Travelling NSW Aaah Freedom

It appears my world trip is not over. I felt instinctively today that I am still on this journey. So I felt I may recount to you some of the interesting characters I have met along the way and their stories.

I travelled to MacMasters Beach which is close to Gosford (north of Sydney). It is the Central Coast and I can see why so many people move north of Sydney. It is a beautiful part of Australia, forests as far as the eye can see, sheer rock formations, the deep blue ocean stretching to the horizon, you can feel a deep sigh as you leave the city and feel nature calling.

I have a handy GPS system and love plugging in the coordinates. I think about how they create these systems and am told they come from military satellite information. Interesting how they have mapped the planet. Anyway, for my purposes it keeps my eyes on the road and a comforting voice saying ‘in 500 metres turn right onto …’ rather than ‘bloody missed the turn off, how do I navigate back’, I can see this GPS is taking the stress out, particularly at night, so that is great.

I arrived at my friend’s place and was welcomed as I drove up his steep hill. He lives in a nice 3 bedroom house that has a large garden. We are lucky in Australia, many people live with plenty of space and nice homes. His was quite open planned and he showed me some of his plans of gardens. My friend James he loves to do horticulture and in particular, help people design their gardens, it is his passion. He is unnerved by his mortgage which he thought he wanted and now is considering whether it is really what he wants. He told me he was jealous that I had travelled the world, he would love to do that with his partner.

He said he was feeling a bit lost and I have come to understand that to mean that he has lost himself, that means he has moved away from his true self. When people get super busy and their minds are caught up in business, it can be hard to find quiet time to really reflect on your life. I feel that is his dilemma. I reassured him that he is free and he can sell it and go to a mud brick or hay bail house, live sustainably and have more time. He can do that if he and his partner choose. He is in a great part of the world. He took me down to the inlet and headland, very spectacular coastline, pristine beaches. He did point out the water levels at the inlet have dropped and there is algae in the water, caused by pollutants and fertilizers. It takes the oxygen out of the water and can be problematic for fish.

We talked about the world and he has felt for a long time intuitively that a major change is coming. I shared with him my theories and he was open. We discussed the earthquake in New Zealand and watched some footage. Often what is really hard for people is to see familiar shops, churches and landmarks disappear, it is what makes them feel secure. So to have many buildings topple over, looking like a war zone is disorientating, not to mention the casualties. Our hearts go out to them as they try and rebuild their lives. We are hearing so much in the way of natural disasters these days, there is a sense of shared sorrow in these disasters. Australia sent over 200 emergency service and police to help out, so that is a wonderful act of solidarity with neighbours. My friend commented that he noticed he was more disturbed by it as New Zealanders are ‘just like us’, he noted if it was a third world country we are used to seeing tragedy. Yet he knew that was a bias, but noted it. That was wise of him.

He said he has a passion for gardens and we talked about the idea of having food gardens in people’s backyards. We felt it was an important step in food security. If markets collapse, then people need to be able to be independent. I do feel this is important in the future.

We said our goodbyes, had a great time together and I promised I would come back next time I am down his way.

I set the GPS and headed for Nimbin. This is around 700 km’s from where I was staying. I estimated if I leave at 11am I will be there around 9pm. So off I went. I made a decision to go the Pacific Highway as it hugs the east coast of Australia. It is beautiful scenery there, haven’t travelled up this way in a long while. I remember when I travelled around Australia we headed this way. As I was heading north I suddenly saw a sign for Seal Rocks. I quickly decided to go there. It looped off the freeway but would rejoin it after Forster. About half an hour straightline distance, approximately 1 hour heading towards the sea. So off I went towards seal rocks, I felt sure I had been there before. Anyway, was driving towards the ocean and then to my surprise I saw a giant peace symbol on the road. I am smiling to myself saying, was that what I thought that was. I kept driving and thought I’ll check it out on the way back. Anyway, the road turned to dirt and my feeling was not to keep going. I didn’t want to spend half an hour on a dirt road, that can easily happen in Australia. So I turned around or what we say ‘chucked a uwey U turn’. I then headed back the way I came. And yes, there was a giant peace symbol. I stopped and took a picture. Someone had actually painted it onto the road. Another hippy (just like me haha). So I went a bit further peace was written on the road, then love. Yes my type of people. I had to laugh, what are the chances of turning off the main highway and seeing that. Such is the interesting life of a peace clown.

