Thursday 3 December 2009

Happy Hippyville?

Today was one of those 'dream' kind of days. Luckily Colin's leg was well enough to drive, the weather was not great for the beach (not that Colin could surf anyway) so I managed to drag him away from the coast and into the hinterland. We followed our noses, stopping where we wanted. We meandered our way through Uki, Nimbin, Lismore and Bangalow. The scenery was spectacular; green rolling hills, mountains and picturesque small country towns. I would have loved to know who lived in these places and why? We wandered (well Colin hobbled) up and down main streets, into touristy, hippie and yuppie shops. We had a vegie burger in Nimbin for lunch and a divine Pecan pie in Bangalow for afternoon tea.

Nimbin was a rainbow coloured, hemp and herb heaven, but also touristy (the main street) and somewhat depressing. There wasn't a vibrant, lively feel that I expected. There were a few people around who had obvioulsy partaken of the weed far too frequently over the years and a shouting match occured in the street. Perhaps we just saw it on a bad day. I wonder what the real Nimbin is like, it certainly didn't seem like happyville.

One of the things I love about being on holidays is that Colin does the cooking. We brought with us a cook book titled  "Simple but perfect Salads". Our goal is to work our way through it. We started last night with a grilled, red pepper, potatoe and eggplant salad accompanied by a steak (a rarity for us, steak is too expensive for a family of 6!) Today when we were driving through the mountains we saw signs advertising great prices for local produce and stopped to make some purchases. So, Colin is currently whipping up a pear, walnut and crispy bacon salad accompanied tonight by .... sausages. Oh well, I can't complain - steak last night and prawns the night before!