Why I Didn’t Marry Heath Ledger

Brokenhead Headland, the place where we’re Wwoofing, has an ancient and significant role in the aboriginal history of the area. Much like every other coastal area in eastern Australia, they have an aboriginal slaughter story. It’s horrific, but not uncommon. A large quantity of flower was stolen from the trading post. The aboriginals were blamed for the theft and slaughtered by gunfire. That is actually much more humane than some other areas where the white men poisoned the aboriginals by lacing their gifts of food with strychnine.

The legend dates back to aboriginal times and has to very distinct and interesting ending.

A woman, Gorgogan was born and lived in Woodenbong to the north of Brokenhead Beach. She magically flew south to the beach and became a spirit. During the day, she would appear as the black rocks on the shore along with many other women spirits. At night she would

Ending One: Appear as a light at sea and lure certain men to their deaths.

Ending Two: Appear as a light at sea.

The differences of the two tales are fascinating to me. Which men were lured? Who was responsible, the men or the spirit. The questions can go on indefinitely. I love it.

According to a local aboriginal authority, the second version is most likely the original. Aboriginal takes generally have ambiguous and peaceful endings.

– Carrie

New Year’s Day began with a bang. Not really. It began with me doing my standard waking up freakishly early when I’ve been up since 4:00 am thing. Because that’s what I do. Finding and using an internet cafe has been somewhat of a challenge on this trip. There are several, but they all elected to be closed on new year’s morning. I walked in to Byron to find that I could by a latte, I could buy a sarong, I could even buy some pennicilin, but I couldn’t get on the net. Bummer. That’s Australian for bummer, in case you were wondering. So I hung out at the beach for a bit, then made my way back to the hotel to find out about our new Wwoof host. Scary stuff. Wondering about the person you’ll be living with for several days.

So Greg, our Wwoof host, was supposed to pick us up at 11:00 at the hotel. He called around 11:00 to tell us he was running late and he’d be there in “half an hour.” Uh oh. We’ve heard that before.

He got there about 45 minutes later and we rolled out of Byron. We immediately found that our Wwoof host trepidation was unfounded. We found that he had an additional Wwoofer, Mick, who would would be working with us. Cool.

Greg is a nice guy. He’s SUPER liberal. All in all, an Aussie hippie. He’s a former sculptor whose now earning his bread by playing the stock market. Allright. We know the an all sand headland in the middle of a national park some place south of Ballina, but we really didn’t know what that meant. Apparently, that means a one lane road through the park up the dune to the properties. You can see for kilometers (hehe) to the park and the sea in either direction. This has been the only place in Oz, the only place in the world, with white sand dunes outside of the Florida panhandle. From the home, you take a trail down to the beach over HUGE white sand dunes to the gold sand coast. Once you’re there, you reach the black sedimentary rocks with erosion holes created from an ancient forest. Lunch consisted of scrumptious selections from the garden, including bagels, tomato salad, hummus and even caterpillars in the greens. Who knew Wwoof food would be this AMAZING?

So we made our way down to the beach with Jude, the neighbors partner, while the boys took a nap. Once we returned, a lady with her daughter and a friend dropped in for the night. We had a HUGE dinner with stir fry with chicken, sweet potatoes (I actually ate them, believe it or not) and wilted greens straight from the garden. All of the grown ups LOVE to talk politics. It’s interesting. In the US, they would certainly be considered the Green Party. We even tried a “shandy,” which is beer with sprite. Strange, but no stranger than red wine with Coca-Cola in Spain. After we finished, we noticed something strange outside. There was a white rainbow, which had to be caused by the moon. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Oh yeah, there is even an outhouse. Not like the wooden structure with the crescent moon cut-out in the front. More of a glass brick with stone tile and bamboo shades kind of outhouse. The water is still rainwater, so it’s a bit different from home. This northern rivers region of Australia is particularly environmentally conscious. The homes are run on a combination of solar and wind power. Very progressive.

Do you know what heaven sounds like? I’ve found out. It sounds like surf, wind and cicadas. I found that I LOVE to go to the point in the back yard and pretending like I’m the only person in the universe. It’s easy to do here.

– Carrie