Anyway, made my way around some Great Lakes, beautiful lakes with mountains behind. I thought of South America and the Andes. The mountains here are not that big, but I loved the natural world all around me. It was nice to circumnavigate this large lake. I thought of the Aboriginal peoples, I could feel this was their territory. I was not wrong, right up the eastern coast are their tribal lands. Here is some interesting information on them.

The territory of the Awabagal covered the area between the Hunter River and Tuggerah Lakes, NSW, including Lake Macquarie. They were neighbours with the Kuring-gai and Darkinung peoples to the south, the Worimi people to the north, and the Wonnarua people to the west (on the middle reaches of the Hunter River). The Aboriginal people have many different tribes, with many languages. They speak of their people and their country. They have ‘welcome to country’, I see clearly how they see the country not the land (economically), we have no idea of the intimate relationships they had, they saw no separation between themselves and the earth. We will face climate changes because we see the separation but in the end we will come into the understanding that we are one with the planet. We abuse the planet we abuse ourselves. We are nature in truth. So these ideas were not understood but integrated in indigenous people that they couldn’t have articulated ownership. Today many are losing their connection but it is my hope they return to their true nature. We won’t be far behind them.

As I was driving I knew their presence in this land you can tell from looking at the hills, they are significant, and you can feel the energy. Something vital here. I headed onto Forster and thought time to stop for a cuppa coffee.

I stopped at a cafe. I ended up chatting with the lady running it. She said she wasn’t happy there and felt her husband and herself had made the wrong choice coming to Forster. She said there is nothing to do here. She was feeling lonely as well. She said she had moved heaps in her life. She was thinking it was time to do something for her. I told her about my life and being a clown. She really liked the idea of friendliness and being open, she said some of the customers were rude, they would see her speaking to someone and stand right between. She had a lebanese background (I think that was her origin). She didn’t really feel she fitted there not because of nationality just wasn’t the right place. Anyway as we were speaking a nice young country girl heard me speaking and saying I was from Melbourne. She waded into the conversation saying she was with a chair leader group and had gone to Melbourne. She was very confident and I praised her. I really liked her attitude. The lady and I said we wished more people were friendly like that. She was definitely a country girl. It was really nice meeting this woman and we hugged. I gave my card and said if you are lonely you can call me, I was offering friendship. So maybe I get a skype call out of the blue. I believe in connecting with people. It is easy for people to get lonely, you can be in a crowd. For me, those days are no more, I am never lonely, just continually feeling happy and connected with life itself. I told her when I was driving didn’t miss a partner, loved the freedom of choosing where I was going, no stress just a choice. That is not to say having a partner is not great, it can be if you get the right one. But for now I just love being on my own. I so enjoy it, I am so secure within myself that I don’t need the company and I am never bored. It is hard to explain, but so good. Got something right here.

So headed off from there, I knew I had to do some serious kilometers to get to Nimbin. I had been given the name of a lady there through a friend in Sydney. They had agreed to allow me to stay overnight. I knew it was a long haul, but I can do it. I am a seasoned traveller. So headed up the coast past Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour to Grafton. I stopped there for another coffee and to work out how to get to Lismore. I found out I could get onto highway 91 up to Lismore. It was a quiet road and around 8.30pm at night, really dark but the stars were just shining. The GPS was great as I can see the curve of the road at night. So I enjoyed the drive 1.5 hours up to Lismore. Then I had to drive a further 1/2 hour onto Nimbin. Nimbin is what we see as the drug capital of Australia. It is actually a really interesting village where all the hippies go, but these days there is a mix of people who are hippies, druggies, alternative people. So I laughed at going through. It had been over 20 years since I had been there. I was going 5 minutes out of Nimbin to a house somewhat in the bush. It was very nice driving in on a minor road, saw a kangaroo hop into the bush, so slowed down. Couldn’t bare hitting one. Where I come from, Canberra, there is plenty of what we call ‘road kill’. They are such beautiful gentle animals, so I try and avoid harming any animals.

