What To Do With No Surf?

My ankle being out of comission for a week plus, my usual routine on the road has changed. The usual surf, eat, sleep agenda I had been following has had to sift to other means for entertainment and elightenment. Luckily the profesional world of surfing descended on the Gold Coast north of Byron Bay for a week of competions. The next best thing to surfing is watching surfing, so several sun bleached days were spent on the beach of Snapper Rocks watching two man heats of the world's best surfers. Kelly Slater the 8x champ was by far the most exciting surfer to watch. He makes it all look easy. He just flies down the line making impossible sections connect. I personally think he has teleporting powers. He ended up winning the contest as the sun crisped masses cheered from the packed beach.

The Sprain

What else does a wounded traveler do for entertainment? Well, camping next to a tea tree pond allows one to investigate the local wildlife. I keyed out several species of birds and mosquitoes and was especially entrigued by the large water dragons that dwelled in front of my tent. Much to my joy fellow camper and traveler, Kelly Ching's(Same Kelly Ching from the beginning of my trip in Panama) painted toenails seemed a favorite for the fearless lizards. One actually landed its fat pink tongoe on her big toe before she screamed and ran off. With a new idea my freshly painted velvet red  big toenail was then used to tempt the curious water dragons. Unsuccessful I resorted to enticing them with bits of banana instead. As amusing as this was it did get a bit slow for me. Lizards don't do much besides eat, run, and lie around in the sun. Maybe some excited head bobs, which received appropriate applause volume from me. Moving my attention from the water dragons outside of my tent, I decided to document my fitness routine. Its the next best thing to using steroids for results. The routine requires a small canvas tarp. A committed  heart and tons of blood letting. It starts off with the downward dog yoga move, transitioning into 1 pushup, which naturally rolls into a half sit-up. The work out completes itself with a "shake-it-off" move.

Arts Factory Chill Area

Feeling much fitter and newly energized, Kelly Ching  and I headed out for a trip to the small country town of Nimbin. An hour drive in The 300 through the winding roads of the sunny countryside west of Byron Bay lead us to the tiny town of Nimbin. Nimbin is famous for its colorful rainbow painted shops and cafes with a large population of colorfully clad hippies. Just as I expected there were many ferries painted on most walls with psycadelic swirls and magical fungi adourning many walls and ceilings. My favorite spot in Nimbin was most colorful building. The Nimbin "museum" was decorated with a dismantled VW bus painted with nude hippies and rainbow snakes. Every inch of the place was packed with some short of dirty old hippy artifact, such as a rear view mirror or an old brown t-shirt draped over a plastic chair.  After wandering and trying to read the hand painted flaking placards about the naked hippies from bygone ages. We met a sweet old lady who offered us some chocolate chip cookies. I became a bit wary when she grabbed the basket of cookies and ran outside mid sentence when cops were reported to be outside of the "museum". After further investigation it seemed the whole population of Nimbin was extremely concerned that we purchase their special cookies. Walking up and down the small town drag three times resulted in the same people offering us the same cookies as if we hadn't just turned them down three times before.

The Sand Pit

The town loves their special cookies. They love their wizards as well. We were offered a magical wand making workshop. Seriously, crystal enlaced wands can be made for magical uses at the mouth dropping bargain price of only $299. I contemplated for several minutes what I would do if I could make my very own magical wand, I decided I would use it to get out of Nimbin. Having magical wheels we decided to drive off leaving Nimbin with its ferry and rainbow covered walls in the rear view of The 300.

Rehab

D-bah

Workout Vid

Backpacker Interenet

Quicksilver Pro Crowd

Kelly Ching and I at the Pro

The Jay

Pro

Dragonfly

Raspberry Shake Sequence

Raspberry Shake Sequence

Raspberry Shake Sequence

Exactly

Dan and Caleb

Dan McCloed

Nimbin Cafe

Magical Wand Workshop

Nimbin

Caleb Liked Me Cuz I am Tall

Waterdragon