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.

I've always thought of tourists as a food source for the wildlife.

At breakfast I saw a small container of vegemite and figured that I had to give it a try due to the popularity of the lyrics in the Mean at Work song, 'Land Down Under'. I hereby suggest they be changed to "she just smiled and handed me a bitter, ass-tasting, nasty, yeast spread sandwich". Wow, I was even warned by others to be wary, but that stuff was pretty interesting and not something I'd like to repeat. I'm definitely willing to give most things a try, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'll repeat the effort.

We loaded up the bus early and headed to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for the morning to check out the kind of Australian wildlife that cannot be found in pubs. This place is pretty well known for the daily feeding of the rainbow lorikeets. Visitors can hold large aluminum pans that contain the sweet mixture that the birds seem to like and thus tend to swarm anyone that has one in their grasp. It was a lot more fun than expected. a lot of the bout tour participants decided to get pictures taken with the koalas and after a bit of peer pressure, I figured I might as well join in as well. those little things are fairly heavy, but have a pretty stiff smell due to their oily glands. After the photo session, everyone tend to wander around a while to check out the other animals that ranged from kangaroos to snakes and Tasmania Devils. Lunch was set aside for us in a private area with some finger sandwiches. We did not see any babies in the dingo enclosure, but we did learn that kolas do not seem to speak Spanish. Oily Hole was apparently trying to entice them from their slumber with calls of "Hola koala!", however they did not seem to make them stir.

After the sanctuary, we were suppose to me at some aboriginal cultural center to be lead around Minjunbal Cultural Center and the surrounding historical site to learn about some of the area history. Well, apparently the first guide that was supposed to do the tour had recently died. A second guide had been found and a few days before we arrived, had left the area to go on walkabout. The third guide, and person that showed us around, was there on her first day and proceeds to pretty much read off the plant names from the signs, though was very nice and did attempt to show us around for a bit while spare Rib proceeded to pull down much of the forest in terms of branches, sticks, and fronds. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for drinks on a nice patio and even stretched out on a wooden boat until we were told it was supposed to be a planter and not a seating area. Oh well.

When we got to the small hotel near Byron Bay I was thrilled to see a package with the lens waiting for me in the room and immediately felt a lot better! Mams came down with a handful of envelops that contained cards. Apparently Kristen had arranged with Mams to give me one of the cards each day but with everyone going on and the constant early morning packing and moving, it slipped her mind, so I tended to get several at once. The cards were pretty much just nice little notes along with pictures of some of our adventures over the past few months. At dinner we had a waitress named Ellyphant (I kid you not). Dr. PP had already arranged the large meal with salad, steak, 2 drinks, etc already ordered and being prepared when we arrived! At circle, Oily was called out for her Spanish wake-up attempt, Tinkerbell got the hashit, and Neptunus lost his red card. When we were singing "Why were you born so beautiful .." Neptunus got up to moon and Dr. PP had this look of horror and yelled out 'Nooooooo' so loudly that everything stopped. Spare rib conducted 'dip tests' while Mr. X was called out for giving wildlife advice. Apparently at the sanctuary on of the Kangaroos was cleaning certain parts of itself and someone commented that they wish they could do that to which Mr. X responded "well if you give him some roo food he'll probably let you".