I turn up, thanks to the GPS which I must give a name to. I found the house and it was around 10pm. Pretty late. Had been on the road since 11.30. So a long drive, but the car went well, no hiccups.

I said gidday to Dick and Gill. Gill was yawning but the real host, she gave me something to eat and some coffee. We chatted about her work in Adult Education and my world trip came up (of course). Just a major experience in my life. I told her about clowning and my life as an analyst. We also talked about the future. They also felt there were changes. They said the area they are in is really nice and very lush part of New South Wales (NSW). They had a great house, quite decorative with wooden Papuan masks, aboriginal arts, nice sayings, Buddha’s soft lighting, rugs, very interesting place. They were on tank water and had solar panels. They had rivers running around them and you could hear the water, wherever you are in the house. Wouldn’t want to need to go to the loo (toilet), you would be running back and forth. The stars were magnificent, so bright and clear, you could see the whole milky way out at this place. No city lights.

So I was placed in a nice room with big windows and wooden doors like shutters. It was very comfortable. I was exhausted from the drive. Gill said she wanted to speak in the morning so I just said yes, I was tired but it is good to connect. So in the morning I heard her in the kitchen and got up. I saw around me a virtual Eden here. So many plants and trees. The house was really interesting and different. They had an outdoor setting facing the trees. Some kangaroos hopped in casually, one was a little joey. So nice to sit out there, beautiful day as well.

We had a chat about the area. I was told the top soil there was 30 cm deep. Very rich and abundant, great for growing food. Dick said he had years ago. These days not so much. He said the water was constant in this place. So very good for living off the land there, formerly a rainforest. Dick had been there 20 years and was originally from Delaware in the US. He grew up in a nice christian family, happily by the sounds of it. He went on to University. He was a former Vietnam Vet in the engineering corps. He saw the horror of war and realised the US had not been right. He said they didn’t get to know the culture just went in there. He pointed out it was not a just war. He did his term and ended up marrying an Aussie girl. He came to Lismore for work and ended up finding this property. He said it is very peaceful. He loves the place. He said there was a great energy in the area and aboriginals saw it as sacred. He felt being out in nature was grounding. He said the community was very diverse.

He mentioned his belief that societies should be decentralised. I seconded that. I also think the cities are too huge and people are too dependent on the electricity/water grids. He mentioned that people have become used to getting any foods they want out of season. I wondered how that affects our bodies eating such a wide variety. Also typically we don’t eat raw or fresh, so many foods are inundated with chemicals. I read somewhere that the chemicals will kill you if you live to 90, but it is assumed you will die earlier. We discussed how important it was to eat healthily for energy and balance. So many kids these days have no idea. Many are getting obese with all the fast foods. I heard a song that spoke of it as an obesity epidemic. I don’t disagree with that, I remember in Brisbane seeing so many overweight people, they drive back and forth, sit all day at work and eat very fatty foods, so that can’t make for a happy life.

Gill mentioned the importance of composting toilets. We commented on our overseas travels how in some countries they used water and no paper. All the trees that saved. Gill mentioned that the water was still an issue and said composting toilets were the way to go (when you want to go ha). I remember WOOFING (no not like a wolf, Willing Workers on Organic Farms). The environmentalist I was helping had a composting toilet. It is basically a hole in the ground and you use chaff to cover the organic material (alright faeces). It then is used as fertiliser, great idea. It is quiet too. No wastage of water. In Australia water is a scarce commodity, unless it is flooding. Unusual climate these days.

