Been Doin' Stuff
Aaah Nimbin...

I called my Mom (Hi Mom!) and she said right away that she was getting a little worried because I hadn't contacted anyone in a while, and I see that my last post was on June 4th. Wow. Time flies when you have a hard time remembering what day it is. HA HA! That is what I truly loved about the Nimbin Rox hostel. I went there and felt at peace and relaxed. For 3 weeks I just did my own thing and gawked at the wonderful scenery. *sigh* If/when I ever come back to Australia, I will visit Nimbin once again. I loved it there even thoug the town was kinda freaky with freaky people. But I liked it anyway.

Suffice it to say that I have moved on from Nimbin and back to traveling.

Australia's furthest Eastern Point.

So I went to Australia's furthest Eastern point at Byron Bay and went on a wonderful state park walk up to the lighthouse that you can barely see from the top of Mt. Warning. It was a wonderful day full of nature and you could even see some whales breaching the water way out there in the ocean. All you could see was the spout of water as they caught a breath and then went back under, then you'd wait, and wait, and then, what seemed like miles from the first spout, there would be another. Pretty cool.

The lighthouse.

One of the many beaches at Byron Bay.

I also went to Bangalow for the North Coast Jazz Fest. They have got some great Jazz artists down here. Like George Washingmachine who is a great Jazz Violin player and pretty funny too. Mr. Percival who uses his own just his voice to create music, songs, rhythms and record them into a digital sound recorder, combines them and then plays them when he needs to during a song or it is the song. He created a whole choir with just his own voice. Fun!

George Washingmachine and group.

The little town of Bangalow reminded me of Ellensburg. I think because of the main street and the size of the town (I found out it has about 10,000 and Ellensburg has about 13, 000) and how both towns put on a Jazz Fest. So I contacted a couple of the organizers and thought it would be cool if we could have some sort of a cultural exchange of Jazz. Maybe send Northwest Jazz artists downunda and their artist to the U.S. Or at least some kind of exchange of information, or maybe sister Jazz towns, whatever, but at least exchange ideas and information I think would be very cool. I told my buddy Dale (Hi Dale! Hi Steph!) who is on the Jazz In The Valley board and he likes the idea.

Lin

During my travels I meet some really cool and interesting people. This is my friend Lin she is from Germany. She is 20 years old and is in Australia for a year to learn English. When I met her and we were trying to have a conversation she would only catch a little bit of what I was saying and would smile, like she is here, and then say "Sorry?" because she didn't understand what I had said. She was/is working at the Nimbin Rox Hostel to pay for her lodging. She likes to stay in the Teepee (which is damn cold by the way). I told her that I have a niece (Bailey) who wants to do some travel and I asked her if she wouldn't mind helping her out with any information or answer some questions for Bailey. She said she wouldn't and that everyone should travel outside their home country. So Bailey, send me an e-mail thomkokenge@gmail.com and I'll give you Lin's address.

I love the names of some of these places. So odd yet so endearing.