Eumundi Markets

Oh how I love Eumundi Markets!

We left the unit much later than we should have this morning (my fault for having a lazy lay in morning), so it was after 8am when we arrived at Eumundi Markets and the carpark was almost full!  This is no small carpark - it has room for more than a thousand cars on that empty block ... and that may be a conservative estimate.

The streets of Eumundi were already lined with parked cars and there were people everywhere.

This surprised me because it's so soon after Christmas .. aren't people supposed to be broke after Christmas?

Anyway, we paid our $5 parking fee, parked the car and then headed to Bohemian Bungalow for breakfast.

Adoring Husband and I first ate there on their opening day in early December 2012.  We didn't know it was their first day open when we walked in the door, but the food was great then, as it has been for the three other times that I've eaten there .. although the corn fritters that I had there today, were not as good as my own fritters that I make (even if I do say so myself!).

After we filled our bellies, we headed to the markets across the road.

I had no intention of spending money on anything except food .. but oh how I love Eumundi Markets!

So many lovely things.  So much colour.  So much atmosphere.

I got potions and creams and oils and balms and shoes and semi-precious rocks and jewellery and a fan and a lamp and delicious fresh fruits and that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Four hours later, we were all shopped out, so we drove to the supermarket to get some food that we could have bought at the markets so much cheaper, if only we'd thought about it before we left the area!

We made lunch at the unit and then BGWLBH needed to rest, so she headed for the comfort of her bedroom, while I gathered the rest of Chicklet's gifts (books and dinosaurs) and wandered across the bridge to meet with Vegan Chickie for a cold drink and chat, until Chicklet woke from her nap.

More dinosaur play ensued and I had a lovely couple of hours with my precious girl.

I ordered Thai food for dinner and picked it up on my way home to the unit, so BGWLBH and I sat down to a delicious green curry and BBQ chicken with chilli sauce and rice.

It's been a lovely restful evening and tomorrow we head off on our merry way, unsure of a direction or a plan at this stage .. but we will see what the day brings us.

Vegan Chickie took a photo of Chicklet and I walking along the path yesterday .. it's not often that we get a photo taken together, because it's usually me behind the camera, so I'm excited to share this one here tonight.

Feeling pretty rested now.

Nite all.

Antique Heaven

On our travels today, we stopped in Esk, initially to look at a clothes and gift store, but right next door was the old 'Staging Post Inn' (a pub) which is now an antique store.

I have never seen so many antiques in one building!

The old pub, which has so many rooms, I lost count, and every room is filled to the brim with antiques and collectables of every possible description.

Old carved timber chests of drawers, cabinets, kitchen dressers, dressing tables, desks, dining settings, coffee tables, side tables, lamp stands.

A hundred (if not more) different fine bone china table settings .. Royal Doulton and more.  A hundred (if not more) bone handled cutlery settings with carving knives and their velvet lined timber boxes.

Brass items of all descriptions, bowls, bells, decorative pieces, ornaments, animals and birds among other things.

Big old timber boat wheels lined one wall, 6 deep.

Stained glass windows and doors, lamps and ornaments.

Hundreds of crystal sets, vases, bowls, glasses, dresser sets.  Engraved silver teapots, brush and comb sets, engraved cutlery all shining in the light.

Stuffed long haired goat heads, complete with horns and mounted on plaques - I'm sure there was one in every room!

Uranium glass of all descriptions, locked in a timber cabinet with glass doors and backlit with a special light to show how it glows in the dark.

Pianos of all types .. beautiful old timber frames with ebony and ivory crazed keys.

Old framed paintings hung on the walls, some so darkened by age, you could barely see what the painting was and all different sizes.

Gold and silver jewellery with diamonds and rubies and semi-precious gems of all types.

Numerous church pews scattered throughout the building.

Boxes and boxes of old vinyl records.

A table full of commemorative plates and cups from every country and for every event, be it royal, religious or political.

Old doll perambulators.  A velvet cushioned, carved timber child's high chair that converted to a rocker.

There was even a complete stuffed cat sitting on top of one of the cupboards!

I believe that you could spend a full day in that building and still not see everything that they had on offer.  The list just goes on and on ... I wouldn't like to be the one doing 'stock take'!!

It was certainly an eye opener!

The weather was very gloomy for almost our entire trip today, with some heavy rain in parts and fine misty rain in others.

