Nimbin Things

On Tuesday, Sept 16th, we boarded the Grasshopper tour bus headed for Nimbin. Nimbin is known as the drug/pot hub for Aus, full of hippies, rainbows, and feral children. The bus itself, was super ghetto with zero suspension and was driven by a burnt-out but hilarious old surfer dude who's name we couldn't understand through his thick Aussie slang. The roads there were narrow, poorly marked and full of pot holes but somehow we (and the bus) made it in one piece....and I didn't even woof my cookies. 

As soon as we arrived, some guy in a black mask approached us to sell some weed cookies. Could have been the mask or the hoodie on a super hot day, but something made our spidey senses tingle so we passed them up. There had been a major drug raid 5 days prior where 70 cops with dogs so we had been warned to be careful 'just incase'. We explored the shops full of crystals, tye-dye, Bob Marley knick-knacks, and weed paraphanilia. Tracie and I ended up both buying bracelets and hoola-hoops - 2 more things to add to our travelling circus van....

Just before we were due to catch the bus back, we were on a mission to find some Nimbin things. We ended up meeting some Bundjalung people hawking cookies from an esky (cooler) in the park. Very not discrete. They had half their teeth, and couldn't do math - which worked to our advantage because we bought 6 cookies ($40) and 3 grams (@ $10 each) but they only charged us $40 total instead of $70. Perhaps their math wouldn't be broken if they hadn't partaken in their own supply? Either way, it was a good deal for us.

After exploring the town we went to a park and our bus driver made us a big BBQ. Unfortunately, our first batch of cookies didn't do much but enough that we definitely did mowed down...

That night we had our second cookie - and ate the whole thing, not expecting much, but next thing we know we were up up and away...back at camp we put on Tropic Thunder but all pass out out about 15 min in and when we woke up the next day, none of us could even remember what we had watched.

To bad our first ones didnt do that. It would have made for quite the afternoon...

~F

WRC - Wild by Nature

Rant:

This weekend we volunteered as officials at a World Rally Championship in Coffs Harbour, NSW. Usually rally is a fun event, full of dirt (or snow), fast cars, and interesting people. I've met some of the most kind people and made some wonderful friendships, and have truly felt appreciated as a volunteer. Unfortunately, this was not my experience this time round. The rally itself is world class and extremely well run, the people, however, were dicks. When the rally started, we were buzzing with excitement and assured my friend Emma (a rally first timer) that she would have a great time as it was her birthday weekend....buuut we were wrong.

3:50am Saturday - Our alarm goes off. Time to get ready to head to stage. We were posted as spectator crossing marshalls on a hairpin inside corner - which is pretty rad. We would never get that close in Canada. We were literally within an arms length. The cars we incredible and it was some of the craziest rally I'd seen. A driver by the name of Hayden Paddon from New Zealand caught my eye - he was fast, accurate and drove a pretty awesome car. I screamed loud and tried to get as many pics and videos as I could for this blog. After lunch I was posted up stage on 'the horn' to signal down to officials when I car was coming so they could close the crossing to spectators. That was awesome. The cars were literally hauling ass at 170km/hr a few feet away from me. 

When I got back to the spectator area, Tracie had just realized that after 10 hours of volunteering, her new DC jacket, water bottle and phone had been stolen....who steals a water bottle? I mean, really??

Well shit. 

6:00 Sunday - We head out to stage to do marshalling at a busy parking lot by the most popular stage. The State Emergency Services (SES) are in charge of directing traffic and parking cars efficiently. They quickly got overwhelmed so I jumped in. I directed 2WD one way and 4WD in another towards the more treacherous terraine to make the most of our space. Between 3 of us we parked 900 cars in a 400 car area and when the police showed up to bitch they were quite impressed with the planning and left without complaints. Most people were pleasant and thanked me for volunteering but when we had to close the road due to it being full, people turned - pissed that they had to walk in. It was a long ass walk, but that's what you get for coming last minute. People were calling us 'jokes' and getting in our faces saying it was bullshit...not my fault that people got there before them...

