Life in the slow lane: Byron Bay to Nimbin

14th November 2010

Today was The Channon Market day - yup that's The Channon with a 'C' not an 'S', sounds like an upmarket Champagne or saying Shannon with a cold. We left Byron Bay to head inland and the much hotter climes of The Channon, Northern NSW and onto Nimbin.

Now at some point we were enjoying the countryside way too much that we made a tad wrong turn, so pulled over on the roadside at an appropriate stop and stretched our legs to enjoy the view some more. It was not long after that a man in his Ute pulled over. He looked like a local, so we asked him for directions which he kindly gave. He even enquired where we were heading after that. When we told him Nimbin, he had that wide knowing smile across his face and then said, "Really? My son happens to be the policeman for Nimbin." Talk about coincidences. 

Once on the right road we hit The Channon Market early - hint good idea to do so as it gets very, very hot in The Channon valley as the day goes by and becomes unbearable by the mid part of the day. Once inside, there were happy, happy hippies, organic wares, home-made crafts, musicians, jewellery, food stores galore, refreshing drinks made from cane sugar, fruitilicious juices indeed a colourful, magical menagerie market.

We had some delightful organic salad packed full of sumptuous vegetables and munched on some organic popcorn laced with cane sugar and sea salt - now wants to find where we can get hold of a supplier as we're rather hooked on it. We also re-met our happy, Dutch hippie from Lennox selling her Asian wares. Many local artists gave a mystical feel to the market with a wonderful mix of music, there were even guitars made out of cigar boxes.

Once the heat was risen beyond our tolerance, we decided to move on towards to Nimbin, Northern NSW hoping for some relief, even a swimming pool. We looked for a place to camp and found one thanks to the very helpful lady at the Nimbin Tourist Office. We decided upon the Nimbin Tourist caravan park out of all our options. The Nimbin Tourist caravan park doesn't have a website but you can contact them on (02) 6689-1402 they have powered and un-powered sites, our un-powered site cost $22.60 per day, we were staying for 2 days, they also require a $10 facilities key deposit which is returnable upon return of the key. They also have a pool which is open to everyone in Nimbin and is free to use. We chillaxed and swam. Then had dinner made on our campavan stove., before crashing into our bed for the night.