Under Some Influence

It’s true what you’ve heard, Australia is a country that loves its beer…and liquor. If you need evidence of it, take the fact that we were pulled over by the police yesterday at 11:00 a.m. for a “random breath check.” This is a common occurrence, according to our guidebook, but it still came as a shock.

We were driving to Nimbin, when we came to intersection. Peter was driving and turned left, though we should have been going straight. If we’d driven straight, however, there were two cops on the side of the road pulling everyone over for breath checks. Going left at the last minute, though he was just momentarily confused, made it appear as though we were evading the law. So the cop got into his vehicle and put on his lights, signaling for us to pull to the side.

The breath check just meant that Pete had to count from 1 to 10 with his mouth close to a little machine that read his blood-alcohol content. Obviously we hadn’t been drinking, so this was no problem. The officer ran Pete’s license, asked a few questions about our stay here, and then let us on our way with a genial, “No worries, mate.”

There was surprisingly no police presence in the town of Nimbin, which gained its fame from the marijuana-legalization movement that is concentrated within the town. Nimbin exploits this Amsterdam-like reputation with hippie stores selling hemp products, and even a “hemp bar.” Due to the heavy tourism, the unmistakable Disneyland feel hangs in the air along with pot smoke.

After we had some coffee and used the internet, we started looking for a camping spot for the night. The first campground we came across was far from civilization, but eerily deserted, so we pressed on to the next, driving through our first rain.

Peter, post some pictures, mate!