Tue 19th sept Day 23

 Tue 19th sept

Day 23


We got out of the house early as Mama had a massage booked (Thankyou Maerey for the recommendation!) and Sasha was needing some park time. 


The first park was boiling hot, and lacked a bathroom so Papa found the Apex park, which seemed to have been built with the support of a local concreter - there was a sword in a concrete stone, a complete sphere 1.5metres tall in concrete, and various other curious but seemingly unconnected features in cement. Sasha enjoyed the shady play with some locals and Mama met us there afterwards to head for lunch. 


The fierce sun prompted papa to get a sun reflector for the car (wise move, works heaps better than towels).


Petals and Pinecones enjoys a place in our consciousness as the only place outside Canberra we had seen “Freak Shakes” on a menu. For the uninitiated, imagine a normal milk shake, served in a tall glass, with 8 to 12 extra ingredients attached to its sides and extending above the glass. We’ve had precisely one of these, and they are, frankly, a bit sickly sweet to enjoy, despite their prettiness. 


However, this time we stuck to the food classics.






The cafe used to have an antiques section, which has disappeared, but the kids play area has expanded and is diverse enough to keep both kidlets happy for a while. Nastya is not quite crawling, but has developed some cute shuffly movements that allow her to manoeuvre towards Sasha quite well. Sasha is not used to it - there is quite a bit of panic when the sister that used to stay in one spot for minutes at a time has a constant target lock on ANYTHING he is playing with. 





Bonny had arranged a dinner just out of town with Papa's sister and niblings. 

We were a bit later than we hoped, but the energy of kidlets was undiminished. Sasha especially loved the kiddie catch ups, as the first three weeks of the trip did not have many kid play dates. 



A lovely roast pork with golden veg. Papa had offered to do dessert, and was trying to manage a variation of creme brulee… (having made many hundreds of litres of the stuff as a chef, you’d think this was not so hard). After a bit longer than it should have taken, he settled on a thick custard with biscuits. 


There was chatting on the couch while childish galloping rumbled up and down the halls. Nastya got some auntie cuddles, and we managed to get everyone involved in a sing along. We hit the road at the first sign of the youngest ones hitting their wall, with full bellies, and soon to be snoozing kidlets, it was a night that was good for the soul.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 12 - 8 Sept - Noosa

Image
  Day 12 - 8th Sept Noosa After testing the waters with the shortest Noosa Heads national park walk, it was time to do part of a larger one. All abilities and energy levels considered, the track leading to Tea Tree bay was chosen.  The path was a low impact monument to the protection of the whole headland. Originally the idea was to subdivide the various land parcels -  former farms, and build a road, cutting off any remaining forest from the sea (a key feature of the ecosystem), but even early European inhabitants recognised the environmental value of the area, when they set aside the heads for a future nature reserve in 1879.  60 years later the reserve became a national park, and multiple efforts to water down the rules, only led to firmer resolve to protect this lovely place.  This may seem small, but a string of protections there, to Hervey Bay and beyond, form a shield around K’gari (AKA - Fraser Island). The fresh water coming off this enormous sand islan...
Read more

Tue 18th sept - Day 22

Image
 Tue 18th sept - Day 22  Woke up to bird song.  After morning duties were cleared, and porridge was had, mama busied herself with muffin making. The local IGA proved to be excellent for local produce and special dietary requirements - big tick for gluten free flour that did not taste like cardboard or have the consistency of a dish sponge.  Speaking of IGA, throughout the trip we travelled with a big esky. Each town we stopped in we found the local supermarket and diligently found a staff member to ask, - What do you have that’s local? This was both to reduce our carbon footprint and to support the local community. Coles and woollies consistently gave disappointing answers - either blanks looks, “nothin”, “I dunno” or an aggressive “What, you expect me to know where everything comes from???” IGA consistently stood out in the positive (though was admittedly more expensive). And Atherton was the standout of the whole trip. The friendly avocado guy set aside his plump f...
Read more

Day 16 - mon Sept 12th - Carmilla Sands to Cape Hillsborough

Image
  Day 16 - mon Sept 12th - Carmilla Sands to Cape Hillsborough Accommodation choices were a little different on this trip for us. Last time we stayed mainly in airbnbs.  This time both prices and availability (post lock-down restriction school holidays) meant that we searched wider for where to spend our nights.  Carmilla sands was a small motel (about 8 rooms), built by the owner/manager. His motel had very high ratings and catered for an interesting mix Of holiday-makers, travelling workers and motorbike enthusiasts. He was an interesting mix of happy-go-lucky and cautious approach to his visitors' political and environmental leanings. After packing, we made our way to the local sprawling service station. Atomically temperatured Coffee was obtained, and we headed east to check out the coast.  We had had our request for later check out declined, so papa managed to cobble together macadamia butter with blueberry sandwiches at the park while Sasha played and mama chec...
Read more