Byron Bay and Beyond

I love Byron Bay.  We have been here several times and have watched the town grow from a sleepy little "surfers" town to a bustling tourist town.  It's miles and miles of beautiful sandy beach is a big tourist drawcard and certainly the consistently even surf still draws the surfers. We booked into Glen Villa Resort and Caravan Park that turned out to be ideal.  It was just a short stroll to Jonson Street and the oceans edge but also right on the edge of parklands that gave us a very quiet stay.  The sites were huge and very easy to back into and that is a blessing in itself although we are certainly getting better at it!

We had seven nights at Byron and the first four were beautiful with sunshine days and plenty of relaxing time poolside.  We did try and go for a swim in the ocean but it was way to cold!  We walked the almost 10km loop to the Byron Bay Lighthouse that was a really hard walk with lots and lots of stairs but we felt much better for the effort.  We ate in some fabulous restaurants and wished that we had more time to sample more.  

The rain hit us hard and fast for the last three nights.  We had winds of over 70km/hour that put a real test to our awning that thankfully held fast.  And with more than a 100mm each day it was good to know that our van has no leaks.  The first day we just stayed in the camp and read our books but on the second day we decided to head inland where it was a little drier.

Our first stop was south to Lennox Head that is also a walk down memory lane for me as we spent most of our holidays at Ballina in my younger days. We walked along the headlands at Lennox Heads but the wind was very strong and actually quite scary walking so close to the cliff edge, so we turned back. Our next stop was at Alstonville for coffee and delicious cakes before heading to Bangalow and Mullumbimby.  We had intended to have lunch here but it was impossible to find a car park.  Everyone had the same idea as us apparently.

We headed back down the range to Brunswick Heads and thought about stopping for lunch here but as we were so close to Byron we decided to just head home.  By this time the sky was looking very black again so it was just as well we were home to batten down the hatches before another wild night of wild wind and rain.

We sadly said goodbye to Byron Bay before once more turning the car back towards Queensland.

Where are we?

We are at Byron Bay, but let me tell you about our week at Noosa Heads.

We had a great week at Noosa Heads catching up with extended family.  It was just pure luck that we happened to be here when Philip's stepsister and her family were at Noosa for their annual break.  We were also able to meet up with Philip's stepbrother and his lovely wife who made the effort to drive up to Noosa for a lengthy lunch with us.  We don't get to see this side of the family very much and we are not the best at keeping in regular touch.  However, after we apologise to each other for not keeping in contact, we always pick up where we last left off and sit and talk for hours. 

Jacki and Damiens kids are now well and truly little adults. Amelia works alongside her mum in the school holidays and Isaac is at the age where he challenges everything. They are a family that is well grounded and we love them all very much. As soon as we arrived at Noosa Van Park, we organised to meet them for lunch the next day and then Philip and I headed down to the point at Noosa to watch the wind-surfers.  And guess who we ran into.....Jacki and the family of course.  Isn't that crazy.  There are literally thousands of people holidaying in Noosa at the moment and we just happen to run into them as they were heading to their car. A few minutes later and we would have missed them. Talk about being right spot, right time.

Our lunch with the family the next day was at the very well known Bistro C.  This restaurant deserves all the accolades that it gets as the food here is superb.  I spotted the Arancini straight away on the menu and just had to order it.  The Arancini was Cauliflower, Mustard and Cheddar with a topping of pickled cucumber. I think it would probably be the best I have ever eaten.  All the others enjoyed their meals just as much as I did from the look of the clean plates.

The following day we hired a Nauticycle.  Philip is missing his cycling so this filled the addiction a little.  We started off at Noosaville and made our way to the canals at Noosa, stopping every now and then for drink stops.  The water at the mouth of the river was quite choppy so it was almost a relief to make it into the canals where it was much smoother going.  I sat on the front of the Nauticycle while Philip pedalled.  I definitely had the best seat in the house. We passed million dollar homes with million dollar boats jettied alongside, but I was not at all envious.  After living in our little apartment you wouldn't pay me to live in a massive home.  All that cleaning!

We had arranged to meet Chris and Katherine at Rococo Bistro in Noosa the following day for lunch.  This was an entirely different lunch where we ordered numerous small plates rather than one meal each.  I really enjoy this way of eating. We spread our eating out over several hours so that gave us plenty of time  to catch up with each others news. Katherine and Chris are both IT specialists and both working in the medical field.  They fortunately have jobs that could easily be transitioned into working from home in this Covid year, however in a normal year they would be travelling to many places around the world with their work and I think they are both missing it a little.  

