Bellingen, Australia

After our morning jog we got back on the Australian road. Our first destination was the fine town of Nimbin, Australia. Like some of our previous destinations Nimbin was recommended to us by Australians. Nimbin was described as a cool hippy town with a laid back feel. Nimbin turned out to be a town where old stoners go to die. The town itself is only a few blocks long with not much to it. We got there around lunch time and tried to find a place to grab a bite. The town is without a single restaurant. In place of restaurants, Nimbin has the Hemp Museum, Nimbin Hemp Embassy and a multitude of smoke shops. There were tons of young tourists in town, but all the residents appeared to be 60 or older. I've had a lot of interesting people offer me drugs in my life (fellow students, bosses, and the occasional unnamed relative), but having a 70 year old grandma offer me marijuana takes the (space)cake. Making the situation worse, 70 year olds who spend their whole adult life doing drugs and sitting in the Australian sun don't age too well. We didn't spend too much time in Nimbin.

We B-lined it back to the coast after our Nimbin experience. We drove along the coast making the occasional stop at a beach. At one point we were driving along a large sand dune to the left of us for miles. We thought the ocean was next to us so we pulled off and hiked (bushwalked) over the dune. On the other side of the dune was a great beach that ran for as far as the eye could see. And as far as the eye could was not a sole but the two of us. This incredible beach was completely vacant. It was incredible.

We got back on the road after a quick dip in the water and headed to Bellingen. Bellingen had a didgeridoo store that we wanted to stop at and perhaps buy a didgeridoo. We got into the mighty metropolis of Bellingen (population 2721) around 6:30pm, just in time for the store to close. While in the town we noticed that a band would be playing and the town looked kind of cool, so we decided to camp out there. We pitched our $50 beach tent and hit the town. For a tiny town, Bellingen knows how to rock. The bar next to our campsite was busy all night and the band that was playing across town was pretty good too. While we were out partying it rained about an inch. We got back to our tent to discover a huge puddle in it. We also had a large green visitor. Luckily, the Youth Hostel we were camping in had a room available.

The following morning we checked out the Bellingen Market. Again, for a tiny town Bellingen can put it together. This little town had a large craft and farmers' market that provided us with some nice Christmas presents. After a quick tour of the market we headed out of town. The didgeridoo store that we came to Bellingen for ended up being a dud, but the town of Bellingen was a great little stop.