A Day in Mullumbimby

The festival has come to an end.  We say goodbye to our friends Chris and Christobel who have been our hosts for the last few days and head up to Mullumbimby for a bit of alternative culture and down time before we head back home.  We find Australia’s biggest little town nestled in glorious surroundings and fall in love with its laid-back vibe and wonderful cafes.  We have been fortunate to have sold Steve’s book to a few bookshops along our way to Byron and we strike it lucky once again at the bookshop here.  It is a glorious day so we spend some time taking photographs and exploring the town before we settled down for coffee and brunch at the local café.

 

We find some great initiatives in town including Mel’s Well, which provides free filtered water for the residents here.  We had seen similar schemes in Europe but didn’t realise they also existed in Australia.  Well done, Byron Council—such a great way to reduce the use of plastic.  We also discovered that the Environmental Levy was being used for Food Production on Public Land—a great way to start creating an edible landscape.  Many other initiatives caught our eye including solar powered lighting, public art, and a colour coding system at the local IGA that helped people identify locally sourced food, organic and gluten free products. 

 

I love taking street portraits and the chance to spend a few minutes hearing the stories of strangers.  I met a man who had moved up here from the Central Coast who was happy to share his time with me and we spent a few minutes chatting before I took his portrait.  My eyes were not the only ones that had spotted his interesting face and he told me that he already features in one of the popular photo books from this region! 

It was such a glorious day we decided to have a picnic lunch by the water.  Water has such a hypnotic effect on both of us that we could probably have stayed here forever.  All too soon it is time to head back for that long

drive back to Hornsby.  It will be close to midnight when we get home but we enjoyed some glorious sunshine, discovered a wonderful town and made some new friends from this region who we may meet again on this wonderful creative journey we are on…