A Day in the Burbs - Wed 12th

After breakfast we hang about a bit in the garden.  

Eric thinks Cocoa the cat seems friendly.

Or maybe not from this angle but the encounter ended amicably!

Consider going into Melbourne City - find that the only way to use the very good public transport system is to have a Myki Card (a bit like an Oyster Card). There are a limited number of places that sell them, but luckily bro No.1 and his wife come to the rescue.  They have some spare ones and all they need is topping up with some money. We can do this at Camberwell Station about 3km away.  We are dropped at the station and achieve this without too much trouble. Now we need a map. Ask at the station ticket office for one and, no, they don't have one. Decide we will have to fetch one from Melbourne itself when a lady security person sees we are wondering how to use the Myki Cards and in the ensuing conversation says we need a map. She goes back into the ticket office where the man had said they didn't have any...and provides us with one.  

The birder amongst us had been browsing the internet the previous night and seen some binoculars that would take a picture of anything you were looking at through them.  They are Sony and there's a Sony Center that sells them in another Melbourne suburb.  Armed with our map and Myki Cards we therefore venture forth to the aforementioned suburb (or burb for short) - Nunawadding - to try and find the shop. 

The train is covered with graffiti on the inside and all the way along the railway line, but the journey passes without incident. Some of the graffiti is very artistic and must have taken significant time and effort to create. How to find the shop? (as our map didn't cover that sort of thing).  Uncharacteristically we ask a young lad disembarking at the same time as us if he knew where the Sony Centre was - amazingly he did.  Not only that, but armed with his phone he looked up exact directions and we were on our way.  As you may have expected, of course, they didn't have the binoculars in stock!

Return to Camberwell via another train line on which we had to change trains - all managed with aplomb. 

Eric waits patiently on the platform at Nunawadding. The train to Camberwell - will I see Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub? No Eric, that's Camberwick Green. 

We saunter along the main shopping street and find a rather posh looking French Patisserie for lunch. Some delicious food and two weak cappuccinos later we set off to have a tram experience on our way back to the house.  

Eric enjoys the tram ride.

Melbourne is well served by trams - they run from the burbs into the city, and there is even a free tourist one on a central loop that you can hop on and off as you wish.  Enjoying ourselves so much we miss the closest stop to walk back. From the next junction it's an uphill walk trying to keep in the shade as it is hot, sunny and about 26degC.  

A further short outing was undertaken to the local wildlife area at Gardiner's Creek.  Birding and people coming home along the bicycle track do not go together very well! 

Some Chestnut Teal and a Heron at Gardiner's Creek.

A Noisy Myna and her (or his?) chicks.

A Red Wattle Bird.

A Little Wattle Bird.

A rather fuzzy picture of a juvenile Grey Butcher Bird.

A Pacific Black Duck, we knew these as Grey Duck in New Zealand. 

Return to the house. Eric sees something in the front garden and goes to investigate.

Snakes - pah, they don't bother me. (Maybe that's because it's rubber Eric)

Out for a pizza with the family for our evening meal. Food was good although the restaurant was very noisy (the usual in terms of no sound deadening furniture). 

After all theses exertions a fairly early bedtime means we should be ready for the morrow.

From Doon Doon to Melbourne Tuesday 11th

Our flight is from Coolangatta or Gold Coast airport, and, as it's only within Australia the check-in time is a mere hour beforehand.  With a 45min trip to the airport to factor in, and the different time zones this means we should only need to leave NSW for the airport at the same time as the flight leaves Queensland - and if you understand that then that's more than we do!  

It seems very hot and humid to us. There are some dark clouds around and the top of Mt Warning is not visible, our friends are hoping it means there'll be some much needed rain, although the radar shows nothing.  A pool immersion and some tea and biscuits later we leave for the airport in good time as we know there are roadworks. 

Eric takes his last longing look at the pool.

