Conclusion: The point when you get tired of thinking.

With a heavy heart (and even heavier head), we all got up to pack and load up the bus for the final trip to take everyone to the airport. Doing her final count Dr. PP asked if we had everyone and was met by mummers of "whatever.. lets go". Sparerib was always making up songs and was a songmeister most of the trip and even penned on for me:

"How about some bondage Mrs. Murphy,
it quite excites me to be bound.
I have straps that are leather, silk, and furry
You can tie me up,
but please don't Tie Me Down-down-down-down"

Mams had arranged for us to stay with some of her old hasher friends in Brisbane, so the bus dropped us off to be picked up and taken to hot dick / Icebox's place. We took out Hot Dick's boat for a full afternoon of cruising on the river and did our own floating pub crawl followed by a great dinner at their home of steak kabobs, lobster, kangaroo sausage while relaxing on the patio. I was up relatively late using the computer to back up my picture files, deal with e-mails, and research some things for the New Zealand trip.

Here are the web links for the photo album from the bus tour. Many of the pictures are geotagged, so if you click the link in the caption you should be taken to a satellite photo that shows exactly where the picture was taken.:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mblitch/BrisbaneBusTourAlbum1
http://picasaweb.google.com/mblitch/BrisbaneWebAlbum2

Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse

We were out pretty late last night and slept in a bit since this was a scheduled free day when there were not any particular plans for the morning or afternoon. I was up about 9:40 to head to the dive shops to try to get in on a trip since I wanted to do a little bit of diving. I found that Dive Byron Bay had space on the next trip and just had time to sign in and get my gear together. We rode a jeep to the beach and assisted in launching the boat before wading to deeper water and piling in. We rode out to the Julian Rocks, visible as being in the middle of the bay, and tied into one of several mooring buoys. The water was cool, but comfortable enough as we swam around checking out the leopard sharks, wobbegong sharks, urchins, and other creatures. Unfortunately, the dive guide was really quite unskilled as he was constantly kicking up the bottom and every time he stopped he would instantly go vertical and stand on the bottom. Most divers are never really trained that this is a bad, sloppy practice so they simply don't pay attention. I did see a diver that seemed to know what he was doing and had great form underwater and found out later that he was a technically trained diver out of Sydney, so it figures. After we got back I spent an hour or so in the Internet cafe to pay bills, check e-mail, etc and make a call home, though Kristen could not hear me (the staff at the shop had no clue about computers and claimed there was a 'Firefox' virus that was causing issues), so we ended up talking through Gmail chat.

In the evening we had a most excellent trail set by Rumple from the top of Byron Bay by the lighthouse (they had arranged for a van to pick us up from the hotel and take us to the start) all the way down back into town. We had a great circle on the RR tracks behind the hotel to end the week as this was unfortunately out last hash as a bus group. The bus driver was even named something along the lines of 'roller coaster driver', but I cannot remember the full name. The last group event was to burn off the rest of the food and as much as the drink as possible before we all had to fly to Perth in the following days. It was great to get to meet and learn about so many good folks; especially Dr. PP, Mr. X, SpareRib, Rumple, Hummingbird, Walkabout, Python, Rubberchoak, Mams, and Yarksucker. A lot of time and effort was put into this and it really showed by how smooth things ran and how much of a good time was had by everyone.

I can swim 100 yards in two seconds - over a waterfall!

This morning we finished up the breakfast foods before heading out towards Minyon Falls for the morning's activities. The trail to the falls were a lot more tough than some had anticipated and unfortunately a few turned back just before we reached the falls as they didn't want to do the last rock scramble to get there. Only a few people decided to brave the chilly waters (which didn't seem to all that bad once one got numb. .. er .. used to it. Several of us swam around for a while under the falls themselves before we figured it was time to head back as we were starting to get hungry. Unfortunately, we hadn't completely planned on the leeches that were in the water with most of us finding several of them attached in various places, so we had to spend a little while doing 'leech checks'; though all in the name of health of course. Nearly everyone ended up having at least one, even those that didn't go into the water. Mams even had one somehow work its way under her toenail. Yeck. Fortunately Oily and Hemi had brought along a couple of salt packs, so once we got back to the bus we were able to get them off much more easily, although several on automatic Balls got to an disturbingly large size. Oily was even reluctant to give up the salt and kept dousing her clean feet after seeing what was coming off the other hikers. The parents of Rubber Choak and chick Magnet set up an excellent picnic for the entire group while we were out, so it was great to have food available when we returned.

After the falls, we headed to the nearby town of Nimbin that is apparently well know for its still active hippie culture. No one was able to walk along the sidewalks of town without be approached by some of the cannabis pushers. It was a very colorful town that was lax in its pace. It was definitely an interesting place to relax for a little while before heading back to Byron Bay.

