Spiritual Heart.

August 13 I woke to my Facebook news feed filled with photos of burning houses and buildings. Our friends Ron and Carol, who tirelessly work towards achieving a sense of equality for women in places such as Nepal lost there rainbow house. All their stock for resale lovingly made by the women they are helping, gone. The donations that were given in order to help raise funds towards their trips, a school they are building and also to help women escape forced marriages.    ( https://www.facebook.com/GivingItBackTravelingBeautiful?fref=ts )

The same night another terrible tragedy occurred. This time it wasn't a family home but a business and a museum. It was in the heart of Nimbin.

Rick and I began our Nimbin journey in late January this year. We were travelling back from our over night camping trip on the Sandon River, we had never been to Nimbin, we wanted to see if the hype was worth all the gossip. Was it true that people offered you pot on every street corner, was it true people would openly smoke pot everywhere and you came away with a slight feeling of passive smoking. Was Nimbin filled with "dirty hippies"? We didn't know, we'd never been there, we'd never ventured there.

And so we decided to drive through the town on the way home. We weren't in a hurry but wanted to get there quick. Parking wasn't so easy to get, and as the town proper is quite small, we drove around several times before deciding where to park. Of course by this time Rick and I were starving, not having eaten breakfast, as that would have involved cooking at the campsite, and it was nearly 11am. We walked past a few different cafe's and food places, but we decided that the Rainbow Cafe. We walked through and ordered, took our seats at a table outside.

I think that's when I started to fall in love with the town.

The outdoor eating area was just so reminiscent of being home in the Philippines. There were roosters and chickens scratching in the garden, uneven paving, garden beds that weren't erected with the ideal of perfection. The food from the cafe was amazing too! I just wanted more, but couldn't fit anything else in, Rick had to finish what I couldn't.

We went for a walk around the town and felt so at home. The answer to the questions and rumours is YES! We were both offered some pot to purchase by several people, and some of them offered it to us more than once. There were people who were smoking it openly. There were "dirty hippies" everywhere. Although the lack of hippie combi vans was a little disappointing. 

I had to take a picture of the sign, Nimbin Community centre. 

I wanted to find out about the markets, see if they'd let out of townners/ non-locals have a stall. The answer is yes!