Day 250
Monday
4 September 2017 –
Casino – Nimbin – Minyon Falls
We woke to a lovely clear and sunny day before staying in
bed to read for a while. We eventually crawled out and cleaned ourselves up
before deciding to head across to the café for a breakfast of pancakes. We were
glad that we did, as they were yummy.
We stopped in at the book exchange, so that Paul could
change over a number of books and then returned to the car, gathered our things
and made our way towards the hippie town of Nimbin. Along the way, Scott’s mum,
Cheryl phoned to check in on us. She was surprised to hear we were yet to reach
their place, as I explained we had made a deviation. Hopefully it will mean we
will get to catch up with them after all.
As we neared the town, we could see some large rock
structures dominating the skyline. A lookout further along the road allowed us
to stop and check out the Nimbin Rocks and the national park behind it.
We continued the drive for a short distance, finally
arriving in Nimbin. We parked in the main street and proceeded to walk down the
colourful sidewalk. Nimbin became well know after the Age of Aquarius festival
in 1973. Hippies came from all over the country and many opted to stay. It was
amusing that you could walk down the street and smell them before you saw them,
they could do with a damn good wash!
Of course Nimbin is also known for its liberal views of
cannabis and this was very evident within the buildings that lined the streets
with their signage, posters and flags. Rainbow patterns and colours are
everywhere along with the red, yellow and green associated with Bob Marley.
After completing a walk up and down both sides of the
street, we returned to the car, set the GPS for Minyon Falls and continued on
our journey. Minyon Falls is part of the Nightcap National Park. It took a
little while to finally arrive there navigating the dirt roads but we
eventually located the car park.
We took our lunch things to a picnic table and ate our lunch
within the serene bush setting, listening to the rustling of the leaves around
us. Eventually a small monitor lizard appeared and made itself at home in the
sun.
After finishing our lunch, we followed the 50m path to the
falls, but were disappointed that there was only a trickle of water cascading
over the 100m drop. The view from the lookout platform over the valley beyond
was worth the stop.
We returned to the car and navigated back towards Casino,
stopping at a macadamia factory for some of their nuts along the way. We
travelled through Lismore again, before making it to Casino, where we stopped
to raid an ATM and then it was back to the van.
Once unloaded, we grabbed some of the golf clubs and made
our way to the par 3, nine hole golf course that is attached to the Lifestyle
village. No one else was playing so we were able to enjoy the round without
disturbing others. I even opted to play as well. It was a good way to spend an
hour and I surprised myself that I actually didn’t do too badly with 3 holes
with a score of 5 and 6 with a score of 6.
We returned to the van hot and sweaty so it was straight off
to the shower to clean up before hanging out in the van for the remainder of
the afternoon, before finally thinking about dinner.
The day had been quite warm and the van had absorbed the
heat, so the air con was needed for much of the evening. After dinner, we went
for a long walk around the complex, checking out the caravan park as well as
the over 50’s homes. We were quite impressed with the complex and the size of
the blocks. The frontage on most appeared to be as much as we have a t home and
almost all had a car garage on one side to fit two cars and a lean to on the
other to accommodate their caravan or motorhome. We thought that this was a
great for the travelling nomads and much better than the pokie retirement
villages you see back home.
After our evening walk, we were happy to head to bed and
read once again before finally turning out the lights for another night.
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