So once we dealt with that rodeo, we had to deal with all the traffic walking up from the road trying to congregate in areas not designed for spectating because it was too dangerous (which you know must have been actually really dangerous considering what they do allow). We were told that people were strictly not allowed to stand on the outside corner of a pretty serious corner as a) cars could roll into the crowd and b) big rocks were being kicked up like crazy. Last year cars parked there had giant dings and everyone had broken windows. <Enter Hayden Paddons crew> 3 bus loads of assholes role in and refused to park where directed, or listen to any official or security guards. We repeatedly asked them not to stand in dangerous spots and to carry on to the designated viewing area. They seemed to think that they were entitled to different rules than everybody else and completely disregarded our requests, even standing trackside with small children. They were so rude and kept saying really snide comments to the volunteers - even though we were only doing what we were asked. It was so bad that police had to get involved. I was really disappointed to be treated so poorly when I'm giving up my time for free to benefit the rally community....What they are too stupid to realize or are to ignorant care, is that without the volunteers, there would likely be no rally. There were 1000 people volunteering their time in the heat and rain to make this event happen, and I was totally blown away by how shitty #haydenpaddons friends and family treated us. I really thought kiwis were nice but they were ignorant pricks. I hear Haydon is a nice guy, but I went from cheering for him to totally disliking him. His family - his dad especially, did that. I did have to laugh though. After all that, he had a pretty shit performance. 7th this weekend, 17th overall. I was actually making some fun of it to Tracie saying that after they were such dicks, it was satisfying to see him tank <sarcastically saying> "Good job on 7th, you must feel so proud!!!" Then I saw the look on her face and realized that the ringleader of the douche canoes was right behind me and heard it. Ha! You could tell he felt a bit dumb. A couple minutes later he walked passed again, and said "good job on being oh so helpful today!" Then shouldered me as he went by. I'm not exactly a waif, but he's a full grown man, getting physical with a female volunteer. What an ass hat! 

When we finally get back to camp, Trav lifts his shirt and I notice this thing on his back that looks like a mole with hair growing out of it...I know he doesng have said mole, and I was totally grossed out to realize its a fricken tick borrowed in his skin. Before I can fel him, he reaches back and scrapes it off. Luckily it comes out in one piece, with it's full head and all three mouth barbs. We asked google about it and apparently Coffs Harbour is listed as the worst place for ticks In Australia - many of which carry limes disease or paralysis. We found his tick and put it in a ziplock bag, but from the looks of it it's a Brown Dog tick which rarely cause disease in humans - let alone gingers. 

All in all it was a pretty big bust. Long story short, I'll never volunteer for Australian Rally again. I'm glad I got to volunteer for a WRC event but volunteering wasn't worth it. Canadian events are wayyyyy better. And I made me miss Dix and Billy big time. 

As a side note, the one person I do need to shout to was our volunteer team leader Graham. He was beyond nice. He invited us to his hotel so all 5 of us could shower lol.

Byron Bay or Bust

From the moment I bought my first Lonely Planet Australia book and started reading, Byron Bay has been the place I've wanted to visit. Finally after 7 months of being stuck in Melbourne, I got to see Byron Bay. 

*watching sunset on the beach

We've had one hiccup after another and have been constantly delayed...blown engine, savings, broken 4-person bike (story to come) and all of the fixes we needed to do to the van in Eden to make it pass rego which we thought was end of Sept but it was actually Sept 1st. After all that, we only got to stay for a few nights in Byron but had a really great time checking out the city on our roller skates. We were going to go swimming too but the beaches were closed due to someone getting attacked by a shark -   first death in 21 years, I believe.

Last night we took advantage of a backpackers promo night which are thrown by each backpacker travel agency a different night weekly to try and encourage travellers to book their excursions through them. We got free drinks, dinner and competitions for trips and prizes at a bar called Cheeky Monkey - which we also did the night prior from another agency. It's a cute pub full of other travellers - many of which were fellow Canadians. Last night they had free face painting before 10, so you know I was all over that....

