Drogendorf and Waterfalls

On 10.12., so last Saturday, we drove a bit inland in the morning after checking out of our campsite in Byron Bay. The guy at the Visitor Centre had recommended a few waterfalls and a small village, so we thought it would be a good idea for a day trip.

First, we drove for about an hour through hilly landscape to the Minyon Falls, which are located in the Nightcap National Park. The waterfall there is special because it is so high. We stood on the viewing platform at the top of the waterfall and from there it was just 100m down. It feels weird when you look down! It would have been even more impressive if there had been water in the waterfall. All that flowed down the 100m were a few drops. We had imagined it differently :D Basically, we visited not a waterfall, but just a deep valley with a beautiful, wide view. It was still nice, but it could have been better.

After the viewing platform at the top of the waterfall, we drove to a picnic area where you have a nice view of the rock wall where the water usually falls down. There we had our lunch and then continued driving. It took almost another hour through very pretty, green hills until we arrived in Nimbin. It is a very small village with only 300 inhabitants, which has become famous because it is the only place in Australia where the consumption of marijuana is tolerated. There used to be a hippie festival there (there is still one every year) where drugs were taken. The police then arrested some people, but after a peaceful protest by the other festival-goers, the police surrendered and since then marijuana has been tolerated. It is still illegal, but there are some shops on the short main street of the village that sell smoking accessories, books about cannabis and various herbs. There are also certain places where people can smoke and everyone knows that it is done. I thought it was really cool to look at the shops and the people there, because it's really its own cosmos. There is a lot of esoteric stuff and fancy clothes and we also saw some people who looked like typical, aging hippies with dreadlocks, tattoos, flowers and colorful clothes. We were offered grass and cookies once, but we politely declined. We preferred to get a completely drug-free milkshake in one of the cute shops :D It was really delicious and also quite cheap!

Once we had smelled enough incense-scented air and seen people daydreaming, we continued driving. But the visit was really worth it, I thought it was really cool there! Our next stop was the Killen Falls. It took us almost another hour to get there, but they were on the way back to the highway, so we decided to stop by. The special thing about this waterfall is that you can walk behind it because there is a large cave under the edge. We had never seen anything like it before and it was really great! We had to walk a short distance from the car park, but it was only about 300m. Many locals were swimming in the pool below, but it was a bit too cold for us. We contented ourselves with walking behind the waterfall and taking some cool photos. Then we went back.

After we had returned to the Pacific Highway, which runs along the east coast of Australia, we continued driving south. We had chosen another rest area for the evening. Now that we knew that campsites are quite expensive, we wanted to stay at rest areas and try to reach Sydney without any overnight costs. Let's see if we can implement that, because unfortunately there are not many free campsites in New South Wales. But it would save us a lot of money and saving money that can be spent elsewhere is always good :D