We stayed at the Noosa Van Park at Tewantin and we were squashed in like sardines. Each and every van had to be guided into the very narrow sites and I have to give a big shout-out to the guides as they are very experienced with clear directions.   "Right Hand Down" "Left Hand Down" "A little more" "A little less" can be heard throughout the park all day.  I have to say though that the park was immaculate.  The amenities are cleaned several times a day and the gardens and pool area were very inviting.  All sites were grassed and fairly well shaded by the many palm trees. However while we were there the tree loppers came in and tied up all the palm trees so that the fronds couldn't fall onto the vans.  I imagine they might do a bit of damage to a van. We found some great walks around the Tewantin area and we walked almost every day.  Philip also did the Noosa National Park walk while I had some pampering time with a mani/pedi.

Just before I took this photo there was another two vans parked right behind us!

We are thoroughly enjoying the van and have both commented that it would be very easy to live in it for an extended period of time.  We will see what next year brings.....

Forever Friends

We have just spent a lovely few days with our friends at Tannum Sands. Lynn and I had been planning this get together for months as they live very busy lives and it is hard for them to find free weekends. Graham is still working full time at Gladstone as Operations Manager at one of the LNG plants.  They, like us, have purchased a caravan and fully intend retiring and travelling around Australia.  That won't be for a couple more years for them so we have in the pipeline a couple of small trips together that I'm already looking forward to.

Lynn and I go back a long way to the Julia Creek days.  As soon as I was introduced to her we just clicked as friends and truly are like "sisters from another mister". She was our next door neighbour and we even timed our pregnancies together (without knowing) although Lynn went on to have four gorgeous babies, we stopped at two. As true friendships go we can have months without contact and still pick up again where we left off.  I am so blessed to have friends in my circle that are like that because I am not the best at keeping in touch......

So.... back to Tannum Sands.  We were booked into the Tannum Sands Discovery Park that was an easy walking distance from Lynn and Grahams home.  Tannum Sands is a very liveable area with miles and miles of sandy beaches dotted with fishermen who seem to haul in fish all the time.  It has a relatively small population and from what I gather, most of the residents work in Gladstone that is a 30 minute drive away.

Over the course of the three days that we were at Tannum Sands, G & L took us to Agnes Waters where they have a beachside rental home.  Lynn designed it herself and she deserves a pat on the back because it is beautifully designed and fits magestically into the surrounds. We drove around Agnes and Seventeen Seventy before finding a great fish and chip shop that had Red Emperor on the menu that is one of my favourite fish.

The next day Graham drove us into Gladstone to the brand new Cruise Ship terminal area.  The council have designed the North Shore area to meet the needs of travellers and we commented that being avid cruisers we would be very happy to dock at this port.  It is lushly planted with lots of greenery and plenty of shady paths. But, best of all there is a Harbourside restaurant (I think it was called Auckland something) where we stopped for lunch washed down with refreshing beers.  I had the grilled snapper with garlic prawns and salad. So delicious.  

Graham blew a shoe on the way to lunch.  It was quite an ingenious repair job.....

We made our way home for a nanny nap and that night we went around to L & G's place for sundowners and the best hor d'oeuvres platter I have ever seen!  Forgot to take photos.  Our hosts filled our glasses with Veuve Clicquot and we drank to Christmas and New Year.  It was a great end to a lovely three days spent with our forever friends.

On the Road Again........

There was nothing to stop us from leaving for our Christmas/New Year holiday.  The bathroom renovation is taking care of itself at "Paringa", the storage shed roller door is now installed, the reversing cameras have been fitted to the caravan and the "Saltwater" renovation is completed.  So, off we set.

We have no particular place to be apart from Christmas at Toowoomba with mum and New Year at "Evergreen" with son.  We have a few friends scattered around Queensland that we want to catch up with but they are all pretty flexible with times.  We are on a wait-list to have the van serviced at the place where we bought it at Bennetts Green (Newcastle), so we will probably head down to New South Wales to be close in case they have an opening.  We never thought that the service department would be booked out until February, but knowing the number of people purchasing caravans, it doesn't surprise us at all.

We were on the road by 9am on Monday.  It is always a bit of a shuffle to get the caravan out of our storage shed as the garden maintenance business beside us has lots of vehicles parked in just about all the available parking bays and we need a lot of room to exit!

Our first stop on our journey south was at the Babinda Bakery where we picked up a loaf of bread straight from their oven and of course the absolutely compulsory cream buns.  We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest stop and throughly enjoyed our salad sandwich, nectarine (that was not nice) and of course the cream bun.  We hardly felt like moving but we really wanted to get to Rollingstone the first night so we pushed on.

Rollingstone has an excellent van park right on the beachfront and we have stayed here numerous times.  The new management team where very helpful and they suggested that for $25 for two years, we join the Discovery/Top Caravan Park Group.  So far so good as we have already saved our membership!

