Byron, Day 4

We figured we needed a change from the beach on our last day in Byron and heard of a tour called "Jim's Alternative Tours" that was...uh...interesting. A bus picked us up at our B&B around 10:30 and we joined 30 people, all were under 25 years old, for a day tour of the rainforest and a hippie town called Nimbin.

Picture of the bus, which we were told has been operating since the 1960's.

When we picked up the final group from a hostel behind our B&B Steven noticed a sign indicating an Australian National Park Reserve, for a swamp. No wonder we are getting eaten alive by mosquitos, our B&B backs up to a swamp. :/

The ride began with a rain storm that cleared up as the ride continued. We journeyed through the local hills and made it to the Nimbin just after noon. This place truly had been left in the late 70’s and embraced everything about hemp. It became obvious that most of our traveling companions had come along for the ride for the sole purpose of acquiring some form of marijuana as this was all they were talking about. It was offered to us a few times but as long as you politely refused, it was not an issue. It was quite amazing to see a town that was so open about providing drugs to anyone and the police didn’t bother to do anything about it.

We saw one police car drive through town without thinking of stopping. We did have a good lunch in town and enjoyed a beer...you can basically see the entire one-block town in about 15 minutes, our tour allowed for an hour and 45 minutes, so we were a bit bored after 10 minutes.

After boarding the bus again, we drove through more hills and rainforest, again it was amazing scenery.

Our next stop was at a hippie’s house, Paul Recher, originally from Long Island, NY, who built his own botanical garden. It was an interesting stop but definitely not necessary. Steven got an earful after Paul found out we were American - he proceeded to tell us how the U.S. is backwards and Americans are uneducated. Some points couldn’t be argued, but he basically wanted to get away from the chatterbox.

Our last stop was the Minyon Falls, at least 150 feet high, looking out over the valley and just enjoying being in nature away from everything else in life. Although the day started off with bad weather and questionable companions, the weather ended on a beautiful note and our friends from the local hostels were great company.

We finished the evening with some conversation with some new guests at the B&B, from the San Francisco area, and packing to prepare to leave tomorrow.