Back in the land of the Beautiful!

I'm back in Byron Bay for a weekend of laying on the beach after four weeks of farm work. I was supposed to head here for the weekend with my three tentmates, only to have both cars breakdown within two days of each other. This left me without a ride to Byron and four days off before my flight to Melbourne. As anyone who has ever been to Stanthorpe knows, you don't want days off in Stanthorpe. It can only lead to boredom or bad news. I discovered after two and a half weeks with the guys that they all seem to have drinking issues, one in particular in a big way. Which means it was a good thing that I wouldn't be with them in Byron Bay where their alcoholism could cause some problems in proper civilization. Aside from many nights of being woken up by one, two or three drunken entrances to the tent, tripping over bottles on the way out of bed, finding beer spilled on my things, bottle caps in my bag, broken sunglasses, a purse that someone had been sick on (and not mentioned to me), and just the general reek of guys who have been drinking and working in confined quarters, I needed some time away. To be honest I have a love of bags and purses, so when I found out that someone had ruined my purse it was a blessing in disguise as now I had a valid excuse to go shopping for a new one. Sad I know, but it made my day.

My last day of work I still had no bus ticket, or hostel booked and didn't want to book anything, just in case, but at the same time I was getting a bit anxious. As it happened that night at midnight I was sitting around a campfire with two guys from the campground when another came up and asked who wanted to head to Nimbin the next morning. Nimbin is a town 45 minutes north-west of Byron Bay. He agreed to drop me off in Byron Bay, noting that since we were driving for three hours, 45 minutes made little difference.

Our drive through the hills of Northern NSW.

The above picture is the main street of Nimbin, colourfully decked out.

So here I am! I spent the first night with Elin and am now staying in a hostel until Monday when I head to Brisbane.

This is the BBQ that Elin, her roommates and I had my first night in. It was also their last night in their house. They leave Byron Bay this Monday as well.

I'm starting to feel that 7 months in the country isn't nearly enough, but will have to do since I am expected home in September.

This week Mom and I will be checking out Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, Adelaide and whatever else we see in between! I can hardly wait! After driving around the countryside it seems that by road is really the only way to see this country. The freedom it gives you cannot be found in bus routes. And if I had to plan out this trip in advance I would have missed out on a lot of things that have popped up unexpectedly.