Only 15min of sitting in traffic outside Murwillambah. Luckily this gives us time for our last cruise along the waterfront to Rainbow Bay and Snapper Rocks.  

The beach is busier and the surf is bigger today, but just as messy, and no dolphins.  

Drag the ex-surfer away, returning to the airport and its coolness.  As there is no complimentary food on the plane we decide to have some lunch before we leave. One orders a late breakfast and the other a pancake stack.

There's enough maple syrup there for me to drown in, and you can barely see the pancakes for the ice-cream! 

Is that our plane?

Take off - Gold Coast from the air.

As we circle over the water we see what we think are some whales in the water below - they blow and then we are sure.  We can't persuade the pilot to circle around as they did for our trip at Kaikoura and we head inland. Good views back over the coast towards Rainbow Bay, Snapper Rocks, D'Bah and the Tweed River though. 

We saw this cloud forming, which looked interesting. 

Pretty soon it had turned into this angry looking anvil shaped cloud...

...and we wondered if it was over the National Parks surrounding our friends' farm (position of comma to be validated by DB!).

Is this Clarrie Hall Dam in the distance? Just in case you can't see where we mean - between the two horizontal cloud layers at the top of the engine.

Eric wondered if this was the Starship Enterprise coming towards us.

Clouds really are fascinating.

A forest fire - we find out later it is a controlled burn - can't imagine the people downwind of all that smoke are too impressed. 

Melbourne is sunny and 18 degrees, but feels quite warm.  Oldest brother meets us at airport and partly loses a bet with himself that we'd both be wearing shorts (one is, one isn't- you'll never guess which is which). 

Packing and the Pool

Today was a preparation for leaving day as all the clothes had be be 're-stuffed' with the hope that the case would close afterwards!  The day was very warm and multiple dips in the pool were also required, with some bird spotting in between.

Brown Cuckoo Dove. 

A better picture of the Kookaburra. 

  

A better view of the Scarlet Honeyeaters.

Either a Scarlet Honeyeater female or possibly a Brown Honeyeater.

A Warata Tree.

The day closed with another dip in the pool followed by an excellent spaghetti and pasta sauce meal, plus home-made trifle (yummy) - three helpings were devoured, but only to save putting a small amount back in the fridge honest. 

Packing completed, apart from swimming togs ready for an early morning splash.

Channon market

It's Sunday so it's a chance to visit the fabled (at least in this part of the world) The Channon Market. First, obviously we have to have breakfast by the pool, and a dip before the drive. 

Driving through the locality we arrive at Nimbin, the site of the Aquarius Festival back in 1972. Some of the current residents were people who had attended the festival and then never left.  The town is a bit of a throwback in time. They were probably not able to find their way out due to a cannabis induced haze, which it looked like some were still in, just 40 years later (and still wearing the same clothes!). 

The Hemp Embassy at Nimbin.

We are yet to discover why the town, or more accurately, collection of 40 or so buildings is called The Channon rather than just Channon. We'll investigate that next time we visit. It is situated about 60km inland from Byron Bay and on no particular route anywhere. There is a lady hitching a lift on the side of the road and we wonder where she might be going. All the roads to it are single carriageway and very much winding country lanes.  We arrive at the car park and there are about a 1000 vehicles there, there are even organised coaches bringing people in from Byron Bay itself. Set up around a sports field there are the typical Sunday market offerings with everything from well-made jewellery and wooden trinkets to what could only be described as rubbish from the back of someone's shed. We see the woman who had been hitching, so now we know. A band is setting up as we arrive and by the time we have toured the perimeter of the sports ground they are just breaking in to their first number. We listen a while and they do a pretty good job of presenting some Eric Clapton numbers.  

Eric chills out listening to the band.

There are also some Jacaranda with Elkhorn Ferns growing around the trunk and branches. 

