Tewantin, Jules and Dave, and on to Tweed Heads

My Recipezaar Friends Jules (back left) Susie (front left) and Sarah (front right)


We ended up having to stay on an extra couple of days at Tewantin-not by choice, Russ hurt his right arm really badly and we weren't able to move on as planned. He did it pumping yabbies for bait in the Noosa River and really couldn't do much with it for quite a few days. First it affected him lifting weighty things then later on cleaning his teeth and fiddly things became the problem. Anyhow, the thought of packing up, driving to Brisbane and unpacking in a day, then doing it all again two days later was more than he could bear.

It's a lot better but still giving him a bit of grief occasionally.

The park wore very thin with us. we had a woman behind us who enjoyed frequent sex very loudly, a very keen dope smoker nearby, the police turned up to help another permenant with his packing, and just a lot of people who could have been working but werent. All in all a bit sad and seedy.

On Thursday 22nd, we moved from the park to our friend Jules and Dave's front driveay and home. Jules and I are hosts together on Recipezaar and hadn't seen each other for about 3 years. We are in touch regularly over the internet, but it was great to catch up in person again. Amazing to see how daughters Amber and Ruby have grown in 3 years.

Russ, Ruby and Amber Head off Fishing


As Jules and Dave live on a canal in Burleigh Lakes, so we took the boat off and have had quite a lot of fun with it over the last 6 days. The girls loved going out for a fish with Russ on day one (once Russ was IN the boat)and Russ and I took another long cruise another day to check out all the houses that border the canal.

Jules and Birthday Boy Dave


Our first night, Jules cooked a yummy pork roast, the next night we went to Double Eight Chinese restaurant in Broadbeach (I highly recommend the place, the food was mostly excellent)and Saturday we had a terrific BBQ for Dave's birthday. Jules invited two other couples Susie and Chris and Sarah and Cam. The two women both belong to Recipezaar too (no it's not a cult!!!) and I was so happy to meet them Susie used to be a co host with Jules and I so I knew her quite well by internet. Nice to finally meet.

Ruby Setting the Table for Dave's Birthday BBQ


Sunday we went to the Broadbeach Beachside markets, then Russ and I took ourselves off to a couple of supermarkets and Asian stores to stock up on the sorts of things you can't get in outback Australia.

Monday with Amber at School and Dave working, Jules, Ruby, Russ and I went and did a bit of shopping and looking at more wonderful food shops, and finally tracked down a couple of ducks I wanted to cook for Jules birthday dinner on Tuesday night. It was certainly worth hunting for them because they were great and well priced from a little Asian butcher. I marinated them in Asian flavours and cooked them slowly in Jules oven (it was so nice to cook in an oven) then served them with a carrot and hokkien noodle salad. Yum. It's been great fun to be there to share Jules and Dave's birthdays.

This morning we headed on a whole 25ks to Tweed Heads here we've booked an en suite site in a park right on the Tweed River. It's so close, we can go home to Jules and Dave's for Amber's birthday curry party on Sunday! This park is nice. Lots of permenants, but they are retired rather than unemployed and everyone is so friendly. we can only spot to other tourists like ourselves, but I feel like it's going to be a good stay.

Noosa and a NEW MOTOR

Noosa is really pleasant. The weather has been a pretty constant 26c which makes a really nice change from central QLD where we were starting to hit around 40. We've been out to Eumundie's very large and very touristy market and to Cooroy's little one in the local hall. our fridge and pantry and fruit bowl are all stacked with pestos and pastes, dips avos, tomatoes and roasted macadamia nuts. IGA cooroy was having an international tasting the day we were there, so we also have raw chorizo, marscapone (too cheap to pass up) and smoked semi-dried tomatoes. Talk about a couple of kids being let loose in the candy store!

We have been visiting every boat shop we could find for the last 4 weeks and finally yesterday, Russ found new Suzuki 15hp outboard at a price we couldn't pass up. We've only had a 6hp motor so we should be able to get places a lot faster now and I will feel safer because of it.

Today we are off cruising up and down the Noosa River as the man who sold us the motor suggested we do the 5 hours running in before we leave the area (in case of problems I guess). I can't believe a new boat motor could make me so happy, but the boat really does give us hours and hours of entertainment.

