Something scary
Started our day setting off from Byron and making our way through some more amazing scenery and mountains to a town called Nimbim, which is meant to be a hippie haven with lots of ganja going around.
I wanted to see it and imagined some kind of chilled out interesting hippie place, but when we finally got there after several hours of driving through the hills, it was utterly boring. It's just a tiny road with rubbish shops along it and people hang out and try to sell you grass. Well, that's it. So we ended up having a milkshake (not a happy one) and it was very yum. So if you love your milkshakes, go to Nimbin. If you love grass, go to Nimbin. But other than that, don't bother.
So we left again pretty soon and decided to spend the night at Nightcap National Park. It's nice spending the nights in National Parks, because you can usually camp for free and it's very pretty. It was a bit of a trek to get there, our car was struggling and it wasn't much of a road really, more like a dirt track with lots of potholes and up hills and quite narrow. It all adds to the adventure though, so we merrily went along.
On our way through the forest, we spotted this man walking along, so we asked whether we were going the right way and he was helpful enough. He was going this way, too, so we ended up giving him a lift there and dropped him off and then got ourselves ready to make some dinner.
The park itself was like a rainforest and very misty and beautiful. The site itself was also nice enough with BBQ areas and toilets, but we were the only people about. Anyway, we're cooking our dinner and the fellow from before comes up and starts chatting to us about this that and the other, which was nice enough. All of a sudden though, this man becomes a freak. He started doing this bible thing, talking about the end of the world and how all's doomed and God is punishing us for our sins.
He then went on to explain to us that God speaks to him and told him to get away from the coast and into the mountains, because of the destruction that is to come and that it's all Ryan's fault. Huh? Who is Ryan? We still don't know... to be honest, in his opinion Ryan is a 'she' and she is infiltrating our minds and is the sun. OK. So we shouldn't go to church on a Sunday, because see Sunday comes from the sun, get it? and the sun is Ryan's symbol and a symbol of evil. Well and so it went on. For a long time.
We got increasingly uncomfortable... and ended up eating our dinner in the car and then we both admitted to each other to be too scared to stay. By this point it is of course pitch dark outside and all we can hear are the sounds of the forrest and seriously, I expected him to come peering through our window with an axe any minute to begin The Reckoning. Yowz!
A real Cape Fear and de Niro moment, I tell you. We packed up as quickly as possible and then drove for over two hours through this forest in the dark of night, freaked out just to get away as much as possible. We both kept thinking that he was somehow in the back of the van or clinging on to it in the back or something like that - so scared!!!!
The areas in Australia are just so remote and many people live in very isolated spots miles away from anyone and these great big national parks are wonderful but also real good hiding places for strange people if you're that way inclined. But it also takes a long time to get from one place to another and the roads are not always the best, plus there is a lot of wildlife to watch out for. The last thing we wanted on that night was for our car to conk out in the middle of the wilderness (I would have died with fright) or for us to run down a kangaroo or something.
In the end, we managed to pull up to a larger town and by that time we were so tired, we checked into a motel and fell into bed. The relief! Safe at last!
I wanted to see it and imagined some kind of chilled out interesting hippie place, but when we finally got there after several hours of driving through the hills, it was utterly boring. It's just a tiny road with rubbish shops along it and people hang out and try to sell you grass. Well, that's it. So we ended up having a milkshake (not a happy one) and it was very yum. So if you love your milkshakes, go to Nimbin. If you love grass, go to Nimbin. But other than that, don't bother.
So we left again pretty soon and decided to spend the night at Nightcap National Park. It's nice spending the nights in National Parks, because you can usually camp for free and it's very pretty. It was a bit of a trek to get there, our car was struggling and it wasn't much of a road really, more like a dirt track with lots of potholes and up hills and quite narrow. It all adds to the adventure though, so we merrily went along.
On our way through the forest, we spotted this man walking along, so we asked whether we were going the right way and he was helpful enough. He was going this way, too, so we ended up giving him a lift there and dropped him off and then got ourselves ready to make some dinner.
The park itself was like a rainforest and very misty and beautiful. The site itself was also nice enough with BBQ areas and toilets, but we were the only people about. Anyway, we're cooking our dinner and the fellow from before comes up and starts chatting to us about this that and the other, which was nice enough. All of a sudden though, this man becomes a freak. He started doing this bible thing, talking about the end of the world and how all's doomed and God is punishing us for our sins.
He then went on to explain to us that God speaks to him and told him to get away from the coast and into the mountains, because of the destruction that is to come and that it's all Ryan's fault. Huh? Who is Ryan? We still don't know... to be honest, in his opinion Ryan is a 'she' and she is infiltrating our minds and is the sun. OK. So we shouldn't go to church on a Sunday, because see Sunday comes from the sun, get it? and the sun is Ryan's symbol and a symbol of evil. Well and so it went on. For a long time.
We got increasingly uncomfortable... and ended up eating our dinner in the car and then we both admitted to each other to be too scared to stay. By this point it is of course pitch dark outside and all we can hear are the sounds of the forrest and seriously, I expected him to come peering through our window with an axe any minute to begin The Reckoning. Yowz!
A real Cape Fear and de Niro moment, I tell you. We packed up as quickly as possible and then drove for over two hours through this forest in the dark of night, freaked out just to get away as much as possible. We both kept thinking that he was somehow in the back of the van or clinging on to it in the back or something like that - so scared!!!!
The areas in Australia are just so remote and many people live in very isolated spots miles away from anyone and these great big national parks are wonderful but also real good hiding places for strange people if you're that way inclined. But it also takes a long time to get from one place to another and the roads are not always the best, plus there is a lot of wildlife to watch out for. The last thing we wanted on that night was for our car to conk out in the middle of the wilderness (I would have died with fright) or for us to run down a kangaroo or something.
In the end, we managed to pull up to a larger town and by that time we were so tired, we checked into a motel and fell into bed. The relief! Safe at last!
posted by Phil and Tanja @ 2:16 AM
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