The day is so hot that we make the decision not to eat at the market but to go and find somewhere cooler.  Making for a restaurant that had been visited a few years ago and where the food had been good, we arrive to find that, although there is still a sign up saying it's a restaurant, it's closed down.  Further travelling brings us to Mullumbimby.  The restaurant has patio seating but we opt for inside (mostly because it's full outside!).  There are posters and signed pictures on the wall of B.B. King; Bob Dylan; Jimi Hendrix and many others from that era.  They are playing 60's Motown over the speakers, and the food is very good.

Further along the road an over-size motorbike makes an impression.

Then it's back to the house for more swimming and a wander around the estate.  Some of today's wildlife and landscape spottings:

A Rainbow Lorikeet.

A Scaly-breasted Lorikeet.

View towards Clarrie Hall Dam.

An unidentified bird, possibly a honey eater.

A day at the poolside

Not much to report as we had a very lazy day, in and out of the swimming pool and around the garden.

The poolside.

The view from the garden across to Mt Warning.

An unusual Bougainvillea. 

A Honey Eater of some description.

A rather pretty Calliandra with a soft 'powder puff' type flower. 

Another of the more usual Bougainvillea. 

A Bottle Brush plant. 

A quiet day is followed by a quiet night in!

Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads

Spent the morning in and out of the swimming pool again, being watched by a Kookaburra and an Eastern Rosella on the overhead wires.

Kookaburra. 

Eastern Rosella.

We have a short wander around the farm in the hope of finding an Echidna to photograph. We only encountered a Wallaby, which gave us a somewhat quizzical look, probably wondering what we were looking for but at least it waited for us to take its picture before hopping off into the bush.

Lunchtime saw us at Byron Bay, having a coffee and cake (no surprises there then!). A flourless chocolate cake and similarly flourless orange cake, both with ice cream. Very pleasant if a little on the stodgy side. The cake was needed purely to provide energy for a walk along the beach to the lookout point (that's our story and we're sticking to it).

The clouds hadn't quite cleared after yesterday's thunderstorms but, in Byron at least, it was very warm and dry.

The surf was pretty small, so much so that we were able to paddle in the shallows, but from the lookout on the little island in front of the headland, there were still more than 40 in the water.  Many appeared not to be sticking to the surfer's 'code of conduct' we saw yesterday.

But some were.

There are often dolphins that surf the waves into the beach along with the kayakers and surfers,  but we don't see any today.  Maybe they prefer it a bit bigger.  

There are some interesting rock formations, and some small round sand balls gathered around small holes in various places along the beach. We are reliably informed that these are made by crabs clearing out a burrow.

The rock formations.

The crab burrow. It's almost a work of art, as are the rock formations for that matter.

Having decided it's too busy to do any surfing (also because we didn't bring a surfboard) we take a walk into the town itself. Last time we were in Byron Bay they were selling UV safe sun hats so we wanted to see if they had a replacement. Two shops and $25 less in our wallet later we have another. Hopefully that's good for another 10 or so years. 

Walking back to the car, there are plenty of these birds...

Here they are called 'Masked Lapwing' rather than 'Spur-winged Plover' as in NZ. 

A little busy here for an evening meal so we divert to Brunswick Heads, a short drive north at the the mouth of the Brunswick river.   It was so hot that Eric spent most of the day sleeping out of the sun.

Eric makes a short foray out at Brunswick Heads, as the heat has started to subside a little but he is still 'wilting' poor lad.

The river mouth at Brunswick Heads.

To work up our appetites, another stroll on the beach...

...before retiring to the hotel for dinner on the patio.  They have a musician here tonight but they are not yet on stage.  

Close to our dinner venue there are a flock of Litlle Corella (we think) in the bushes.  Of course we have left the better camera in the car, so it's difficult to tell from these photos!

Salmon, chicken, pizza and a pumpkin salad later we return to the farmstead fully replete and quite tired. No card games tonight.  There were views of Rainbow Lorakeets just before we left Brunswick Heads but too dark for piccies.