*******OHHH LIVE ACTION....

SPEAKING OF HICCUPS, WE ARE NOW PULLED OVER WITH SOME UNKNOWN PROBLEM 30 MIN SOUTH OF BYRON. 

F%#$ S#!@ B@¥&$!!!!!  

That my folks, has been the recurring theme of the last 7 months. 

Hopefully it's minor...

Luckily it was just a tire. At first it felt like rear end but it wasn't. Phewf. 

$100 fix.

Sooooo back to the story...

So yes, I got my face painted - which looked purdy, but then none of the girls joined me so I just looked like a dork by myself. Trav being a trooper decided humour me so I wasn't the only one. While getting it done, the girl doing it kept rubbing herself on his knee (which I'm sure he didn't mind). Lol. He ended up looking like Avatar - but covered in glitter. We called it 'Avatar meets Twilight' and when I say covered, I mean COVERED. She dumped some into her hand, looked at it, then trav, added more then blew them right in the face. The best part is, Brian HATES glitter so we had lots of fun taunting him and threatening to hug him all night. I rarely see Brian get mad but he was pretty cranky.

Anyway, next thing we know, we are white girl wasted and Emma is doing a goon shot from a dude named James' belly button in the van. Trav has blown up another goon bag to get every last drop, and somehow ended up breaking my sandal. I ended up throwing it at him from a decent distance and hit the blown up goon bag causing it to burst in his face (hmmm there seems to be a recurring theme here lol)....

We end up out dancing at Woodys Surf Shack for a bit - which is neat because the owner is from Barriere and his sister taught travs niece??? Something like that...

When we finally get back to camp, Emma is a total effing handful - so much so that she accidentally posts a vagina pic as her FB status instead of PMing it to 'G'. Oops. She only realized it when she got a concerned phone call from her friend Lisa.

We ended up going to bed without washing our faces and this is what was staring me in the face when I woke up and looked in the mirror...worst part is, it stained my skin so now I'm a nice shade of pink.

We are now back on the road to Coffs Harbour are volunteering for a WRC Rally for a few days which is super cool. After we plan on going back to Byron for a few days before we head up the coast because it's just that unique and beautiful - think Nelson, BC on the ocean. Perhaps after we tour around a bit more we may come back and try and get jobs there. I could seriously stay forever if I was allowed. 

Well that's all the bad grammar I can cram in for one day.

If you're actually reading this than you probably have to much free time on your hands and should probably look at getting a hobby or something of that nature. 

Love love

~F

Ode to a Hooker Shower

The smell in the van deserves it's own post. There are 5 Canadians living in a confined space and it's starting to get its own brand. It's gross to admit that we've embraced our inner filthy backpacker. None of us have showered in 4 days since we checked out of Lane Cove Campground in Sydney. That's literally the longest I've EVER gone without bathing. We had planned on setting up our camp shower last night but if was pouring rain so we drank wine instead. Luckily, we have these nifty wipes that unlike baby wipes, kill 99.9% of bacteria and are designed for your body so we've been staying ontop of our bits and places so it's not as bad as it potentially could be. That being said, it smells like feet, ass, and damp hippie clothing wet from the constant rain, and the gingers awful egg farts...to top it off Tracie is lactose and gluten intolerant and our diet has consisted of exactly that.

Hungry yet?

~F

Better Late Than Never

My intention was firstly to start blogging as soon as my Australia adventure began, but obviously that didn't happen, so then it was to start as soon as Tracie and Brian arrived - which also didn't happen, so today we decided that it's better late than never and alas here we are.

Up until meow, it's been mostly blasé....working to save moola and prepping for our trip. As they say "life is a journey, not a destination" so I suppose I should give you an overview with the highlights and lowlights.

-In January, Trav and I bought a 1994 Toyota Hiace Commuter van in Sydney (Jorge/Vincent van Slow) and turned it into a camper van. En route to Rainbow Serpent Music Festival (the Shambhala of Australia) near Melbourne, the engine seized and left us stranded in Sale, Victoria (on day 13) in 46 degree heat. This prompted me to rename the van 'Hot Carl' (Urban Dictionary that). It was so hot my iPad shut off and our sandals melted to the ground. Ironically, Trav was wearing a 'Keep Calm and Chive On' t-shirt, which is exactly what he did. He was great about it, where as I was .3 away from having a girl melt down. Luckily, we had just got NRMA (Aus version of BCAA) the day prior so they put us up in accommodation, towed the van and gave us a rental car. $5000 later, our van was fixed and we made it to the festival.

