Nimbin

We left the auto electric at Murwillumbah and drove to Nimbin along a road that followed the river. A lovely drive, scenic, windy, but mostly flat.

Nimbin is a strange place.

“Nimbin has been described in literature and mainstream media as 'the drug capital of Australia', 'a social experiment', and 'an escapist sub-culture'. Nimbin has become an icon in Australian cultural history, with many of the values first introduced there by the counterculture becoming part of modern Australian culture.” “Writer Austin Pick described his initial impressions of the village this way: "It is as if a smoky avenue of Amsterdam has been placed in the middle of the mountains behind frontier-style building facades. ... Nimbin is a strange place indeed.”

You gotta go there. We had been warned that it’s not what we would expect. We read that “In New South Wales the cultivation, possession, or sale of cannabis is punishable by law. In Nimbin, cannabis is openly bought, sold, and consumed.” So we were expecting cannabis to be readily available in many different forms and that the town would have a distinct smell rather like my old university flats.

While we were offered “a smoko and cookie” this was very much unde the counter from people who didn’t look like they’d washed their hands before preparing the cookies ... so no thank you. Many shops have notices stating that they didn’t sell cannabis and that consuming it wasn’t allowed on their premises. The notices then went on to say they didn’t know where to get it from “So Don’t Ask”.

OK. So it wasn’t as we expected, but it’s a jolly town, lots of tie- die clothes, cannabis smoking paraphernalia, hemp products and CBD Apothecary. Wandered around all afternoon, stayed for dinner and then back to Bertha. We are staying in the Showground campsite that is pretty empty. Checkout isn’t until midday whereas every other campsite has been 10am. I’ve read somewhere that no one in Nimbin gets up before 10am.

univRead more