Hello Boys and Girls, I'm B@@@@ck! =D

The Rainbow Kite has returned. l0l jks. I didn’t get a hippy name XD

I hope that you are all doing well, and have many interesting stories to tell of your own.

I left home prepared for cold, wintery, Lithgow weather. Then was whisked away on a whim, on a long journey with The Rainbow People. We are like, hippies, hehehe. The meaning of the Rainbow is basically, all the different colours, the walks of life, comming together as one. This has been, for so many reasons good and bad, the most incredible journey of my life. I probably used that word incredible more time then we saw dead kangaroo by the side of the roads.

I started off in Lithgow, staying with family friends, close enough to call family themselves anyway. I needed some time away from home, to relax, and get some goodness back into me. Good food, good spirit. Their daughter, was going on and on about going to this Rainbow Gathering in Cairns, and I hadn’t really had it click in my mind yet that I had seen 3 rainbows, the kind in the sky, in the couple of weeks leading upto going to stay in Lithgow. Then again of course, I see ANOTHER 3 rainbows, while in Lithgow. WTF, basically. But it did click in my mind, that somebody was trying to send me a damn obvious message about what to do, when asked, I said yes to joining the Rainbows on the journey to the Gathering.

A couple of days in Bleakheath, where our Caravan of cars would leave the cold bitter winters of the temperate zones, and begin the trek through the inland highways North, where on the first day of driving, one of the main Vans breaks down, JUST as we reached the servo at Mudgee.
So we spent 3 days camping in Mudgee, gorgeous, GORGEOUS place, before we decided to hit the road again, and Darren, who’s Van had broken down, went back to Sydney with his van to try and get things sorted out.
We got to Moree about, 9:30pm, to the tourist info center, where we could not find the caravan park we were planning on staying in, so instead we found another, and got there just in time to book a couple of Cabins before the place would have closed for the night. All tired and exhausted, our group went to one Cabin, and the other went to theirs, which there was a cabin between ours with other people staying in it that “we” didn’t know.
Around midnight, just after I had finished writing in my journal, there was shouting from outside. Took me far too long to get out there, but when I had the “Moree Incident” was already mostly over. Totally crazzy l0l. A pair of masked bandits, had tried to get into the car of the people whos cabin was in between ours, however the guy, very much a hippy himself, was sleeping in his car and was disturbed by the bandits, who in, I guess, a surprise reaction, hit him in the face before running over and bursting through the door of our crews other cabin, where one of our groups organizers had left her laptop on the table. I mean, it was only a MacBook, but still. They grabbed that, and they bolted back out the door and took off down the road. NickNick, jumped in his car and took off after them, only to have cut his hand open really badly while trying to jump a fence to chase down these crooks. I jumped straight into First Aid mode. I mean, my certificate had expired a year before I believe, but I FINALLY had the chance to put those skills to the test!! XD
The Police came, took statements, and people didn’t sleep till 4am. The next day, many took needy advantage of the Artesian hot springs in the area, to relax and unwind after the previous nights pandemonium. Funnily enough, Pranah, one of the American guys, knew the older hippy from the cabin inbetween ours who was punched in the face, from India! Small world yes. =)
We hit the road again that day, and the next camping spot was a place on the side of the long “desert” highways, called Staircase Range Picnic Area.
Ofcourse we never were ontime. With a group like this, you either go with the flow of things, and move when everybody is ready and it just happens, or you plan everything and stick to it. Try and mix both of those together, and you get issues. =)

We made it to Townsville by maybe, 2am? You lose track of time, for the better on journeys like this too, and stopped at Saunders Park, right near the beach. Now me, still having a strong phobia of Tsunami, from the dozen or so dreams that I had of them maybe a year ago, I just soo didn’t want to stop there for the night. But we did, and everybody else being so tired from the journey, crashed out fairly quickly. Myself, was just not going to be sleeping, exposed to the grand Pacific Ocean hahaha.
I went down on the beach maybe 4am, and went into the water, in the cold and dark, by myself, not knowing what was infront of me. Rays, Crocs, rusty syringes, Norwegians, and I put my trust into the water. Still terrified ofcourse, I had avoided the coast and beaches for a loong time now, so to be out there in the cold and dark alone and just not knowing, was terrifying and pure exhiliration at the same time. I stayed up to watch the sunrise come across the water, before going back to the car and going to sleep for a couple of hours before being woken back up,and getting ready for the drive to Cairns.

