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Published: August 22nd 2015
Camp site at Eumundi
A very wet night followed by light showers made for a muddy camp ground.After a few weeks at home, we were excited to set out on our Central Queensland escape. This is to be a short trip compared with most we have take in our Motorhome - only a couple of weeks.
Our first overnight stop was to be at Eumundi, a small town just off the Bruce Highway north from Brisbane. Eumundi is a relatively small town, probably finding its roots in the early days of rail transport and of course, this is great agricultural land. While in size, the coastal town of Noosa is now more famous, except for one thing, The Eumundi Markets.
There is a small area set aside for Motorhomes to camp overnight just outside the markets precinct, and as it was Tuesday night we made sure we were up to Eumundi early to get a spot to camp, all ready for the Wednesday Market Day. We had quite a lot of rain overnight which made the parking area a little slushy to say the least.
Many country towns have a market day once a month, but here, it is every Wednesday and Saturday.
The confessions of a male traveller is that I don't really
enjoy markets. But it was said male that made an extra big effort to go walkabout on a wet morning. We hit the markets around 8.00am before the crowds rocked up.
First stop on our way into the markets was past the most highly decorated loo block we have seen. We have seen many interesting loos, but this one must take the top prize. Once a year there is a nudist body painting festival held at the markets, and the top 6 works of art are photographed and posterized along the wall of the loos. But, one must push on and not linger in such a danger zone.
I must confess to having a ball at Eumundi Markets. There is such a diversity of stalls with little in the junk category, most in the quality arts and craft, as well as tasty stuff to eat. Flavours here from all parts of the world. We love sour dough bread, and this market has some of the best available. As the area is great horticultural land, there was a great selection of beautiful fresh fruit and veggies.
One stall caught our eyes. Those who have followed our travels will
Access to Eumundi Square
The markets are in two parts each side of the main street through town. This section also opens on Fridays. recall that we visited John Murray's studio at Lightning Ridge earlier this year. We saw similar artwork on display - stark, simplistic, exaggerated and humorous paintings. We were enjoying these when the stall holder came to speak with us. Michelle Pike has that same outback humour that we love, and we have added another small item to our collection of novel artwork. Michelle is a very interesting and chatty person. I think the best part of an hour passed while we chatted with her.
As keen photographers, we were drawn to another stall where there were beautiful Australian landscapes for sale. The photos were of exceptional quality and literally glowed. We were in luck, the photographer himself was there and was able to share how these great pictures have been obtained. No digital cameras here. He has a Hasselblad film camera. When colour film was about to die, he contacted the importers and bought all their stock - about 70 rolls of film. He also had to buy and learn to process his own (negative) films. The next trick was printing them. These photos are printed on highly polished aluminium plate which has had a photographic film coated onto
The Toy Shop
Every boys favourite spot. Seems the stall holder was nodding off! the surface. The results are simply spectacular. As far as getting the photos, with the film so rare, there is no firing off brackets of 10 shots in a second. One picture that he was commissioned to take took finally 6 weeks before the light, cloud and sunset were perfect to take his one and only picture. We talked about favourite outback and coastal spots, and found we had much in common.
Margaret found another stall very intriguing. The operator is a micro-writer. I don't think he is up to getting The Lord's Prayer on a pin head, but does incredibly small writing in lockets and specials documents.
Another very interesting lady to talk to has a great Lavender themed display. She has lavender products from their farm and additionally, lots of interesting lavender themed bits and bobs. Her lavender bears were really beautiful.
By the time we were done walking around and buying the odd nick knack, we were surprised at the hundreds of cars that had filled the parking area. It was making photography more difficult as the morning progressed.
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