Our final destination for today, was the Sunny Coast, and Vegan Chickie was kind enough to research accommodation and found us a lovely two bedroom resort style unit for two nights.

It's the busiest time of the year for holiday makers on the Sunny Coast and with so little notice, she did very well to find it so quickly for us.

After we settled into our unit, we walked over to the Chicklet household late this afternoon, where the bare-chested chef fed us a delicious lamb casserole for dinner and I got to play dinosaurs with Chicklet.

I gave her a 200 piece bag of dinosaurs, but most of the pieces are trees and rocks .. not so many dinosaurs .. however, she loved it and we played for about 90 minutes before it was her bed time and we walked home to the unit.

We'll check out Eumundi markets tomorrow morning and then go visit Chicklet again in the afternoon.  Perhaps a walk through the National Park with our cameras later in the day would be nice.

Here's a photo from the first day of our road trip ...

Now it's time to sleep.

Nite all.

Oakey Dokey

What a great 'rest' day we've had today.

We spent the morning indulging in some serious retail therapy.

I got gifts for Adoring Husband and Chicklet and for myself!  It was very therapeutic!

After lunch, we headed out to Oakey to visit with Number One Son, who finished work at 3pm, and met us for a drink at one of the coffee shops on the main street.  Then I finally got to see where he lives and met his dog Jake.

Jake is a black labrador pup, who is still a bit crazy with puppy energy, who has already chewed up a plastic pool, among many other things.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo!  I could kick myself!!

We took the camera because we hoped to get in a bit of photography while we waited for Number One Son to finish work, but he was right .. there really isn't much to photograph in Oakey.  It's a very dry and unhappy looking town .. very much a mining town.

It was good to see Number One Son looking happy and healthy.

We left Oakey with enough time to make it back for a particular movie that we wanted to see, but we couldn't find a parking space near our chosen cinema.  We decided to try the other cinema in town and rushed through the complex and up two flights of stairs, only to discover that the movie we wanted wasn't even showing in that complex!

There was plenty of time then, to find somewhere for dinner before the next screening of the movie, so we found The Cube Hotel, which is just across from the cinema, and ate in their stone grill restaurant.

We bought our movie tickets first, because we didn't know how long dinner would be.

The food was very good, as was the service.  I had stone grill garlic prawns and BGWLBH had Thai Beef Salad.

We got to the cinema thirty minutes early, to find a long queue .. so we were grateful that we had bought our tickets, however, we couldn't watch a movie without popcorn!  So we stood in the long queue for twenty minutes to get popcorn and water.

The movie was "Philomena" starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.  It took us on quite an emotional rollercoaster ride and we liked it a lot.  Judi Dench is always good.

So tomorrow, we continue on our journey.

Mickey Mouse is already tucked up in bed, because he's exhausted from all the shopping!

Now that you know about today ... yesterday is still a mystery!

Nite all.

Over the border

Today, we made it into Queensland territory!!

I'm too tired to give you the rundown on today's travels, so with BGWLBH's help, we'll get you up to speed tomorrow.

It was a good day and we saw a lot and travelled some terrible roads, experienced some dreadful weather, heard some glorious birds calling, among other things.

We found this lovely little out-of-the-way stream with rock pools and running water ...

We are in Toowoomba and tonight we got a bite to eat and then went to the movies to see "August: Osage County" which was quite an intense movie, well acted and with many big names in it.

Now it's time to curl up in bed and hopefully sleep soundly for many hours.

Nite all.

Gorged Ourselves

We left Armidale bright and early this morning to take advantage of the early morning light with our cameras.

There were lots of places to turn off the main road and play 'tourist' today.  Gorges and Falls and small towns.

Our first detour was to find Gertz Gorge.  Along the corrugated dirt track, there were lots of little bunny rabbits hopping about and on the side of the road, we could see the holes that led to their warrens.

We tried to get a photo of the bunnies, but they were too quick.  I got a couple of shots in, but they are not clear ... you can tell it's a photo of a rabbit, but that's about it.

At the last grid and gateway to the gorge, there were two alpacas grazing nearby!

We made it to the gorge, but the viewing area was quite overgrown.  The good part, was that nobody else was there, so we got to stroll around on our own and enjoy the scenery and there were lots of little birds fluttering around the place.

The birds were very small, stayed close to the ground and flitted in behind the tall grasses - so none of my photos turned out very clear of them either!

