The time had come to leave the comfort of our "home away from home". We treated the Burgoyne's to a meal out at the casino (surprisingly not losing much money in the process), gave out some gifts as a token of our gratitude and picked up Owen from the train station to set out on the road again.

After a drive through the rainforest along things claiming to be roads, containing more holes than Swiss cheese we arrived in the hippie town of Nimbin. It was small and quaint with a fantastic laid back atmosphere. It was a true experience as promised by those who recommended the place and quite frankly bizarre! Totally impractical as somewhere to live as there seemed to be no structure to anyones day (as the picture may suggest).

We grabbed a bite to eat in the pub on the main street and watched the Ashes. The locals seemed friendly and we soon got to playing pool with a hippie called Lucky. This guy was incredibly interesting (not to mention the epitome of the inhabitants of Nimbin). Homeless at 17, he left Melbourne penniless, hitchhiking his way north where he was adopted by Aboriginals. He learned their culture and lived in the traditional way of his new parents and now makes a living making objects out of lemon grass rusk. We gladly accepted bracelets o lemon grass from him and laughed at his "you never know when you need a piece of string stories".

Armed with our "useful" bracelets wee found a great campsite just out of Nimbin that had a fantastic communal area. We spent a couple of days just completely chilling out, drinking beers, having BBQ's, general tomfoolery and occasionally taking the time to kick some European ass on the pool table. The town itself had some interesting shops to say the least. Tree hugging, marijuana smoking, careless souls they may be in Nimbin but they certainly presented an interesting way of life and culture to view in the middle of the rainforest. After going around their idea of a museum, teaching people the art of how to solve rubiks cubes, visiting hemp shops and their two pubs there really wasn't much more to see and do in Nimbin, so after a final night at the camp site and some encounters with the other locals (funnel web spiders, giant stick insects etc.) we left the fascinating gem that was Nimbin.