Byron Bay, Hippies, Didgeridoo's, and Park Rangers...

We arrived in Byron Bay last week to experience an honest hippy trap. It was Woodstock with no music. Heaps of dirty people gathering in circles making didgeridoo sounds accompanied by hand drums, guitars, and occasionally flutes. There are many folks like us living in wagons or vans. The mystery is where they all went to sleep at night.

Our first night in town we found what we thought to be a nice spot to park and sleep for the night among many other vans and wagons. Once the car was parked in its location we decided to go out to the pub for a few drinks. When we returned to to the car we found that most other campers had vacated the area. So after we were both a bit too snockered to move the car we decided to sleep in the car and keep a watchful eye for the rangers in the morning.

At 6:00 in the morning we were awoken by a ranger knocking on our neighbor's van window. Hearing this I grabbed my bag from the front of the car, crawled to the front seat, and tried to start the car for a smooth getaway. Unfortunately I turned the engine over but it did not start. Upon the second time turning the car over it started and I pulled out into the road. Just then the ranger came running over to our car to knock on our window.

He approached the window to find me wearing nothing but my boxers. He asked my how long I had been parked there. I told him we had driven through the night and got there at 5:00. He simply looked at me and said "No". So I explained that maybe it was 4:00. He looked at the front of the car and said "try again. You knew you were doing something wrong since you were trying to get away from me". So I said that maybe it had been around midnight that we arrived. He agreed and gave us a ticket for $86 for violating parking hours.