We quickly set up the van and didn't even need to un-hitch as there were very few people in the park.  A walk along the beach is a must do at Rollingstone so we set off.  Even high tide didn't stop us as we strolled along the beach looking at the interesting shells and coral.  We very rarely see shells or coral at either Palm Cove or Port Douglas beaches and I don't really know why.  It would have something to do with the tide flow I imagine. Back at our camp it was showers, a couple of games of Backgammon, and straight to bed where we watched TV for a short while before a deep sleep overtook us.

Next morning we decided that we would only drive as far as our lunch stop each day.  This would give us around five-six hours of drive time or 300-400 km, and really that is as much as we need to do in a day. That way we can enjoy a late lunch and then a short nanny nap before we go exploring.  Today our journey took us through some very parched country with lots of fires around the Bowen area.  I hope the wet season comes early to water this dry country. It desperately needs it.

Our stop today was Airlie Beach and we have decided to stay here two nights.  The first time we visited the Whitsundays was on our honeymoon in 1978.  My parents had very generously given Philip and I a week on Hayman Island as a wedding present. The next time we visited was with my youngest sister and her husband some thirty odd years ago.  Back then it was still a relatively sleepy little area with magnificent beaches and Islands.  Of course the magnificent island and beaches have not changed but the area has been developed beyond belief!  Of course we have said this of lots of places and it is a sign of our age that we rememberer what they used to be like.  Having said that though, we are in love all over again with Airlie Beach.  At this time of the year there is hardly anyone around and we pretty much have the run of the Island Gateway van park.  I dare say when school holidays start it will be a different matter.

Today we drove to Cannonvale to purchase a couple of things for the van and then we headed to the stinger net on the man-made beach at Port of Airlie.  It is one of the largest stinger nets we have ever swum in and Philip enjoyed lapping up and down. As for me, well, I'm just a whale....

We are tossing whether to stay another night but our friends in Tannum Sands are waiting for us so we will head off again tomorrow.  Have no fear though because Airlie Beach is high on our list of places to return to so we will be back as soon as possible.

More......

 Someone asked me how we spend our time when we are in Port Douglas.  It is really a break from the mundane when we are here.  I don't cook many meals and if I do I make it as simple as possible.  I'm really crushing on the Marions Kitchen Range.  These were on special at Coles last week for $6 and they are good value.  All you have to add is your protein.

Our mornings in Port this time around have been pretty full on with renovations to the apartment, new roller door for the storage shed and extras fitted to the caravan.  We have also had to deliver our slide-on to Cairns from where it will be freighted to Melbourne.  The new owners will love it as much as we did.  It was kinda sad to say goodbye as we have had some amazing trips with our little "Tardis".

But, getting back to our day, each morning if we don't have anything on the agenda we  start with some form of exercise.  We both like to rise early and lately that has been around 5.30am.  We have coffee in bed and then Philip goes for a cycle with his buddies and I usually do a 5km walk.  We then have breakfast either in the apartment or at one of the local restaurants.  We had a very good breakfast at Monkey Joes this week and an awful one at Ziva.  The one at Monkey Joes was love on a plate whereas the Ziva breakfast was literally thrown onto the plate with no love at all.  

It is such a shame that some Chef's don't take pride in their presentation.  I follow Spencer Patrick on Instagram.  He is the owner and hatted Chef of Harrisons Restaurant.  He wrote that before every service he is nervous because without nerves comes arrogance and with arrogance comes mistakes.  This is very true of some chefs but you can not say that about C'est Bon Restaurant in Cairns where we again dined this week.  Their food presentation is the best I've seen.  I had Potato, Leek and Pear soup followed by Chicken Cordon Bleu. They say you eat with your eyes so check these dishes out and tell me your mouth is not salivating.....

On Saturday we drove again to Cape Tribulation for lunch with our friends who are were staying at the Cape Tribulation Camping Ground.  Gosh it is a lovely spot and one I'm certain we will return to.  When we arrived at the camp there was a note on the door that said "At the Beach". We thought that they must have gone for a walk so we settled back with a beer and waited for them to return.  We finished the beer and were about to open another when Philip decided he had better go for a bit of a walk down to the beach to see if he could spot them. He was back within five minutes with a command to follow him back down to the beach.  What a lovely surprise to find that our friends had set up a table complete with linen tablecloth, in the shade of some beautiful trees right on the beach.  The women enjoyed a glass of bubbles and the boys settled back with chilled beers while we sat back to shoot the breeze.  We feasted on home made pappardelle with a fabulous bolognese style sauce followed by Lemon Curd Cronuts.  Yum, Yum. After lunch was cleared away our friends taught us how to play a card game called Frustration.......well named!!  Around 4pm we said our goodbyes and made the return trip back to Port.  It really was one of the nicest days.

