Nimbin nights

It was suggested that we visit Nimbin on our travels. Originally we had thought about spending two nights here but enjoyed Rainbow beach so much we could only stay one night in Nimbin. Turns out it was one night too many.

Home to the Aquarius festival in the 1973, we expected this town to have a pretty strong hippy vibe going on. What we weren't expecting was for some of the dudes who were actually here in 1973 to still be here and wearing the same clothes. Nimbin is also probably the easiest place in Australia to score some pot in, so that explains a lot.

We should have smelled a rat when we had difficulty booking an en suite. Nobody seemed to have them. The only hotel in town didn't even take bookings – turns out the accommodation was just for bar customers who needed to 'crash' and was allocated on a first come, first crash basis. We finally found a place which was described in the guide book as 'more normal than the others' so we booked it.

On arrival, we were checked into a very 'cosy' room in an establishment that reeked of cigarette smoke, pot and cats. Hmmmm. The room looked a bit grubby, well actually it looked dirty, so we gingerly drew back the duvet to reveal badly stained sheets which may also have been around since 1973 and bits of food which were slightly more recent. We then made the mistake of opening the fridge, and the large number of cultures living in there promptly said hello to us. Given that it was late and we were unlikely to find anywhere else at this point we decided to ask for clean sheets, change the bed linen ourselves and make sure to sleep in our emergency sleeping bags.

Feeling claustrophobic and grubby we thought we should at least go into town to experience some of the 'atmosphere' everyone talks about. We arrived in the local bar to find a good band playing to a very small audience, all of whom were completely stoned. But the first assault on our senses was the eye-watering stench of BO. If it was a deliberate effort to mask the smell of pot then it was very effective. It might also explain that lack of en suite bathrooms and why our shower was the cleanest thing in the room... clearly no call for showering here resulting in unused showers, unlike the bedsheets.

Trying to blend in, we ordered a couple of drinks, making sure to get bottled beer. Almost as soon as we sat down the band took a break and the entire audience (all twelve of them) left the room en masse to go 'out back' and smoke pot.

The only people left in the room were Nic and I and three other conspicuously clean-smelling people (obviously tourists too) who were discussing how they could play a game of pool with only three of them so I volunteered to make up the fourth person and we played doubles. They were German and unfortunately fell all too easily into the German stereotype of being very precise, measured and efficient. They were also very competitive. To my amusement I found myself in a bar full of people so stoned they could hardly stand and playing pool with three Germans who spent most of the game measuring and discussing the angles of their shots.

Then a couple of police officers entered the bar, took one look at the Germans measuring up the pool table, figured they were far too uptight to be stoned and made a beeline for the pot-party outside. Surreal.

Eventually the band returned and show continued. As designated driver, I wasn't drinking and was amused to find that the police car followed us all the back to our grubby 'lodge'. I suspect we were the only people actually using a car that night and the police needed some entertainment. Once they observed us for a while they got bored again and slowly drove away. In contrast, we couldn't get out of there quickly enough the next morning, but did stop for a good coffee in a very 'groovy' place on the way out of town.

When we arrived at our friends house in Coffs Harbour later, we were informed that we were supposed to 'visit' Nimbin, as in pass through, not 'stay the night'. But let's face it, no roadtrip is complete without staying in at least one dive and it provided us with some good entertainment.