Cairns was crazzy, after being the places we had been, comming back to a City was abit overwhelming at first, but after settling down, we all had a great time. Such a beautiful place, and a Saturday night no less, so all the younger people and backpackers were out partying, so we soaked up the good atmosphere for the night, before the next day, the final leg of the journey. Ofcourse, like every other day, we left later then we tried to plan to, so when we did finally arrive at the Gathering in the Atherton Tablelands, near Watsonville, it was night. But we were home. =)

I stayed up in the “Carpark” for the first 3 nights, before I moved my stuff down the 40minute, badly eroded trail down to the river. Totally worth the wait, I had seen nothing like it before. Incredible smooth, bright granite, constantly flowing water, even in the middle of the dry season. Hot days, Cold nights. I had escaped the normal winter drudgery. Hashy was in the Tropics now! =D

I camped, yes Hashy is a camper, under this GORGEOUS little granite ledge, not quiet a cave, but very cozy. Not a lot of headspace though, and I think I had accidently evicted the local Micro Bats from their home. I slept on one of those flimsy foam rolls, on the hard granite rock, and it felt to me no less comfortable then sleeping on a soft luxurious matress. Aslong as I am somewhere, and I am relaxed, then I can sleep, and the “comfort” factor, I just find irrelevant. =)
Gorgeous, Incredible place there. You don’t want to leave. The place and the people are just so wonderful, you could not leave hehehe. But I felt the calling to move on again, I was dropped off in Atherton town where I stayed the night in the Barron Valley Hotel, lovely original old hotel. Had my first drink at the bar in a pub too that night. mmmm, bundy. =p Then I had a pre dawn bus to catch to Cairns, for my flight back down to Brisbane to stay with my Aunty & Uncle, and see my Mums family again that I hadn’t seen in 5 years.
Fortunately for us, unfortunately for r0bag, my timing comming back to Brisbane was PERFECT, when I got online and seen that the Karaoke was going down! A camera was needed, and a camera was brought. MUAHAHAHA. It will still be maybe a few more days before I get pictures and videos up and ready for everybody to see. I was going to goto Officeworks today and have them burn off whats on my memory card, however I’m fairly sure I’m comming down with the Plague, finally, so travelling around, pressing my fingers all over public touch screens might not be the most responsible course of action ;p l0l

There was Karaoke, which looked like a heck of a lot of fun, next time Rayne. =p And that was my first time meeting any of the Team, outside of the original group of “pro” hockey and trekking. I had an awesome night, thanks rayne and r0bag. I hope you’s both had a great time aswell, it was lovely to meet you both and definately hope to again! =D

I came back home on the 15th. I went past Suncorp stadium that afternoon, flew back to Sydney, and was home with enough time to watch the State of Origin match. Yes I escaped Brisbane just in time, lots and lots of Moroons supporters comming out of the Domestic Terminal in Brisbane, fortunately my allegiance was cloaked enough, every other Blues supporter with a jersey was berrated with no reprieve. It was, a fucking awesome game to watch though, and it wouldn’t be League, and especially Origin, without the biff. =p

Completely ironically enough, its the day I came back, and the day I was in Sydney, near the coast, again, where we have Tsunami Alerts! HAHAHHAHA. Fortunately I had gotten over that fear from my experience at Townsville. But just the timing, the perfection of that there, after embracing spirituality some more, these “coincidences” just make so much more sense. Ofcourse it was a fizzer wave, but for me to come back then and be near the coast, was quiet a spin out for me. =D

I saw Transformers 2 while up at Brizzy aswell. Giant r0b0ts smashing each other to pieces is always fun. Shad, wanna start taking bets weather Unicron will be in the third movie or do you want to hand over the Svalsbards now? ;p
I saw Star Trek last night aswell, first time we had dragged the parents to the movies in aages. Should have hear them complain. ooooh not enough leg room, ooh the screen wasnt as nice and clear as our TV. hahahha. It was alot of fun, great time out, and great too my bro, Kazashi again. Thanks for the plague bro, it will mix with the Giardia tropical plagues quiet nicely thanks.

Ive got a few of the best photos up on my flickr page now. Ive got loads more pictures, ill get around to them eventually. I had a bunch burnt off onto disc in Brissy, but that was before the Karaoke so theyre still screaming trying to get out of my cameras memory.

Crazy, wonderful journey. 4 weeks away, twice as long as I had been away from home before, and twice as far as I had been as well,and I would do it all again.

Tired now, the mix of Giardia and Swine flu will be lots and lots of fun!! XD

I’m b@ck =)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36701038@N02/