He also advocated regionalism, which is the same idea as decentralisation, just smaller clusters of community. Not living on top of each other but spread apart and able to work perhaps this is where IT comes in and video conferencing. The idea of the remote office was raised when I researched women’s voices. The idea that parents could work from home in the future. They can log into their jobs and do work remotely. This is likely to become an increasing reality, saves on rentals of workspaces, work when you want (hours fixed) and saves travelling time. So very appealing.

I talked about having part time work at 3/4 of the full time wage as job share and close to full employment. So people are more productive, less tired, more time for families, relationships, less stress and more opportunity to pursue dreams. So many feel imprisoned with no choices. The economy was originally designed to serve community, not the other way around. So we need to think smarter and with wellbeing, balance and harmony in mind. Why work 60 hours a week then get sick or worse cancer. So many have cancer. We have to look into the reasons behind it. I suspect atmospheric atomic tests 2,000 up to the 1970’s I believe. Underground tests continued until the 1990’s. Also the pollutants and the chemicals in the natural environment. So I am sure there are many factors here. Health is central to a happy life, so we have to find ways to solve this.

We looked at the idea of consumers and citizens. Many have been reduced to consumers. I thought of those with money feeling they had some power, whereas those without money, feel they have no power to be heard or make a difference. The idea of citizenship supports the notion of living in a democracy. This is central to the legitimacy of our political system and also ensures we take responsibility. It is easy to blame governments, yet in reality we are all responsible and it is our world that we share. We can either share it cooperatively or live in islands of television isolation. As a former researcher I love hearing diverse voices, even those who disagree with me. I always leave some room that I might be wrong and their challenge makes me think, so I am for it. I am not into conformity and sameness for the sake of peace, in truth we don’t grow if we all nod our heads but our hearts say otherwise. So conflict can be good it helps us to expand our understanding and visions. I don’t believe in demonising people, just respecting the differences. At the end of the day the world changes when people want it.

I like the idea of capacity building through teaching conflict resolution and self sufficiency. That is to work out problems in communities for a win/win and to be self sufficient. This helps us to make a connection to the earth, at the present time we are disconnected in so many ways, that is why many feel lost. That is the reason for it. When you are home, you are back in your own truth, you start to feel happy. I know I am in my truth as I cannot stop smiling. I feel happy and peaceful and it is becoming wherever I go. I like that feeling.

So after my goodbye’s with Dick. I headed into Nimbin to see the druggy capital. Had a look at the Environmental shop saw some brochures on the anti-whaling with the Sea Shepherd which is the ship with Steve Irwin’s name on it. I wondered at how the Japanese and Norwegians can kill off these magnificent whales. They say they do it for scientific research, yet it is well known they they are for consumption. The whales are very intelligent and have a system to communicate with each other in songs. They also refer to others by name. Some actually learn and communicate a language. They fish together and plan out strategies and give instructions. They use sonar to find their prey. Self awareness and intelligence are implied by these behaviours. There has been talk of lifting the international whaling ban. They are threatened with extinction if this practice continued. However, the International Whaling Commission reinstated the ban in June 2010. Phew the activists would have been saying. The countries largely involved in this whaling are Japan and Norway. Post 1986 jointly they have killed 35,000 whales. Prior to 1986 38,000 were killed annually, this dropped to 1,240 annually, so the moratorium worked. Unbelievable numbers there. Reference http://www.nrdc.org/media/2010/100623.asp, I sometimes wonder at the intelligence of our species. But I guess we are learning that when we wipe it all out, we can’t replace it. As the wise Indigenous Americans pointed out, ‘when the last tree falls ….we can’t eat money’.

