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            <<  Nimbin, 2-Jul-2013  >>

Ganja and junkies paradise

Last surfing (in storm), leaving Byron Bay for good, 2 days in junkie-land and (not) getting high

I wanted to leave Byron Bay quite early, just wanted to sell the surfboard and go, but just when I was ready to go, some guy I had met in hostel before mentioned that there were huge waves out there. The weather was dreadful, it was raining like hell and cold, obviously there was a storm above Pacific, but when I got to the beach and saw the waves I decided to go for one last surfing session.

High tide collided with storm waves and so the waves were really massive. The drift caused by the tide and the powerful waves was so strong, that it was impossible to paddle or even walk in the water, so getting to the waves was really difficult, and also my time was limited to 45 minutes because I really had to go, but I managed to get few waves and WOW what a waves they were! The first one was literally breaking in height of my head, I had never been anywhere near such a huge wave – I managed to stand on it for less than 6 seconds, but anyway it was awesome. It’s completely different feeling to ride a wave and see that tall, mean mountain of blue/green water rolling in front of you. Few waves later I caught the best wave of my life, smaller than the previous one, but I rode it for maybe 100 meters or more, and would ride it even longer if I didn’t try to free my feet from the leash in which I was tangled in (catching the wave did not include those pro-like moves) and fall down while attempting to stand on one foot freeing the other from the leash. For the first time I did some slalom over the wave, making “S”s on the greenwater. Such a cool feeling!!! This last surf session here in Australia, was by far the best one!

After the short session I went straight to the second hand surf shop where I had bought the board, but for some reason (probably the heavy rain) it was closed and so I thought I was fucked, because the owner promised to buy back the board for reasonable price and I had almost no chance to sell it to anybody else (Byron Bay was almost empty already) and I really wanted to leave Byron and not wait one more day. So I brought the board to the other second hand store in Byron (there are 2 of them) and while I expected that the owner will be reluctant to buy it due to low season and oversupply of boards, at the end I was nicely surprised when he offered me even more money that the owner of the original shop. So I bought the board for 220 AUD and sold it for 170 AUD three weeks later, which makes is 50 AUD per 11 surf sessions, so 4 AUD per session. Not bad at all, considering that rental would cost me 20 AUD per session. I will miss my board, it was a good one!

After I sold the board, I went to the beach, smoked my last bidi in Byron, recalled all the nice memories from this place and jumped in the car and left just before another massive downpour hammered Byron Bay. The very last thing I did in Byron was saying good bye to Helen, Irene’s and Olga’s friend and ex-roommate, by now the last person whom I known and who was still staying in Byron Bay.

I drove to Nimbin and it was quite a hellish ride. It was heavily raining and the anti-fog ventilation in my Subaru and its wipers don’t work too well, as you can imagine for 23 year old car, so I could hardly see anything on that road in the middle of forest and full of serpentines and potholes, and I could see even less when it got dark. The road was even blocked by a downed tree in one place, but some guy with an SUV and ropes with my help managed to drag that tree from the road and so we could continue to Nimbin. Anyway, till I arrived to Nimbin it was dark, everything closed and raining, so I just checked into hostel, again made a deal on using its facilities but sleeping in my car and did nothing.
Next day I “explored” Nimbin, but there was nothing to explore. Nimbin was supposed to be “Australia’s prime place for alternative lifestyle” but oh my god, that town (ehm, village) is like a giant marihuana cliché collapsed into itself. The whole village is just one street, lined with marihuana-themed shops, marihuana dealers and junkies. It was ridiculous. The village looked like marihuana-themed Disneyland, totally cliché, as said. I found it quite amusing, that everywhere around the town there were posters which compared how horrible drinking alcohol is and how good smoking of marihuana is instead, but if you looked around in this “ganja paradise” you would see more junkies per capita than anywhere else in the world, including Russia I guess :-) They can praise smoking weed as much as they want, looking at the human debris spread around the town, I say good ol’ booze!

To go with the flow I bought some marihuana , just enough for 2 joints, went back to the hostel and puffed them in. This time, despite smoking much more than in Byron Bay, I didn’t get very high, and also I split it into two “smoking sessions” to avoid getting trashed, so I just had those mellow moods as they say and enjoyed cleansed doors of perception without actually ramming them. So no, this time I did not find myself in the middle of sphere of consciousness :-)


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     MARCEL STRBAK | www.strbak.com | www.facebook.com/marcel.strbak