Nuts!

Pointsettia

Back when we were still on the road, traveling towards Bright Victoria, we stopped at a stand along the road that was selling bags of mixed nuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds assorted hazelnuts and macadamias, or better known here as macas. Well, after buying a nut cracker, we have consumed all said nuts except for the macas which are next to impossible to get into.

Today at the farmers market I asked at a maca stand how does one get into the nut, he smiled a slow smile and said there are two ways, hitting the nut with a hammer, which really hurts because the thumb gets hit each time as well, or buying a vise like cracker. No, he doesn’t sell them, but he said he would mention the good idea to his son. Won’t do us any good at the moment though, so we are off on the search for a maca cracker. Now we could go up the road to The Macadamia Castle, even get in a round of miniature golf in at the same time, but then instead of embarrassing ourselves by going into such an establishment, we could be patient and search at the various markets.

We have been driving the highways and byways the last two weeks, learning the area and all it has to offer, and if you love fresh food this is the place to be. Everywhere you drive, there is a stand along the road with an honesty box that sells macas, lemons, mandarins, bananas and avocados, all in season now. Some of the larger coffee growers even have bags of coffee out for sale. We haven’t picked up coffee yet, but we will. On one road out to the highway, if we take the road through Midgin Flat, we go up through what we call coffee hill. Beautiful. Rows of coffee trees with views out to the coast, the rolling hills in the foreground, the ocean in the background.

Steve has gone and gotten a library card. Books here are twice as expensive here as back in the states. We don’t understand it because they are all printed in the same place (China) and Australia is much closer, but far more expensive. Even books in the secondhand book shops are dear. So off to the library we go. The library in Byron smells like dead books, dark and dingy, but a card there allows you to use any library in the shire. Yesterday we went up to Mullimbimby for something or other and went to the library there. It is well worth the drive. Clean, bright, and even new books. Steve is in heaven.

The poinsettias are in full bloom at the moment. The red, whites, pinks and I even saw a bicolor today. It is just so wild to see our typical Christmas holiday decoration in bloom in the yards as a shrub. I have even taken a picture so you will believe me.

Sunny days and outlook

Cape Byron Light at Sunset

It is sunny and bright, which after all the rain is wonderful. However, it is a bit hard to see a computer screen. Can't have everything.

I've been searching for a coherent theme for the Australia book and my wonderful wife, Allie, came up with the answer. Simply this, the book will be of our impressions of Australia. In photography and verse, we'll try to capture the true essence of this wonderful place. This beats trying to write a travelogue of a year's trek through the country, which would probably bore the tears out of anyone trying to wade through it.

In the meanwhile, I'll continue to take photos and absorb the beauty around us.

Steve

Boulder Beach Wave Mist

Cape Byron Light Porch

Byron Surfer Silhouette

Just time to post a few images

Sorry I don't have long, but here's a few images for you to enjoy!

Steve

A week of rain

Yes, it is again raining. It was nice yesterday morning, but then the clouds came back and it is raining. There is a persistent low off Sydney and we'll have rain for the foreseeable future. Oh well, I guess I can work on images and go over some photoshop training stuff I brought along.

In the meantime, enjoy these images. :)

Steve

Allie Silhouette

Beauty and the Beast 2010

It's Pouring!

Hi everyone,

Sorry this has been a while but I am currently huddling under a canopy at the local Green Garage, a food store that also has seating and tables, so I'm availing myself of the connectivity.

It has been pouring today and the plants, apparently are loving it. I'm not, but then again, contrary to public opinion, I'm not a plant.

Anyway, here are a few images from recent days. Enjoy!

Allie's Turn

Here's a recap of the past week from Allie. Enjoy!

It’s Sunday and Steve’s birthday. We went over the border into Queensland for Sunday shopping, on the hunt for internet. No success and just too many people, so we lit out of there and took the scenic tour home, along the back roads through the Tweed River Valley where you drive along fields and fields of cane. Beautiful area. We stopped at the Information area in Murwillumbah, and the guy there suggested that we go to the Tweed Art Gallery, it was open and on our way. Now who would have thought that an Art Gallery like this would be out here. To top it off, we met a couple that live in Tweed, but are from Beverley MA. Go figure.

Well here we are mostly settled into our home for the next five months. We moved in on Monday after staying for 5 days with our friends Greg and Christine. It is always good to get to your own space, one never wants to overstay one’s welcome. Anyway, here we are, we have done our initial shopping, measured our morning or evening walks, done the necessary things at the bank for the time being, and found the bottle shop. Lucky for us, if we go through the back gate, it is only a two minute walk. We are at the moment happily trying all the Australian bottles that are under $10. No bad ones to report back on, in fact the ones that we recognize are Little Penguin, and Stump Jump.

We have now gotten internet, barely. We have a mobile broadband, like we have at home. Funny though, it only works upstairs on our balcony, and barely, but as soon as we get out of Suffolk Park, it works quite well. We seem to be in a renowned dead zone. Figures. Anyway, we do get out and check e-mail once a day, and struggle with it at home.

