New Week, New Adventure

Noosa River Glow

Wine and Cheese in Snappa - hard life!

Dawn from Mt. Tinbeerwah

Glasshouse Mountains Vista

Hi everyone!

The forecast for the week had been very promising. Bright sunny skies, warm temperatures, how could we use it to our best advantage? Steves’ camera was still in the shop being repaired so we didn’t want to go anyplace extraordinary so Fraser Island was out of the question, but we needed to go north so my camera, Steve's back-up, could have it’s sensor cleaned. We decided to go to the Sunshine coast, about five hours north of Byron.

We loaded up Em and headed out early the next day first to Brisbane for sensor cleaning, then on up the coast. We settled on a campground in Noosaville, up river from Noosa Heads. We had the best tent site on the whole grounds, right on the banks of the river. From our tent we had the most spectacular sunset over the river towards the mountains in the hinterland that we enjoyed with the fisherman and pelicans.

Sunrise was from the lookout at Mt Tinbeerwah, then off to the Eumundi Market for a couple of hours. I must say, there are about half the people on a Wednesday than on a Saturday. The highlight was running into Juzzie Smith, a great musiscian from Byron, we told him how much we enjoy his music and how we are looking forward for more! Then off exploring. We explored the Noosa hinterland and found a great small town, Kenilworth. It had a really god Information booth, bakery and the most amazing art gallery. Who ever would have thought that a town with less than 1000 people would have such a great Main St. After lunch at the bakery we drove along the tourist drive through Obi Obi (they have the most amazing town names here), up to Mapleton, then back down to Nambour and then back home to Snappa.

Thursday we packed up and ambled back through the Glasshouse Mountains, taking pictures along the way.

Saturday was the federal election, it turned out to be a hung election, no winners yet, if the liberals do win, Australia will have had three Prime ministers in the 4 months we have been here. We started with Kevin Rudd, who was usurped by Julia Gillard from his own party, who then ran against Tony Abbott of the liberals. It will be very interesting to see who comes out on top and when.

Ozpig Part II

Tonight was Piggy's debut and he performed wonderfully. The images show Piggy from his bag to the end result, which was simple and delicious. Basically, I fired up a charcoal fire (they call them 'fire cubes' here) and Allie put a chicken in a cast iron camp stove along with some vegetables and we put the stove on top of Piggy and cooked it over the heat for two hours. It was cooked perfectly and literally fell off the bone, moist and tender.

Piggy stays hot for a while and I expect he'll be fine in the morning. So I expect we'll be heating up hot chocolate or tea for evenings in the bush before retiring to our humble abode, Snappa.

Tale of the Ozpig

Yes, there is such a creature and we decided to pursue it on a weekend jaunt. The Ozpig is actually an ingenious camp stove and heater that we saw at a camping show in Lismore (about 45 minutes away) and thought highly of but didn't buy at the time. We subsequently kicked ourselves and determined we would hunt one down and get it for our epic travels across Oz.

So, after a simple web search, we found that the fabled Ozpig would be appearing at the Mid-Coast Camping and Boat show down by Port Macquarie, NSW. As the weather was going to be good for the next few days, we packed up Em, the SUV, and strapped "Snappa" our new tent on the roof rack and set off on our hunt.

Port Macquarie is a good six hour drive away and we knew that we'd be camping the night and then take our time coming back to Suffolk Park, so we took it relatively leisurely. Good thing as there were numerous road-works and the delays were extensive. Eventually, were arrived at the camping show and paid our entrance, even though the gate attendant told us the show closed at five and it was already three. Although armed with a map of the showgrounds, it was so confusing that we simply strolled, keeping an eye out for the elusive Ozpig. We cornered one in a booth (okay, there were about twenty of them) and as we had driven so far, the vendor (who created the concept in the first place) threw in an extra stove pipe section. He had on hand the very first Ozpig and told us the story of how he was looking for a easily packable stove that could cook on his camping excursions and give off heat in the cool desert nights but didn't find what he was looking for. So he took an old propane gas tank for the grill, cut out holes for the firebox and top heating plate and welded on leg piece holders and a chimney flue port. I think he said his daughter said it looked like a pig and voila the Ozpig was born. Since then he enameled it in bright pink and brought it around to a few camping shows and with such positive response he decided to build a business out of the Ozpig.