-Rainbow Serpent was amazing. Not quite as good as Sham, but good. It was hot, dusty and full of hippies hopped up on drugs, life and patchouli. The highlight for me there was finding a roller rink AND retro skates at 3am on the last night...my head literally almost exploded. I'm not sure how I stayed vertical given my sobriety but my coordination prevailed and my derby training paid off and and I had an absolute blast.

-We spent our time in Melbourne squatting in a store. Literally. It was cheaper than camping so we rented a store and turned it into a funky living space. The only downfall Is that there we no bathing facilities. None. Instead, we had a Jetts gym membership down the road so we just worked out daily (or close to) and showered there. I must admit, we had the odd occasion where we went a just showered in the morning and the gym manager Dale got a pretty good chuckle followed by a cheeky "good session guys" remark.

Tracie and Brian originally slept on a shotty pull-out couch, and I made the mistake of joking about sleeping on a trampoline, and the next day I came home to a tramp in our make shift living room.

-Our jobs were very backpacker but it did allow us to save some money and recoup the money lost from the engine granadeing in January. In a nut shell, we sold power door-to-door. Surprisingly I did quite well. Most people to us where to go and how to get there (fuck off) but for some unknown reason, people liked me and I was usually in the top 5 employees in our company. On difficult days I wore my roller skates or faked the worst southern belle  'Merican accent - which oddly enough, people loved. Australia has a very d2d culture and people are sick of it, but our company Simply Energy was definitely one of the better ones. The job itself sucked, but we meet tones of other backpackers, made good money and got to travel. I was a team leader and I figure that I can be good at d2d sales, I can pretty much do anything.

Oh and one time, we hit a kangaroo in a work van and got stranded in Horsham. When the boss asked who pulled the roo out of the rad, he knew if would have been a Canadian.

-Steak night. Our coworker and friend Avi introduced us to La Roche in St. Kilda. $15 got you delicious steak, mashed potatoes with mush gravy and salad with a beer or wine. We always rocked in on Thursday nights with 10+ people for dinner after work. It quickly became tradition and it was nice to have some familiarity in the big city.

-Roller Derby was another highlight. I joined the Melbourne Northside Rollers and was drafted to the Sister of Anarchy home team, then the Death Stars A team. I learned so incredibly much and met some amazing women. Suzz, Sin, Strife, Tash, Lee, Gorejess, Chopper, Corker, Sunny, Dina, Bella, Bio, Spink, Kim, Akka, Bliss, Zomb...everyone. I loved you all. I had the pleasure of representing the Death Stars at The Great Southern Slam in Adelaide. <ENTER TRACIE AND BRIAN> We literally picked up Tracie and Brian from the airport, iced them, and left for TGSS...
Our team placed 7th of 21 in div 1 which to us was a huge deal considering this tournament was the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. I played some of my personal best games, and was able to play in all bouts but had to sit out the last 5ish jams of the final bout against Sun State due to injury. I never got x-rays but I'm sure I broke something in my hand.

-JOY FM. Trav and I were invited to guest on 'The Lady and the Camp' radio show with our friend Ali (the American strife). We had the worst colds and I had my smells cat voice on, but had an awesome time. I was so nervous but by the time we were done I was hooked. I'd love to explore radio more.

-Of course I couldn't leave a city where I've lived for 7 months without getting a tattoo. Miri, my good friend from Germany and I both got tattoos from Kat Scarlett representing our time here.
P.S. Miriam, I miss the crap outta you.

Anywho, that's the last few months in a nutshell....
8 days ago, Tracie, Brian, Emma, Trav and I packed up the van and left Melbourne headed up the East Coast. Tracie and I are going to TRY and blog regularly so stay tuned...

~F