Weekend of Reggae and Hitchhiking

This was a weekend of firsts for me.  As many of you know I really don’t do that many “out there” kind of things to begin with.  Moving up here to Pt. Douglas is one of those things I really wanted to work on.  After some convincing, my friend and I decided to hitchhike to Reggae Festival in the mountainous rainforest town of Kurunda (Reggae capital of Australia), armed for 3 days with nothing but flip-flops and a sweatshirt.  From the place I am staying in Port Douglas, to the festival grounds in Kurunda it is about a 1 hr and 30 min drive.  Feeling apprehensive about it all, I let me friend stick out the first thumb to see the hitchhiking way.  Surprisingly, it only took about 5 cars to pass before a local girl picked us up in her convertible.

After about 15 min down the road we departed ways, and I was told I was very lucky to have been picked up in a convertible for my first successful hitchhike.  The second lift took about 5-10 minutes until a delivery driver from Cairns picked us up.  Dillon was an interesting character, really nice guy and like most Queenslander stereotypes really racist.  His story was quite interesting, he was a Mui Thai fighter (Thai Boxing), who represented Australia in several fights all over Australasia.  Mui Thai provided him the opportunity to travel outside of Oz and enjoy some experiences he wouldn’t have had otherwise.  He was forced to retire when he was knocked unconscious at a fight in Paupa New Guinea and settled in Cairns.   

The next guy to give us a lift was a local tradie, who put me on edge a bit when I noticed he had about three police reports scattered in the back seat.  Alas we made it to the festival in around two hours and one piece and not like another Australian hitch hiker story.

When we got to the festival it was set up on a beautiful billabong in the rainforest.  It was a pretty cool place to go to a reggae festival.   Who knew hippie chicks with dreads and hairy armpits could be attractive, I was taken back a bit when I saw a couple attractive hippies.  After a full day of hitch hiking and dancing we made heaps of friends and crashed in some tents where I shivered the night away.  

On the way back from the festival our first ride was from three young aboriginal girls who informed us we were there first hitchhikers they had ever picked up.  After a couple of other short rides, an aboriginal tree surgeon named TC picked us up.  TC was a great guy, from the moment we stepped into his Land Rover, he reached into the back pulled out three cold beers to share and told us some crazy stories about his days as a Pearl Diver off the west coast of Australia in Broome.  We had a couple beers along the way with TC before he dropped us off about 10 min away fom Port Douglas. TC was really nice and even invited us to a race derby at his house.  

 Our final ride was a real weirdo in a Mercedes, he was a vegan with leather seats, rings on every finger and lectured us about his the universes energy and his days as a Chinese takeaway delivery driver.  Our trip back took just a bit over 2 hours as well.

All in all it was a really cool experience, and I think I am officially addicted to hitching now.  Who knew there was such an art to it?