Tweed Heads

Bill - RIP, will be much missed

We left Brisbane on Monday 6 January. We had taken over our house-sit, the kids had arrived with their partners, we’d hired a car to take all six of us, plus luggage, we had a memorable Christmas with Bun’s family, the kids had left, we watched the fireworks in Brisbane on New Year’s Eve, we gave the house back. Now time to hit the road.

Thanks is never sufficient for what Mike and Renate have done for us while in Australia, but we thought we’d give them the biggest gift we could ... and left them to the peace and quiet of their daughter’s family and children 😂

The plan is simple, head south, arrive in Melbourne mid-February for a holiday with Bun’s sister and her family, then off towards somewhere else and back to Melbourne for flights to KL on 23 March. The fact that much of the area we want to go to is currently on fire ... well it’s an adventure.

Another problem is that, as it’s the school holidays in Australia, many campsites only want a 7 day booking, not single nights. They are also full. We didn’t find this out until we tried to book our first night. Oh dear ...well it’s an adventure.

The first leg was a quick drive down the M1 to Kingscliff where we stayed at a campsite under the flight path to an airport and next to the M1. Actually it was one elf the quietest sites we’ve been on. A jet plane or lorry is pretty quiet compared to a flock of sulphur crested cockatoos.

We visited Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre, very interesting and informative, but a bit tired. There are huge politics around aboriginal history and I’m not going there except to say that the cultural centre said that more aborigines were killed by “white mans” diseases than guns. The centre gave the impression that the local aborigines willingly worked for the Europeans and wanted the tools and benefits of this new culture. It gave the impression that, in this area, the young aborigines left the land and their heritage before it was taken from them. Enough said.

The centre includes a walk and a “Bora”.

Bora is an initiation ceremony of the Aboriginal people of Eastern Australia. The word "bora" also refers to the site on which the initiation is performed. At such a site, boys, having reached puberty, achieve the status of men. The initiation ceremony differs from Aboriginal culture to culture, but often, at a physical level, involved scarification, circumcision, subincision and, in some regions, also the removal of a tooth. During the rites, the youths who were to be initiated were taught traditional sacred songs, the secrets of the tribe's religious visions, dances, and traditional lore. Many different clans would assemble to participate in an initiation ceremony. Women and children were not permitted to be present at the sacred bora ground where these rituals were undertaken.

Unfortunately, while the Bora has been saved from being built on, there has been no restoration back to what it was and hasn’t been used since 1908. I wonder why?

We visited the place we bought Berth from. I think they were concerned that we were going to give them grief rather than simply ask for advice.

We had a walk around Kingscliff beach and the estuary, then on to Hosannah Farm Stay Campsite where we can feed the piglets, sheep, calf etc. Actually all we want to do is cuddle a dog but none of their dogs are cuddly.

Tomorrow we head for Nimbin that has an alternative livestyle ... pass the space cookies 😍😜🤪🥰Read more