I can wait a few more minutes. I’m not sure if she did but thankfully the bus was was still there when I got there, coffee in hand. Elle sat in the front seat. The bus driver/tour guide named Jim warns he is going to drive with the door open, in case she wants to move seats. She doesn’t so he asks her nicely not to fall out of the bus. We quickly learned that Jim was a bit crazy and up for anything. He stopped the bus on the side of a road of what used to be a main highway but is now nothing of the sort and told us hilarious stories from the 20+ years he’s been doing this kind of tour. Including one about leaving a police officer who was on his bachelor party drunk, high and naked on the side of said road and drove the rest of his groomsmen back home.
Our first stop was Etham hotel to pick up some drinks for the road. I went for CC and Dry and introduced three Swedes who had just arrived in Australia to one of Australia’s finest canned mixed drinks. They were extremely overpriced as usual but delicious and just what I wanted on this hot day while driving in a non air-conditioned bus.
Just a bit longer drive and we got to Nimbin. Oh my gosh, was it colorful. I loved it! All the stores filled with magic stones, hippy/ boho clothes and of course marijuana and accessories. After walking through a few stores and falling in love with just about every pair of pants and every dress we decided it was time to pick up “the goods”. I’m not a drug person. I smoked pot one time when I was 17 and then ate some weed macaroons again when I was 27 and in Amsterdam. But when in Rome I thought… so I chipped in with a few others on the bus. 6 cookies for $30 from the paranoid lady who ran the art gallery.
After visiting a few more stores, we decided it was time to give these magic cookies a try. They did not look appetizing but were delicious! Shortbread with a hint of grass. I wanted to keep eating it but was warned to only start with a half, so I restrained. After visiting a few more shops and watching a bit of a psychic reading while sitting on the most colorful bench, it was time to get back on the bus and head to Coronation park in Lismore for lunch.
Jim needed some help preparing lunch so I offered to help chop the veggies for the salad and burgers and the watermelon. The knife he gave me to use was amazing! Quite possibly the best one I’ve ever used. I loved it and could sit there chopping all day (#cookingnerd). After chopping, I still didn’t feel any different and it had been over an hour so I decided to eat some more of the cookie. We sat around eating vegeburgers, sausages, drinking, and smoking the weed people had just purchased. Unbeknownst to them, they were sold the hydro strand which Jim warned is super strong and recommended everyone tread carefully when smoking it. After still feeling no different from the cookie, I decided to take one hit of the bowl being passed around. Again… when in rome. Everyone was giving me tips and tricks for how to light it and inhale properly. I felt like a naive child as everyone laughed at my inability to do this task most of them had mastered back in high school. In the end, I held the bowl while someone lit it for me and instructed when to inhale and release. I coughed, chocking on the toxins as I tried to play it cool. Okay. “I did it. Now, I sit and wait for any type of feeling” I thought to myself.
Still nothing. I give up on this stupid getting high shit. Once again, I prove to myself, it’s just not my thing, and I’m perfectly okay with that. We cleaned up our lunch and back onto the rainbow bus we go. Our 3rd and final stop was Brunswick Heads for people to swim, walk the town and just relax. I’m pretty sure the only one who actually went into the water was Jim. He is nuts. I put just my feet in and I was freezing. But it was beautiful. I think if it was a bit earlier in the day when the sun was scorching hot we all would have been in. But it was 5:00 pm, we were only staying for about 30 minutes and it had already begun to cool down.
After we got home, we showered then went downstairs for some drinks at the picnic tables. Once we had all drank enough to keep our bank accounts at least semi intact, we began the 15 minute walk to town, each with a roadie in hand. We were going to Lacure for some dudes 40th birthday. I had no idea who he was and I never met him before but I’m almost always onboard for a celebration.
Before arriving at the bar, we ran into some hippies playing music down an alleyway. We decided to join them and popped a squat.
That was by far my favorite part of the night. They have such a unique mindset that I truly admire and the community they create is second to none. We sat there for a while listening to them play and share their love with the world around them. They even let me try out the unique drum like instrument. I had seen the man who’s Instrument it was playing outside woolies yesterday. He made it look so easy and rhythmic. I could barely get a sound to come out and the movement of my fingers looked like I had just been stung by a been on one of them; sporadic and injured. After trying for a bit I gave up. I had to admit to myself yet again that while I’m good at a lot of things, playing this instrument was not one of them, being a hippy, is not one of them.
Catch me if you can…
Jo Mo