Wednesday Christine and Georgina took us out for coffee. If they hadn’t taken us we never would have found it. What a charming place. The menu’s look excellent, the coffee local and excellent, and the ambience couldn’t be better. It’s just off the highway in the town? Of Newrybar, across from a shop that sells “dead peoples stuff”. We haven’t been in yet, but you can be certain we will before long. Then we drove along the local roads being shown good places to stop and buy fruit and veg from roadside stands.

Yesterday was market day. We got there early, the salad greens were beautiful, well, everything was beautiful. I reckon that we can do most of our shopping there for all our food. Grog and other essentials have to be gotten elsewhere. But really, who cares. If any of you have been to our favorite farmers market in Brattleboro, this is just the same, with the same characters attending.

Today, off we went to the Nightcap Range to the Rocky Creek Dam, a park which has a big reservoir that supplies water to Ballina, Lismore, Byron and the surrounding areas. Then we were going to go back thorough Rosebank, but saw the psychedelic bus from Nimbin, so our car swerved that away. Nimbin is the “spiritual home of Aquarius”. “a blend of hippie counter-culture, artists, farming and cottage industries.” It was a true experience, I don’t think we have seen more dreads, tie dye, hemp in all its glory, in such a small area. We had lunch at the Rainbow Café, est. 1973. Oh yeah, this town was a trip. (get it?) People come from all over the world for this place to pay their respects or whatever they do. It’s an ICON! Anyway after wandering the streets and seeing the sites, we then wove our way back home.

Broken Head Oriental

Tallow Surfer BW

Boulder Beach Waves

Looking north from Boulder Beach

Settling In

Yesterday was a huge day as we moved into our new abode, where we'll be until the end of September. Pictures will follow, but right now, we are severely limited in our internet access as that is not as simple as we'd hoped. Right now, in fact, we are at McDonald's using their free wifi. We really fit the unit, although the car is a very tight squeeze into the garage.

Our days have been filled with walking the beach (approx. 3-4 miles a day), driving into the hinterland to look at things, and generally simply adjusting.

Here are some of the sights. Enjoy!

Murwillimbah Vista

Tallow Beach Evening

Old Man of the Sea

Life's a Beach!

Life's a Beach

In two days we'll be ensconced in our new digs and we are chomping at the bit. In the meantime, we have been greatly enjoying the fine weather and balmy temperatures. It has been above average, but very nice, averaging about 76F and nights have dropped down to the upper 50s. There has been a huge high over the center of the country so the winds have been southwesterly, bringing the warmth. The ocean temps are great too, about 73F.

We've slightly explored the area, there is so much to see, and have found a great place for photographing sunrises and perhaps sunsets. When we are in our own place, I'll go out and check them out. It is great being with our friends, but I feel awkward trying not to wake them as I get out of the place to go shoot. As we'll be here in Suffolk Park for months, I'm sure I'll have ample time to find and shoot from some great vantage points.

Getting used to the animal, primarily bird and bat, noises, takes some time. There can be quite a racket at night, especially when the fruit bats, a.k.a. flying foxes, are at it. They are huge, about the size of a small cat in body with six foot wing spans, and they are loud! There is one hanging in a tree not 50 feet from me. I think it is trying to claim the backyard as its domain, thus all the squabbling and screeching at night. No one ever said Australia was quiet.

On Thursday we went to our first Byron farmers market of our season. I say our season because the market here is twice a week, all year round. Just because it's winter here doesn't mean that the markets are slow. The products ranged from vegetable seedlings, a few coffee venders selling their coffee, whole bean, ground or poured into a cup for your enjoyment. There were beautiful vine ripened tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and summer squash, a few bread vendors, two local cheese producers, and a local winery. Oh yes, then there were the oranges, bananas, lemons, mandarines, all of this and more grown and produced within an hours distance of the market. It was so hard not to shop, but by next weeks market, I will have our own kitchen. I think that I will be able to do almost all of our food shopping just at the market alone.

I am hoping that the front terrace of our townhouse has enough sun during the day so I can grow a few pots of herbs for the kitchen. I am also planning on putting a few pots of plants around for some color and for something for me to play with. The back yard is nicely landscaped, but the front just needs some zing. When we move out in Sept. I will just bring the pots down the road to Greg and Christines and they can plant them in their garden to enjoy. Oh this is just getting so exciting.

Kite surfer at Sharpe's Beach

Horse riders on Seven MIle Beach

Sunrise on Tallow Beach

Sharpe's Beach

Katoomba to Suffolk Park

The Three Sisters

Katoomba, home of the Three Sisters, one of Australia's iconic rock formations, did not disappoint. The Three Sisters are an aboriginal sacred site in which a tribal medicine man turned his three daughters to stone to protect them before going off to battle but unfortunately for them he died in battle and thus they stay that way. Echo Point, the best place to view the formation is an example of how well done a popular natural attraction can be managed. It is clean, well laid out and quite impressive in its simplicity and access to all. The only thing you pay for is parking, and even that can be avoided if you are willing to walk a quarter mile. Allie read that there are something like 3 million visitors each year, which equates to 10% of the population of Australia.

