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Judy & Helen
We had plenty of cups between our talk!The rain came down quite heavily last night, hardly letting up at all. So it continued for the morning but Rags was keen to get the Thermomix repaired so he left Judy in the van to do her uni marking while he went to find the Brisbane Thermomix headquarters.
He found the trip a little arduous as heavy rain was falling and there were many trucks on the freeway for the 40 odd kms to where the Thermomix office is. When the gps told him he was there it took another hour, and a lot of walking before he finally found it. A highway now breaks the road in two and it was by chance the address was eventually found. It only took 30 mins to fix, just cost Rags a total of 3 hours of frustration and a calming cup of coffee.
Back at the van he found Judy still working on the assignments and as she wants to complete them we stayed inside. This was also the best solution to avoid the bad weather.
Dinner was in the van, Helen joined us there, and what with cheese, biscuits, chicken
Big Pineapple
An old icon just outside of Woombye. Appears to be closed. risotto and plenty of red wine we had a most enjoyable evening.
Friday 1st May 2015
About 100mm of rain fell last night and the forecast was for up to another 400mm to fall today. We both find this hard to imagine as our home, near Perth, averages less that 750mm/annum!
Because of the weather warning, and because Judy had a lot of marking to do and Rags had a lot of Blog writing to catch up on, we made today a “stay at home day”.
By lunchtime some rain had fallen, quite lightly but steadily all morning. We joined Helen in the house for morning tea and lunch, and besides the long talks we had then, managed to get a lot of work done.
Just on 1430 the weatherman proved himself correct; the heavens opened and we were subjected to torrential rainfall, lightning and thunder, non-stop for the next 3 hours. Judy made good in-roads into her marking. she has more than usual because she agreed to do an extra 25 to help out another tutor!
About 5.30, the rain slowed down so we headed inside to see
Grading the passionfruit
Marcia and a friend grading the morning's pick. Helen and have dinner.
By 0900 the next day, over 250mm had fallen in the last 24 hours. We were quite safe where we were, although the floods were all around, we were on high ground. Several cars were washed off the roads nearby, 5 deaths were attributed to the flooding.
Saturday 2nd May 2015 We woke to blue skies and no wind, a contrast to yesterday. We had arranged to meet friends we had met in WA, Anton & Marcia, for afternoon tea at their place today, so set off for the 70+kms journey to Beerwah. Here they have bought a passionfruit orchard and their lifestyle revolves around growing passionfruit and sending the fruit to market.
Because of road damage and closure due to the floods, and Rags misreading a sign, we approached them from the north rather than the shorter way from the south. We found them sorting the fruit in a shed at the back of their property which is covered in trellis’ with the vines growing over them. We learned that you don’t pick the fruit, you wait for it to ripen and it then falls onto
the mown grass beneath for collection. Fruitfly is a serious problem and only unmarked fruit is sold. Water is essential, as each vine requires at least 40 litres of water/day when it is warm. Every 2 years the vines are replanted as the foliage becomes too thick, not allowing the fruit to ripen.
After a delicious morning tea, with lots of passionfruit to eat, plus orange cake with the fruit icing, we left them to it. The freeway home had been covered in floodwaters last night, now the only sign was some debris, and the occasional vehicle where it had been washed off the road.
Sunday 3rd May 2015 Today was certainly a day of travel. Firstly we left the van just after 0900 for the 100kms drive to Woombye, a town just south of Nambour. Here we were joining our friends Rob and Jan at their place for brunch.
It had been 4 years since we saw them last, but everyone got on as if we saw each other regularly. They put on a feast, a fruit platter of pawpaw, mango, banana, rock & watermelon, eaten with tangy yoghurt. This
was followed by croissants, bacon, salmon, eggs, sausages, salad, and washed down with a good coffee. And all of this sitting on the verandah, overlooking their property.
