Driving on the OTHER SIDE of the Road!!!

Hey there lovelies,
Wow Australia is brilliant! In fact I really have to acknowledge that it's nothing really of what I thought it would be like-well except great beaches and green. But I thought it would be more mountainous, but it brings me new surprises everyday!

For example, everyone told me Nimbin-don't go there, too many drugs, hasseled all the time for weed, others said it's beautiful. Well luckily I went with my gut. I went, it is stunning, so laid back, yes lots of weed but I was only approached once on the next to the last day there. It had rocks jutting out from the rolling green mountains, rivers and water every where, the people were just lovely and it was so much cheaper then other places-fruits and veggies-YUMMMY! Oh and it had the best bookstore I have been in for a long time.

Oh, one of the books is "Who can you trust. Your health at risk" by Toni Jefferys. He talked about women who wear bras, did you know if you wear a bra for 12+ hours you increase your chances of cancer by 19 times more. Or even worse the ones that do 24 hours increases their chances by 113 fold for cancer! He also talks about plasics, cell phones, and all kinds of things.

Oh, I went to this most incredible art gallery, not having any idea what I'd find. But it's the best art I've seen in a long time of people. One art piece was of this man who is a doctor. Did you know there is a vaccination in OZ for Cerivical Cancer. Yep, I saw it on TV and what thinking "yeah right" but then I saw this painting, his name is: Ian Frazer, he believes cervical cancer can be wiped out within one generation, this is his lifes work! How beautiful is that!!! So ladies if you want to help you and your friends, this maybe the way to go. I'm going to see if I can get him on the phone for a chat.

Anyway, after meeting some lovely friends in Nimbin I went on to Mulwillembah-say that three times fast!!! I didn't connect at first but man oh man, it's a place I could stay for a bit longer. Rivers, ocean near by-from what they said, cute little shop, a salon that on it's sign said "you don't leave until you "love it". How great is that! And a cafe that said "a place to meet and eat". I want to own a place that says that. LA needs a place to meet people and eating is a good thing too! I met a French woman there that was great fun, we instantly connected. We may meet up in January to go trek around Tazmania together and maybe drive a car across to Perth, we'll see! She fixed us some fabulous chocolate cake and let me tell you, it was lovely! And her salad for herself was as if it was for a customer in a restaurant!

Oh, I forgot, I have learned how to drive on the OTHER side of the road!!!! Yep that's right, I do the turn abouts and everything now thanks to Dougs lovely instructions and trust of me driving his van! How great and such lovely freedom. That will get me ready to drive in my next country, yep that's right my next country is coming up in less then a week! Can't believe 2 months has passed so quickly here in OZ.

I'm off to NEW ZEALAND!!!!! Rob is coming over and we are going to have a blast trekking around and exploring AND having Christmas and New Years there together! So nice to have someone from home here with me, I'm completely THRILLED!!!!! OH and guess what, New Zealand will be my 31ST COUNTRY I've traveled in in my life! I'm so excited! I do come back to OZ so I'm not done here, thank goodness as it feels like I've barely even touched OZ.

This place is so huge I just can't see seeing it in even a year. I mean you can see the highlight possibly but not close to everything it has to offer. Just taking the bus 1 hour here today back to Byron Bay, if I was driving I would have stopped at least 2 time to check things out! It's definately a place a car is a good thing!

Oh, but the sand is so clean it squeaks when you walk on it, so white and soft too! I went to the Sanassin celebration with all the Osho people! It was very simple, nothing like I've seen before but it was nice to be in the energy of Osho peeps!

The place I stayed in Nimbin was just exquisite as it was right on the river so I went swimming in the river, read in the grassy field, walked through the farms through such lushness you could hardly believe a place exists. I love the weather here, it rains a bit and sometimes hard at times, but normally not all day, it just gets it on and over and then it's warm. Sometimes hot. But mostly it stays a lovely short sleeve whether from day break to night fall when you may put a long sleeve shirt on. It's gorgeous weather! Perfect for me anyway. When it does get hot, like it did this weekend the sun feels like it is going to scorch your skin. I luckily haven't gotten a lick of sun here-too scared of it really!

This is funny, I'm finally, after 2.5 months of being out of India, just now finally starting to show my arms and wear my spagetti strap tops without a top over it. Once in a habit it's hard to change it. Last time in India it took me years to wear shorts! Funny what you take with you of those things.