When I think about it .. I had some great opportunities today, but luck wasn't always on my side and most of my photos were disappointing.

The next stop was at some 'falls', but we can't remember the name of them - we stopped where we thought the falls would have been, had there been water (the rivers and streams are very dry in these parts and only one of the falls has water at the moment), and took some photos.

What we thought were fish creating swirls in the stream, with hindsight, we think they may have been platypus, because the signs for accommodation had a platypus as a logo.  *forehead slap*  If we had been on the ball, there may have been a marvellous opportunity there with the camera!

Wollomombi Gorge was our next turnoff and this is where we discovered the Wedge Tailed Eagles!  They were soaring and playing on the thermals in the gorge, and looming from below us on the viewing platform.

We got lots of photos, but the air was very hazy and when they were above me, the light was too bright.  When they were below me, and when the light was perfect, I panicked and missed the perfect shots!  UGH!

The Wedge Tailed Eagle is the shot that I most want now, on my bucket list.  I know there will be another opportunity in my future .. hopefully it will be on this trip!

Next, we tried Point Lookout, but we could see as we got closer, that the weather was closing in.  The higher we drove, the lower the cloud dropped and by the time we reached the lookout, we could barely see in front of us, let alone the view from the lookout.  What a fizzer.

On the way back to the main road, we stopped near a stream to take a shot, and disturbed a man camped in a tent.  He appeared to have a marijuana plant growing in a pot by his tent .. can't say for sure, because we didn't get that close, but he seemed very edgy when we pulled up!

We found Ebor Falls next.  We had visited the same falls about 18 years earlier when Vegan Chickie was a teenager, so it triggered some nice memories for us.

By now, we were starving.  We hadn't eaten any breakfast and it was now after lunch, so we desperately wanted some food.

We stopped at Ebor, but just before we walked into the cafe (the only one in town), a large group of about 10 people walked in ahead of us.  We decided to push on to Dorrigo, which was about 55kms further up the road.

Well, wasn't that an adventure in itself!

The temperature dropped from about 26C to 14C and the fog was so thick that we could barely see the road!

We slowed right down to 40kmh in some parts of the drive and we had two trucks on our tail.  The road was very twisty and windy as we travelled over the mountains to our destination and it took much longer than we anticipated!

Thank goodness, we found a cafe and produce store, that had organic and gluten free goods for sale, as well as delicious, healthy food.

We had a Moroccan Chicken dish with three different salads and two much-needed coffees.  It was delicious and the price was right.

We left the cafe and strolled through the store of a second hand/antiques dealer.  The store was as big as a warehouse and it was like a trip down memory lane for BGWLBH and I.

We pointed out all the items that we grew up with, as kids.  Crockery and biscuit tins and vases and milk bottles in their little carry cage, money boxes, wall decorations, kitchen utensils and cooking gear.  It was very enjoyable.

We found the Art gallery and viewed some beautiful art and jewellery and timber-wares.

After we left there, we had to endure some more foggy twisty roads, to find the little town of Bellingen and the butter factory.

Great little shops that we could have spent a fortune in, if we had a fortune available to spend!  Instead we 'spent a penny' and used the bathroom facilities, then bought refreshments before taking off on the next leg of our journey.

We wanted to head north to Coffs Harbour, but somehow found ourselves heading south to Kempsey!  By the time we figured it out and found a way to turn around on the highway, we had lost about 30 minutes of travel time ... just another little adventure along the way!

We are not very keen on freeway or highway travel, so after we got to Coffs Harbour, we found a turnoff that took us through Nana Glen, and onto the back roads towards Grafton.  We'd hoped to find a motel in Nana Glen for the night, but it's a much smaller town than we realised, and even though we didn't drive right into town, there didn't appear to be much in the way of accommodation there.

We pushed on for another 50km through beautiful rolling green pastures and rainforest areas to finally reach Grafton.

South Grafton was our point of entry and it looked very dodgy, with broken down old houses - it appeared to be a very old part of town and not very well maintained or cared for.

A drive over the bridge to the other part of town and it's a completely different story.

We found a little motel called 'The Abbey' and took the last room available, which has two single beds in it.

So, it's been an eventful day, but Mickey didn't want to get involved at all with the day's activities because it was so cold and wet.  No Mickey photos today.