Maryborough and Riki

We moved back into Maryborough from Poona and stayed two nights with Riki-another Recipezaar member. We had met her briefly on the Wednesday when she invited us for lunch but otherwise didn't know her.

On day one, we sat around and talked and then sat around and ate and drank a couple of glasses of wine and talked some more. Riki cooked us a yummy dinner of Lancashire hotpot.

Day two, Riki took her mum to see her dad at the hospital, then we all (including a friend Mary-anne) all met at aa local club for lunch. Riki's mum goes most Sundays for a little lunch and to play the pokies. I never play the pokies so was pretty happy to win $150.

After lunch, we took a tour of the town then visited Mary-anne for a great afternoon tea-prawns and a bottle of wine, then home where Russ cooked us all dinner.

It was a lovely time and just amazing how well we got on. I think we'll be going back.

Yesterday we left Riki's and moved on to Tewantin which is just outside Noosa. It's been 4 years since we were here last and it felt to be back. It feels like a holiday within a holiday. The park is small with tiny sites and quite expensive, but a unit would be much dearer and we are quite close to the river and shops.

We went fishing today on the Noosa River and caught a few fish, but only brought one bream home.

Perfect Poona

We ended up really enjoying Poona and have added it to our ever expanding list of places to be revisited. The town has a community hall and whilst we were there they had a Melbourne Cup Day, line dancing, tai chi, a meal and drinks on Friday night, a market this morning and Tombolla on Sunday.

We went over for the meal last night-it's all done by volunteers and we had the choice of fish and chips, pork chops chips and salad, a hamburger or steak sandwich (our choice) for between $4.50 and $7. Good bottled wine was $2 a glass for white and $3 for the red. It was a great night and the locals were so friendly it was unbelievable. I think the Great Sandy Straight might be over fished, but Poona would be still OK with a bit more local knowledge. We managed to catch ourselves 6 fair sized whiting and a garfish yesterday, so were pretty happy with that.

Now we are in Maryborough with Riki (from Recipezaar) for a couple of nights. She lives in a lovely old Queenslander with high ceilings and a great outlook from the upstairs front porch. Just the place to sit and compute and drink coffee!

Poona

Rain, rain, rain is all it’s seemed to do sine we arrived in Poona 4 days ago. It’s about 40ks outside Maryborough and quite a nice little place but we haven’t seen much of it with the rain. The good thing is the lack of sand flies due to the cooler weather-that really is great. We’ve been pretty bothered by them and have a huge selection of sprays, roll-ons and home made remedies in the hope that something works. When we went to Maryborough tourist information centre looking for directions, we were asked why we would want to come here and then told to be careful of the sand flies-after all the places we’ve been fighting them off, this seems no worse than anywhere else!

I bought a very expensive tube of Bushman’s repellant only to find I stuck to the seat I use in the boat (and it felt like waxing my leg to get it off) and all the plastic parts on our fishing rods we’ve touched have gone tacky. It can’t be nice stuff!

The park is here is small and mostly empty which is nice. We’ve actually had one whole side of the place to ourselves and have really spread out under the big shady trees. I hated the first couple of days though as the lawns were in desperate need of a mow and the shrubs needed attacking with a machete to get through to the toilets and laundry. I was happy to come back from a drive to Maryborough yesterday and find the owner had done it!

We did manage to get out to fish yesterday morning (up at 6 am to do it though) and were very happy when Russ caught us a metre long gummy shark and a large flounder. The shark has given us quite a few feeds of one of my favourite fish. It was great fun bringing it into the boat with our very light gear. Poona is on the Great Sandy Straight so is only 4ks across the water from Fraser Island. We’d been hoping we could take the boat over but the weather really has been against us, so we might have to do it next time round.

After we’d been fishing, we showered then headed into Maryborough for lunch and a visit with one of the women Riki that I’ve met through the recipe club Recipezaar. We’d never met in person before but had a great time. On Saturday we are leaving here and taking the van to her place for two nights before we move on to Trewantin near Noosa for another week. It’ll be lovely to spend some time with Riki.

This morning we took a drive to Tin Can Bay. It’s another pretty spot, but it was too wet still to get out and look round much. I was surprised at the extent of the pine forests around here-we passed through about 40ks of them on the way here.