So I have got something that I never have gotten-I got the Whooping cough, yep that's right. Some have called it the 100 day cough but I found the most amazing herbalist today that gave me quite the concoction that just about kills me with the taste- so I'm sure it will kill this thing, with some pure vitamin C and she says I should be well by Saturday! I'm experiencing all kinds of things on this trip. If you haven't had this peticular cough I say to you "you don't want to experience it". Unless you want to cough so hard you think you are going puke or die as you can only breathe through your nose and not your mouth. But other then spitting up things you feel fine, unless you talk that is. That's the worst offense that makes you cough! : )

It's all new experiences. This is the first time in my life I've gotten ill 3 times in a year-The Universe is talking to me, telling me to slow down every step of the way, and now with the sore thought it's saying "stop talking". Ok, so I will. So I'm here at my friend Dougs relaxing, helping him out a little and just catching up on little things.

Yesterday, was great, yet it's the thing that took me to getting well to worse. I hiked Mt Warning!!!!! Have you ever seen the movie/cartoon Fern Gully? If not, see it! It's one of my favorites and it's based near Mt Warning. It's about fairies of the forest and how humans come and cuts the trees, leaves garbage, doesn't care for the earth and one of my favorite parts is when a human carves their initials in a tree and she takes his hands and asks him "can't you feel it's pain". The trees feel and talk and people well.....we have our own ideas...It's a gorgeous tale and the fairies are sweet and sexy!!!! Just in case the story line didn't take you in! ; )

Mt Warning, most people get up it in 2 hours and down in 2 hours. Well, even ill and forcing myself to slow down I got up in 1 hour and 25 minutes. I guess you can say I miss hiking, I miss nature, I MISS BEING PHYSICAL AND WORKING OUT! But I got it yesterday. And the great thing is the clouds parted right as I got there for 30 minutes and the view of all the green hills below was stunning. Actually the hills around it are hills from a crater. Mulwillumbah sits in the middle of an old crater and all the hills around it is just the crater edges! Stunning! I saw this one tree so huge around it would take 6 or 10 human to hug it and touch fingers, and so tall, well I have no clue how tall it is. With all the vines on it, making it even bigger around and green leaves and root every where. Huge bolders here and there, so large, it makes you feel like a midget.

It was lush out there, it sprinkled a little, showed me great views and OH, the frogs croak in different notes and thought "my friend Scott would love to be recording these little critters". I imagined recording all of the notes they sang and put them to music or on a piano to make them croak per key-How fun is that!!! Nature at it's best out there!

So you can say I'm loving OZ, though it feels like I've seen little of it. But hope to see more once I am back. Everyone keeps asking when I'm coming home. I wish I knew an exact address, but I'm sure I will by January know when. But right now I can say this between Feb and April unless I find work-more than likely March or April though!

I think the laid back spirit of the people is wearing off on me, thank goodness, how great! I'm not stressing over things I normally would. Like today, I didn't book my bus in advance as I didn't know I was supposed to so I called them and they said to go pay at the station. I went down and they said they couldn't accept payment unless I wanted to take a chance of the bus not stopping for me and me losing my money. So there I was on the side of the road with my bags, my two friends helping in the sun waving down the bus! It stopped, the driver told me it was illegal to give me a ticket but did it anyway and I was on my way to Byron! YES! NO stress, NO worries! Love it! They do like their rules here though, I'll say that but I was happy he was willing to bend them for me!

I loved seeing all the towns on the way down as I listened to my ipod playing Alison Krause, I love her voice! I love Oh Atlanta, but don't have a clue what her lyrics are for the chorus, pretty funny, I've listened so closely but I can't seem to get it.

So I'm going to pass this on, it's by Richard Bach, he says this "the opposite of loneliness is not togetherness, it's intimacy", thanks for sharing that with me Edgar! It's lovely! A good thing to meditate on and really feel!

I have met some great people the past week or so of my trip here and I am grateful, some I may see again, some we shared some lovely experiences and conversations. The owner of the hostel in Mulwullumbah was just beautiful, great spirit, fun, gave us ice cream every night at 9pm for free, played games with us until 11 or 12am! He made my stay there and he was sad to see me, the French girl-Steph and Adriane leave! It's like we all bonded in those 3 days! I love it!

Out there they have something called Water Dragons, they are huge lizards! And I think they are vegetarian! Tassie, the owner of the hostel in Mulwillumbah, showed me how to feed them grapes! I'd hold them a certain way, move it around a little to give it a challenge or maybe it eats bugs and makes it seem like a bug, but then it gets it in it's mouth, slowly, very slowly holds it and starts to squash it. It has very small teeth so it eats slowly. Good for digestion, smart bugger! I love the nature here, and there was more then just him, a whole family of them under the porch. I've seen them every where. Today I saw one in the hostel visiting, until it saw me and wobbled out on all fours!!!

Ok, I'm off. I love you, I wish you all the happiness in the world and if you want to come out and play I'd love to see you! Can you believe it's almost Christmas and a New Year-this year ZOOMED by! Love and hugs to you, Heather