After breakfast we strolled around their property with trees and plants duly named, before we had to leave for the next part of our day. On the way out of Nambour we stopped and bought a kilo of figs (yes, a whole kilo!) and some avocados. Once back on the highway we stopped at the Ettamoogah Pub and its nearby touristy shops. Not much there but worth a quick look.
We then headed to Kenmore Hills, where our friend Julie and her partner Max live. The GPS took us on a circuitous route, which avoided tollways, but we eventually arrived.
The late afternoon and evening were full of conversation. We got to know Max as we hadn’t met him before and also a friend of their's Ellen, who lived nearby. Julie had make a Moroccan dish with chick peas which we ate with rice. Yummy! By 2100 we were all spent and as arranged, we stayed the night.
Monday 4th May 2015 Breakfast was
Morning tea
At "Maccas" at Maccas after a tasty, green smoothie that Julie had made for us. Ellen, who was part of the Macca's morning coffee group was there too. Apparently, they go every morning at 8 and then Julie, who works from home, starts her work at 9. Judy and Rags had a Bacon & Egg McMuffin, with their customary free senior’s coffee before saying farewell and returning to the van.
Helen had gone to Sydney for work yesterday, so the dog, Oakley was very excited to have us back. After feeding, he had a great time with Rags throwing balls and Oakley running after them, eventually slowing down and becoming calmer.
We did a load of wash before setting out to explore Bribie Island, so once again we set off northwards on the freeway.
Max had mentioned a restaurant at Bongaree, a suburb on the island, which served a great fish chowder and this was high on our agenda.
Imagine how we felt when we found when we got there, that they were closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Other cafes in the area seemed to only have fish and chips, or hamburgers, and none of these appealed to us
Bribie Island
Rainbow lorikeets were everywhere, and quite tame. today. We decided to have lunch back at the van, but a Beefy’s pie shop found us stopping to enjoy a Ned Kelly pie. They were very tasty, nice flavoured meat filling with an egg inside it.
On our return to the van Rags spent some time cutting up some of the pineapple we had bought at a roadside stall, as well as freezing servings of passionfruit from the many fruit Anton had given us. Judy used the thermomix to make passionfruit curd. This way we should have no problems with quarantine when we cross state borders in the next few days. Judy is still not feeling well so found a nearby medical centre that works on a drop in basis. In less than half an hour, she'd seen the doctor and left with a prescription for antibiotics in hand.
Tuesday 5th May 2015 A busy day today, with Rags taking the Jeep to be serviced and Judy busy marking. She managed to complete most of it today to her relief! It was only about 12kms to where the Jeep was to be serviced but a little time after Rags reached the
Redcliffe beach
The Bee Gees came from this area and have a lane with photos named in their honour. beach suburb of Redcliffe he received a call informing him the car had to be cold for the service, so they needed it for at least 3 hours.
He filled in the time walking along the beach, having morning tea and reading the paper at Maccas, and then walking back to the service centre. On a rough calculation he walked 12kms, his feet attested to this.
On his return, Rags found that Judy was ready to do something more active so we retraced much of his steps by the coast (but in the Jeep!) in suburbs reminiscent of Perth - Scarborough and Redcliffe.
That evening we again came to this area, this time Helen drove, and we ate and played cards with a group of her friends. They live in an apartment overlooking a lake that was noisy with birds. Not far from here we could also see the rear of the buildings that line Redcliffe foreshore where only hours earlier we had walked. In the middle of our card game we had a break for fresh prawns and chicken curry. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and hopefully we’ll catch up with some of them in WA sometime
Redcliffe pier
Looking back to the shore. in the future.
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Sharyn and Neil Manuel
non-member comment
sometime in the near future. We haven't been back for several years. Keep safe drive carefully. Look forward to catching upon your return
You two are certainly dragging the weather around with you. Hopefully, for your return its more favourable. The passionfruit look great, I love them. We are looking forward to returning to Brisbane sometime in the near future. We haven't been back for several years. Keep safe and drive carefully. Looking forward to catching up upon your return.xx