Let's see if I can get some decent sleep tonight.  I've slept poorly since I've been on holidays and am beginning to feel a bit worn out.  Luckily we've been eating well, although missing breakfast today was a big mistake I think.

Tomorrow should be another eventful day and I'm excited to see what it holds for us!

Nite all.

Where are we?

The 'Most Excellent Adventure' was quite a bit less than 'most excellent' today ... a lot of driving and not much adventuring, however ...

... tomorrow should involve a bit more adventure.  We'll be taking the back roads to tomorrow's destination and there are national parks and bush walks and side tracks to fill up the whole day .. as long as the weather holds up.

There are showers forecast for the whole area, but hopefully they will be scattered and won't interrupt our day too much.

We did stop to visit some alpacas ...

... and Mickey was kept fairly busy for the day ...

We arrived in Armidale nice and early and took ourselves to the movies to see "The Hobbit No 2" which was good, but went for 2.5 hours and BGWLBH asked me near the end of the movie "How many days have we been here?"

Room service is always a bonus when you're too tired to make any effort to find food elsewhere.

We want to start early tomorrow, to make the most of the adventures to come, so I'm signing off now!

Nite all.

Nice People Day

BGWLBH declared today "Nice People Day".

Country folk are the nicest and happiest people.

It all started at breakfast, when we stopped in Blayney for coffee.  We walked in the door of the cafe, to discover that it was an Indian Restaurant, which served bacon and eggs for breakfast (among other things), as well as coffee.

So we sat down at a table and were served by the happiest, friendliest Indian gentleman.  He took our order and was the only one there to make our coffee and cook our breakfast and serve other customers as they walked in the door.

He was very efficient and wasn't at all fazed.  The food was great.  The coffee was great.  The service was great.

If you're ever in Blayney, find your way to Sam's Cafe and Restaurant at 85 Adelaide Street, Blayney.  They even have their own website here.

I can't remember what order the towns are, so I'll just tell you what happened at them, not in any particular order.

We stopped at a little town called Wattle Flats, just north of Bathurst, where we found a little craft and art shop.

As I wandered through to a back verandah, one of the ladies asked me where we were from.  When I told her that BGWLBH was from Griffith, she very excitedly pointed at the room that we had just walked through and said that the lady in there was from Griffith!

So BGWLBH turned on her heels and walked back into the room to introduce herself.  The lady's name was Cunningham, and sitting at the table was another x-Griffith girl whose father once owned Donaldsons Mitre 10 in Griffith.

We had a lovely chat with these friendly people before continuing on our journey.

The next nice person was the service station attendant in Ryleston.  Super friendly.  He advised me that he had worked EVERY SINGLE DAY this year (it's only 5th January) and was looking forward to knocking off at 5.30pm ... and if the Government didn't stop moving the retirement age, he expected to be at the service station until he turned 90!

While we were travelling through the Hunter Valley, we wanted to take in the beautiful scenery, so our speed sat at around 80kmh the whole way.

We noticed a ute behind us, but he wasn't close, he sat back the legal distance and didn't seem bothered about overtaking us.

After a while, we stopped at a rest area to use the loos and have a short break.  BGWLBH went first while I tried to photograph some finches in the trees nearby, and when she returned, I went to the loo.

As I was returning, a man walked past me and commented about what a nice place this was and I agreed.  When I got back to the car, I noticed the familiar ute parked in front of us and BGWLBH then related the conversation she had just had with him.

He wasn't concerned about our speed, because he too was enjoying the scenery.  He named the tree that was in full bloom, that we had been admiring along the drive and had given BGWLBH information about the drive ahead of us.

Much further up the road, where we knew he was turning off in a different direction, he waved as we went the opposite way.

Then, late this afternoon, when we were booking into the motel, BGWLBH said that the lady who served her was very friendly too.

After we'd settled into our room, we found our way to the Golf Club for dinner at the Thai restaurant and the young woman who served us was super friendly and chatty and we had a 10 minute conversation with her when we ordered our meal.

They are the ones that stand out in our minds from today's travels and they have all left us feeling warm and fuzzy and fortunate.

The other highlight of the day, was discovering a little place called Carcoar, just off the beaten track.  It was the most delightful little village with amazing buildings and churches and a running stream through the middle.

For the Carcoar story, visit the website here

It's been a great day for us AND for Mickey ...

Nite all