It may be that my purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

Rumple and I decided to cook breakfast so after he did some shopping last night, we got up early to start grilling up some food on the patio grill and ended up with omelets and hash browns. the hotel staff wasn't to happy about me taking their mattress every night, so they got an extra bed for Mam's room and just charge me an extra $30, which is fair enough for some decent sleep over the next few nights. Today's trip was to Mt. Warning for a 5.5 mile roundtrip hike to the top through the rain forest. this place is sacred among the aboriginals for several reasons among them a historic meeting spot as well as that this is the first point in Australia to get the light of the rising sun. On the ride up I talked to Walkabout for a while concerning how he helps the Appalachian Mountain Club near his house outside of NYC.

The hike itself was really nice and just a hint of rain heading up since the canopy prevent much from reaching the ground though we could still hear it. Part way up we had some great views of Byron Bay, however once we got higher it became more of a Wollumbin (cloud catcher) mountain. The final few hundred feet was quite steep such that a few of the hashers decided to not to all the way to the top. There wasn't any views due to the clouds, but it was nice to make it up nonetheless. It did pour quite a bit on the way down and got pretty slick with just about everyone taking a few slips before reaching the bottom. We stopped in Uki on the way back for a beer and watched as the mountain cleared up once again. Once returning to the hotel we went through an 'American style' hash so we could burn through all the liquor and beer. We heading into town for an excellent Thai dinner before turning in for the evening.

If dolphins are so smart, why can't they just avoid the nets?

Last night was kind of rough since I found out my roommate Candyfloss snores like a Scottish banshee to the point where I grabbed the sleeping pad from my hiking pack and crawled into the bathroom with the door closed so I could get some sleep. Most of the bus group decided to go kayaking on a dolphin seeing excursion. Though I wanted to hang with the group, I have a lot of opportunity to paddle in Florida and see dolphins much of the time anyway and I just didn't think it was worth another $40 for me. Mams and I stayed with the group while they learned about the paddling and launch from the beach into the surf, though I must admit watching various folks try to get past the surf zone for the first time was entertaining the from what I understand there were no dolphins to be seen on the trip. While mams did her shopping and rest, I went swimming at the beach behind our hotel for a while until everyone got back.

We were bussed to a hash start location hosted by the Ballina hash after we stopped by a lookout over Lennox Natural Surfing Reserve for a group shot. The run was a nice spot along the inlet pier, beach, and other nice spots wit the end having a lunchtime cookout set up for the whole group. At circle Mr. X attempted to use a red card, however it was for Cosmo. The trail was nice enough to earn points, however there were deductions involved; -2 for not being hot enough, -1 for no dolphins, and -1 for not enough sunbathers on the beach). Mealticket competed in a down-down competition with Chaulky, but it might have been a tie. By the time they finished, the rest of us had probably forgotten what was going on. There were gonad down-downs, a Chinese circle fire drill, and realization that a soggy coconut might not contain only coconut milk. Fluffer got accused of queue jumping but was able to get out of it with a wonderful rendition of a dolphin chirp (which is surprising since we have yet to see any to imitate). This was my first exposure to a group of hashers (Bellina H3) that do not sing. I would later learn that apparently few hashes in all of Australia or New Zealand really sing. They typically use the same song for every single down-down.

We headed to the Ballina bowling club where we were entertaining by the chicken doing the wedding chicken dance on the table while talking to some of the locals. On the way home we saw a 20-foot prawn statute which the hash figured it would take two of to feed Weinerschnitzel. When we got back to the hotel I grabbed the cushion from the sofa in the front lobby to use as a mattress since Hummingbird and Mammaries allowed me to stay in their room so I could get some sleep.

The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.

Mams wanted to go see birds and was told that Centennial Park was the best place, so we headed off to see what was available. though there were not quite as many birds as was hoped, it was a very beautiful area and we did see quite a few black swans around. We didn't have long to hang around as we had to get to the airport for our flight. For whatever reason, apparently our flight times were different and I was to arrive a couple of hours early in Brisbane. The flight crew on my plane reminded me a bit of southwest in that they try to have some fun. the announcer started by "Today we have on board the lovely Jane, the lovely Sue, and the lovely Sarah. My name is Michelle and I am also lovely." The flight wasn't bad at all and once I got to Brisbane, I was easily able to figure out the train system to get into town. after a bit of waiting the hostel transport picked me up. Most of the hashers weren't in yet, so I took the opportunity to get a bit of rest as I was still trying to rest my internal clock and recuperate from all the running around. The rest of the evening was spent meeting the other members of the bus tour until I couldn't stay up any longer and thus went back to bed for the rest of the evening. Being so tired, I really wasn't able to remember most of the names but figured I'd get to know everyone soon enough.