Sunset at Katoomba was good but the sunrise was, as often is the case in the Blue Mountains, a bust. So, we packed our bags and headed north to Armidale. We decided to revisit a place we had been to last year in hopes that the weather would be better than then, when it was pouring rain. After weaving through the outskirts of Sydney, we ascended up the Hunter River valley through one of the most bizarre countryside combinations imaginable. The Hunter valley is famous for its wines and apparently is huge horse country, all which was quite nice. However, it is also one of Australia's largest open pit coal mining and power production regions and the juxtaposition of miles wide pits and huge machines co-existing with vineyards was a bit much. Thankfully, we left the area in short order and continued up our favorite road, the New England Highway, toward Armidale.

Now we realize that if you look at a map the coastal road from Sydney to Suffolk Park/Byron Bay is a much more direct route. There is one major problem with that, though, it is like taking Route 1 from Maryland to Maine. Yes, it is direct, but you stop and slog through every single coastal town along the way and here it is the exact same. Australia is even "blessed" with strip shopping centers (or 'centres') along the highway, so it really does feel like the US. So, we opted out of the hustle and bustle and headed inland. It added another 100 Kms but it was well worth it.

We arrived in Armidale in time for a fine evening and checked into a motel and strolled around. What we saw was absolutely charming. It is a relatively large college town but still maintains a sense of class and style. It was clean and full of parks and greenery. It also, apparently has an annual sheep festival which is this weekend and lodging fills up fast, as by the time we got back to our room, there wasn't a vacancy to be found. After a very nice dinner at the Wicklow Hotel, we retired for the evening hoping for continued good weather for the drive to Suffolk Park.

Well, that was certainly not the case. We awoke to rain and our hopes of seeing this area of Australia in sunshine were dashed. Last year we drove through the area in the rain, and it appears Mother Nature has a mischievous sense of humor, for yet again it was a full day of rain. So we motored through six hours of rain and murk, thankfully most of it on very good roads to Tenterfield and then the coast, and arrived yesterday here at our friends' home in Suffolk Park. At long last. We move in on Monday to our digs where we'll be until the end of September.

A bush fire driving to Katoomba

View From Echo Point

On the Road to Armidale

Rugby in Armidale

To the Coast

Here's a recap of our adventures since "Yack"

Lake Hume and Kosciuszko Nation Park

Lake Hume is one of my favorite places in Australia, primarily for its surreal drama. It is a man-made lake with a dam that was built to provide irrigation water and power, but unfortunately for the builders, the lake is so shallow that it evaporates quicker than it refills and the level has dropped since it was built in the 50's. As such, the trees that they failed to cut down and just submerged are no longer under water, thus the drama. It really isn't much for water sports, boating or even fishing, but it is fantastic for photography.

We then drove over the mountains of Kosciuszko Nation Park, the highest part in Australia. It was hair-raising and not for the faint of heart. Quite beautiful in another dramatic way. We are glad we arrived safely in Cooma, a big town that is known only as a gateway to the ski areas in the mountains (which are still an hour away) and as a hub for cattle and sheep farming (tons of that about).

Today we are off to Bega and the New South Wales coast. The ocean and shore beckon!

We have found yet another wonderful place here in Australia. It is Bermagui, which I think is pronounced 'ber-mah-gooey' but no matter what is magnificent at both sunrise and sunset (only sunset pictures in this post as I took the sunrise ones this AM). It is a small (pop. 1300) sport fishing town and is off the beaten path so it is still non-touristy. We went through a couple of those and it doesn't matter if you are in Ocean City, MD, or York Beach, ME, they are all the same the world over.

We're wending our way north and exploring towns and vistas along the way. Nothing much today, except some incredible beaches, but since Australia is literally full of those, it isn't a big deal. Tonight we'll stay in Ulladulla (where there is a McDonald's which has free wireless internet) and continue on up the coast tomorrow. We did stop in a tourist town Tilba Tilba, where there is a nice garden place that Allie wandered around for a while and I rested. I'm doing the driving and it still is a bit stressful on these narrow roads. I figure I'll have it down in another week.

Well, Ulladulla must be aboriginal for "really, really boring." Other than two bait shops and the newsagent (where people buy the morning's paper) nothing is open here in Ulladulla in the morning. Excepting the McDonalds.

After Bermagui, the shore towns have paled in comparison, so we're off to the mountains, the Blue Mountains to be specific. I anticipate a 6 hour drive but it may be more due to Sunday traffic getting back to Sydney, which we will skirt.

Steve and Allie