There were other causes but that was the one that caught my eye. I also found a book on Biochar, heard of that? I hadn’t but had a feeling about it. My friend wants to help urban self sufficiency, so I thought of him when I bought the book. This is what Wikipedia says about it “Biochar is charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass, and differs from charcoal only in the sense that its primary use is not for fuel, but for biosequestration or atmospheric carbon capture and storage.[1] Charcoal is a stable solid rich in carbon content, and thus, can be used to lock carbon in the soil. Biochar is of increasing interest because of concerns about climate change caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG).” It enriches soils, so interesting stuff given top soils are diminishing, that is the productive capacity of land.

I left Nimbin and headed to Mullumbimby (great Aboriginal names). It was about 1.5 hours away through the Channon valley, beautiful rolling hills and trees, gorgeous view from hilltops. I ended up at my destination and saw my friend Meryn. She helped me get my REAL HOPE anti-bullying program into schools in Gippsland. We haven’t seen each other since 2004. So it was great to catch up. She has a lovely home surrounded by trees and a view of a defunct volcano. So spent the night there. Had a great time, then to the next stop.

I headed to Byron and then a small village out of Byron. I caught up with my other friend Jason. It was great to see him. He helped me with my website years ago and allowed me to stay with him when I wrote the children’s parliament. He knows how dedicated I am to peace and always a welcoming friend. We have great conversations about the money system and how it would be interesting to understand how it could be linked to social benefit. Novel idea hey. I talked about the flaw of profit maximisation that just promotes greed and self interest, there needs to be a way to encourage competition or indeed cooperation and exchange in ways that are socially responsible. I am sure many are looking into it.

Jason took me to Playback theatre. This is interesting, 5 performers will play back your story using movement, language and music in short pieces. So you get to know the audience through their stories. Some were of fear of snakes, not feeling heard (no voice) or to be themselves, facing fear, spiritual awareness, smoking and telling the truth to mother, empowerment and vulnerability, bullying and child birth. So you can see a range of topics. What was interesting was the overcoming often came down to trusting life. So there was a key message there. I told my story of clowning around the world and breaking the mould of being an analyst to really live a life with not much security but incredible happiness. So they acted that out and were very silly, made me laugh. Turns out there are a couple of clowns in the audience and we connect up. I could see the joy in the eyes, they were women, so good to see another person who feels to clown naturally. Women have great senses of humour, the female clown is not really known. So maybe if I come back here we will clown together or do some workshops. I also actually met a woman from Melbourne who met me at a party probably 6 years ago, she remembered me, wow what a memory. Met a nice israeli lady who had lived in Vancouver, very warm person, she had just married her Australian husband and she was the one fearful of snakes. She told the group she actually took flower essences, and to her amazement feels no fear of snakes at all. Apparently in her childhood someone threw a snake on her and she was terrified. The flower essences she said helped in that they caused dreams to happen. She said her last dream was a room full of snakes and she looked around and said no problem. How’s that for interesting. If it works I say go for it. So was a great night.

Woke up with a poem on my heart. Ended up spending an hour or so writing. Forget the time when I feel inspired. Will post it up next week. I then headed into Byron Bay and up to the Lighthouse. This is the most easterly point in Australia. Took me 3 hours to do the treck but loved it. The beaches are sensational. I can see that tourists would love this eastern part of Australia. It is spectacular coastline, goes for miles. Really clean water and beaches. You can see the volcanic rock washing up in very small particles on other rocks. I think the soil is so good here because of former rainforests (some still around the area of course, wonders they are) and volcanic activity. So if you are in this part of the world drop in (as we say). So back now feeling the desire to share my life with people.

Funnily enough when I told my friend I was blogging he said, you are a natural teacher. He is right. I love to share experience. I also believe in visibility and vulnerability, these are the twin strengths and we are here to live in community.

May my experience inspire you to share yours. Have a great night/day depending on the part of the world you come from. Life is truly wonderful and I feel my trip continuing. I feel really free and happy.