After capturing our own Ozpig, we drove into downtown Port Macquarie to where we planned to camp for the night. We found the campground after simply walking the city's boardwalk and were happily impressed with the cleanliness and layout. I cannot imagine a substantial American city having a campground right in the center of the city on the best piece of land, but that's what we found here. Paying our $27 for an unpowered camp site, we unloaded Snappa and set it up in just a few minutes. Snappa is an Oztent with an internal frame that allows you to set it up with no poles or guy ropes in a matter of seconds. Since this was our first use of Snappa, it took up a bit longer to get everything right, but we managed quite well. When we bought the cots (or stretchers as they call them here), we opted for the longest they had, and they are quite nice and comfortable. However, they are unwieldy and honestly a bit too large. We got them in Snappa fine, but getting around was difficult and we couldn't put them together as they have cross-pieces that prevent this. Thus we couldn't share our duvet cover and I ended up a bit cold. Lessons learned and all that. Still, we had a great first experience camping in Snappa and definitely prefer cots to the hard and lumpy and cold ground.

Dawn was magical and while Allie could watch from her warm nest in Snappa, I walked all of 100 meters to the jetty at the end of the campground and spent an hour photographing it. Then, after a quick and cold breakfast (it was 7 degrees centigrade - 44 F), we packed up and headed on our next leg. We had decided the night before to drive up the "Waterfall Way" and see some of the region's natural attractions. This meant an hour or so of back-tracking up the coast, and then a turn inland to the mountains. From Urunga to Bellingen was simple and scenic but from Bellingen to Dorrigo was anything but. Switchback roads with a vengeance, along with recently washed out places made for some white-knuckle driving that I was thankful to have been driving here for three and a half months and sort of 'used to.' However, Allie did manage to enjoy some sights and we arrived in Dorrigo in one piece and made for our first waterfall, Dangar Falls. Not much, but it was uncrowded and simple, much like the town itself.

From there we continued to Ebor and the much more impressive Ebor Falls, which are actually two sets of falls, one right after the other. Although the light wasn't optimal for photos, the falls are definitely worth seeing. We then drove on to Point Lookout in the New England National Park and were treated to both magnificent vistas and a remnant of a prehistoric beech tree forest, each worth the trek themselves. As the day was passing, and we had a ways to go, we sped off for our final falls of the day before retiring for the night. The last, Wollomombi Falls is one of Australia's highest falls at nearly 300 meters in length. Unfortunately, there is no way to demonstrate the awe inspiring scale of these falls. Just imagine a waterfall from the Empire State Building and you've got it close.

Lastly, we drove up to our favorite New England tablelands city of Armidale for a well earned rest and warmth. The forecast temps were going to be -4 (26 F) and we aren't set up for this type of camping (our sleeping bags are for the other three seasons) so we splurged and had a wonderful time. The next morning I laughed because the innkeeper asked if I wanted some hot water in a bucket to defrost the windshield in a tone of voice that a frosty morning was one of the worst things in the world. I declined and scraped the windshield myself with no problems. After a long day of driving back through Ebor and nearly to Dorrigo, we veered off toward Grafton and eventually home. This route was suggested by a guy who knows scenery and we gave it a go. It was certainly pretty, but once was enough as we hit a rather long (20 km) stretch of very, very curvy roads and I was a bit tired of them. Lastly we got home in time and last night the heavens opened up and it has been raining hard off and on all night and through today.

And the Ozpig is happy here.

Port Macquarie Dawn Palm

Allie and Snappa

Point Lookout Vista

Wollomombin Falls

Armidale Dawn Frost

This week's News

We’re back to ourselves this week.

After taking a bit of down time, we drove up to Springbrook National Park on the Queensland/New South Wales border. It was the first really, really fine day, weather-wise, that we had had for the week. That was a very good thing as in one of the guidebooks that Tracey left with us, someone had commented that there are 450 curves in the road up to Springbrook, and clear, dry weather was essential to my driving comfort.

Springbrook is a delight. We were a bit famished and addled by the curves and stopped at a small but friendly café, the Gourmet Gallah that is located by a lookout. The coffee was excellent and even better; the proprietor gave us a small map and pointed out the best places to visit. She was spot on and we had a blast!
She said to visit Purling Brook Falls, which was nice, then we went to Twin Falls and did a 4 km trek through magnificent forests and underneath the falls! The track then continues back up to the ridge we started at and has amazing vistas. Finally we went to the “Best of All” lookout and it didn’t disappoint.

We got back in the car and drove to Natural Bridge, about 40 minutes away. It is a water formed cave grotto that has interesting glow-worms (not that I saw any) and a waterfall into a rock pool that was magical! If not for very loud and obnoxious children, it would have been a heaven on earth. Note to self – visit mid-week and not on weekends!

Yesterday we went down to see the sights of Iluka, NSW. It is a very small fishing village surrounded by two national parks, the Bundjalung and Iluka national forests. There is serenity to the place that comes from not being developed for tourists and simply catering to the needs of fishermen. In the parks there are a number of picnic places and vistas, along with a very well maintained camping area that we intend to try out next week. We spent hours walking the coast and taking photographs of the wild rock formations and sea life in the small pools.

Allie has the maps out and is planning next week’s adventure!