That Psychedelic Village Named Nimbin

Duuude, it's 420! We ain't celebrating with a slice of space cake though. No Puff, The Magic Dragon either. To commemorate this uhm, counterculture holiday, let's do a different kind of "trip", shall we?

A psychedelic visual trip.

The talk of spliff takes me down two travel memory alleys. That of Amsterdam's (where possession of  cannabis is legal) and that of Nimbin's... Nim-what? Precisely why I chose to feature the latter today. I shall save my story about "dining" in a Dutch brown cafe for another 420.

Nimbin Museum. Groovy!   Nimbin Hemp Embassy. Since 1992.
Possession of cannabis in the state of New South Wales, Australia is a criminal offense. But northeast of this state, in a village named Nimbin, locals have a high tolerance for its trade and usage. And it is for this reason, alongside permaculture, that peregrine hippies flock in busloads 'til this very day.

Titled: The Last Session   Kaleidoscope of tins.
Postcard with a photo of the annual MardiGrass Festival. The highlight of this festive weekend is the Cannabis Reform Protest and Parade.  

The once-sleepy village that lived off dairy farming morphed into a vibrant town in 1973 when the Aquarius Festival, a huge experimental shindig attended by uni students and alternative people, was held here. A small population of which stayed behind. And the rest, as they say it, is history.

The hunt for hemp soap.   Shops that line the main street.   On day 122 of our 2011-2012 round-the-world trip, my hobo family did a pilgrimage to Nimbin. It is the real deal. No poser hippies like me around. Just spiritual beings who live in isolation or in communes, and live off the land and/or tourism.

Nimbin remains to be one of my fave places on Earth.

"Chip hemp not forests."   Run free, my wild child.
For vintage vultures.   Oh those pretty sidewalks!  

May the entire universe conspire to help us relocate somewhere nearby this village someday.

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