On Sunday we had a long awaited lunch date with my hairdresser (Jodie) and her partner.  Jode has been my hairdresser for 14 years!  We have such a great rapport and I love my hair appointments.  We have only caught up socially a handful of times over the past few years but each time it ends up with us all drinking rum and cokes at one of the local venues!  We started our lunch date at Seabean Restaurant where they serve delicious Tapas and Paella.  Gosh we made pigs of ourselves. Jode and I washed down our food with the Cocktail of the Day while the men stayed on beer until we moved to a different venue.  It was a long lunch date that went well into the evening with many laughs.

Most afternoons, when the heat has left the sun, Philip and I walk down to the beach for a leisurely swim in the stinger net enclosure.  We rock around in the waves for ages and we absolutely love it.  We ask ourselves every time "Why haven't we been doing this at Palm Cove?".  We put it down to just being too busy but our new year resolution will be to make time for a swim each afternoon.  It can't be that hard.....

A change of venue

We have moved from Palm Cove to Port Douglas.  No.  Not a permanent move, just while we are having renovations at "Paringa".  The body corp is waterproofing and re-tiling all the balconies at "Paringa" so we thought it would be a good idea to go ahead with our bathroom renovation while this was happening. So, we have packed away at least half of the apartment to make way for the tradies who are going to be going in and out of the apartment.  We have employed a project manager for the bathroom renovation who will oversee everything, thank goodness.  We do not have to lift a finger or make any decisions.  This also means that we can leave for Christmas holidays sooner rather than later.

So, what's been happening.  Well we moved into our Saltwater Apartment on Sunday 1st November and it has been go go gooooo!!! We are juggling so many balls at the moment and it became all too real when the manager informed us that the cabinet re-surfacing that we had approved some time ago was going to happen......WHILE WE ARE STAYING IN OUR APARTMENT!!!  

Fortunately it was only going to take two days so we decided to find things to do.  First day we drove up to Whynabeel and then on to Cape Tribulation.  We haven't been to Whynabeel for more than ten years and it was terribly sad to see Kaynak Theatre closed, the Glass Blowing Factory closed and the Tropical Fruit Farm closed.  The only business still running is the High Falls Teahouse. 

After Whynabeel we boarded the ferry to cross the mighty Daintree River and are very pleased that the Council seems to be heading down the path of two ferries rather than a bridge to ease the delays at the river crossing.  It is the right choice.

We always enjoy the drive to Cape Tribulation and this time was no different.  I am always on the lookout for the elusive Cassowary but have not had the good fortune yet to see one up close and personal. We were back in Port for a late lunch at the Surf Club. I highly recommend the Crunchy Prawn Sushi Roll!

Oh, I forgot Melbourne Cup!  What a great day that was.  No winnings for us but the company and food we enjoyed at Zinc Restaurant more than made up for it.  We joined eleven friends to celebrate a 52nd birthday on the day.  A lovely birthday present for our friend was winning the "Fashion of the Field" and  well deserved too. After Zinc we all retreated to Mamman Bar and Bistro for the after party.  This venue is fast becoming a must do when visiting Port Douglas.  It has a very relaxed atmosphere and we have enjoyed a couple of  Happy Hours since we have been staying in Port. It is recommended to book a table as it fills very rapidly.

We have had to make a couple of trips backwards and forwards to Cairns over the past couple of weeks and each time we have made sure that we have booked a table at the French Restaurant, C'est Bon.  Wow.  The food here is so incredibly good.  For $50 you get to enjoy three courses with either beer or wine and the lunch menu changes weekly.  How good is that!

Speaking of very good food, we took our friends Kate and Mike, for belated birthday presents, to the oldest restaurant in Port Douglas.....Nautilus, for a five course degustation. We feasted on Sugarcane Cured Barramundi, Seared Scallop, Grilled Moreton Bay Bug Tail, Sansho Duck Breast and Plum Tartlet. The thing I enjoy most about Nautilus is the atmosphere and charm of sitting outside under the giant rainforest trees amongst the lush tropical plants in high backed chairs that in any other setting would seem ridiculous, but here they are perfect.

In between everything that has been going on we have been patiently waiting for the second roller door to be installed at our storage shed.  So far the delivery date has been put back three times and each time the company is blaming it on the freight lines.  Jury is still out on that excuse.  We are also waiting for the reversing camera to arrive so that we can have that installed on the caravan.  When these two things happen we can start heading south for Christmas holidays. Yippeee!!

I have so much more to tell you but I have decided to spread it out over a couple of posts so stay tuned.

xx Judi