Traveling Madmen part III

After the experience that was Surfers we headed on down to Byron Bay. Here I ended up loosing my Australian phone. Byron Bay was kick ass and if the weather wasnt so bad we would have had a fantastic time. The hostel we parked outside was called The Arts Factory and it was a a pretty laid back place. This particular weekend it was packed with new age hippies their associates. There was also a reggae concert on. So i can tell you that there were stoners everywhere.

The first night we went out and we ended up in a club and I was amazed to see that the ratio of girls to guys was about 4 to 1. After closer inspection I noticed that most of these girls were infact just that. Girls. 4 to 1 ratio and they are all under 18. I remember thinking "Oh christ its surfers all over again" but it turned it to be a pretty fun night out. We chatted to hookers, got free drinks, skipped a massive que to get into a new club and danced our little Irish hearts out. At one point I was told I was the best dancer in the club. Looking around I thought that either shes pissed or no one can dance but I now think it was an extream combination of both.

The next day there was a reggae concert on in the pub across our hostel. The music was nice and loud so we didn't have to pay to get in. It turned out that to go into the pub, get stoned from secondary smoke and listen to a few different bands would cost us 120 dollars. So we just chilled out in the hostel and met 2 very interesting characters. It was late in the evening and Conor and i had gone out to the car to fetch some things. I decided to take the guitar in with me to jam a bit inside mayhap I would attract some new fiends for us to have a laugh with but we never made it inside. As we were passing by some bushes we hear a gruff male voice call out to us "Hey mate, gona come and play us a song?" Peering into the bush we saw two men, a rasta dude and an aboriginal man. They were smoking something that smelt like paint stripper mixed with fertilizer. Conor and I took one look at each other and something of a silent "This could be brilliant" passed between us and we sat down next to them. The rasta dude played a song and it was a classic. For a guy who, at that moment, was having trouble telling left from right he sure could sing. He played a song about imagining having a better life but life was pretty alright as it was. When he finished his aboriginal friend showed us his story stick which was hung around his neck. Apparently "you white guys and the man" are not supposed to be told about them but he blessed us with the story anyway and to be honest im not going to go into detail. I would need to show you guys the stick with he drawings on it to explain it and you lot are all too white to hear the story.

After that night it was time for the long haul drive to Sydney.

More soon

Redman