Tumbulgum

Place names are not always said the way you might expect.  Just up the road from here is Uki.  The name stems from the days when the Number One grade cedar logged there was destined for the United Kingdom- “U.K.1.”  It is pronounced You-kye. 
On Saturday we spent the day at Tumbulgum.  I was inclined to pronounce it as “Tumble Gum”, but it is actually said “T’mBULg’m”.  Which I think is a pity, really.  Somehow my version had a ring to it that I rather liked!
What a delightful little place it is!  The nicely maintained Victorian homes, a General Store, a few art galleries and cafes and a historic tavern line one side of the gravel road and overlook the verdant banks of the Tweed River with views of the hills and mountains beyond.   

When we arrived the children were very excited.  Philip had bought a fishing rod for each of them before we left Melbourne but today was the first time on our trip that he had taken them out!  Michaela had been fishing with her Dad once before and was eager to try again, too.  It was nice to see the Dads helping the children bait their hooks and cast out the lines hopefully.   Arthur caught one tiny fish to everyone’s excitement, and they watched it swimming around in a bucket for a while before letting it go back into the river. 

As we were eating our lunch a really nice man came and asked whether we were locals of just visiting.  He lived across the road  and must have observed our lack of success because he’d brought out a herring jig for us to borrow, explaining that if we fished off a nearby jetty with it we might catch a lot of river bait (small fish like the one we’d thrown back) which we could then use to catch bigger fish with.

Leaving the children and their Dads to try their luck, the Mums went off to look at one of the galleries.  There we met another very friendly local man, who chatted to us about all sorts of things.  He was a wealth of information about the geology of the Mt Warning Caldera- apparently the largest volcanic plate of its kind in the world.  It has been used as a set for films about Hawaii due to the striking similarity in land formation.  When I mentioned being “stranded” for another fortnight he gave me some good tips for things to do and see within driving distance.  He also recommended that we visit the Tumbulgum Tavern which has a playground in the back garden which would give us an opportunity to enjoy a quiet coffee while they played.

Back at the riverside we found that the others had managed to catch some bait and had thrown the lines in again to try for a bigger catch.  Just as we arrived they got a nibble, but some unobservant tourists in a hired houseboat chose that moment to steer straight across the lines and anchor just off shore.  We all agreed to call it a day and try out the Tavern.

We finished the day around the campfire again.  Camping in a caravan on a powered site definitely has its advantages: we par-boiled some potatoes and yams in the microwave and then wrapped them in foil before throwing them on the fire to cook through.  Yummy!  They had the distinctive smoky campfire flavour, but were cooked to perfection without being charred on the outside.

Today (Sunday) we have spent a lot of time chatting over coffee (the espresso machine being another little luxury in the caravan!) and lounging by the pool while the children splash about.  Our plan had been to be home within the next few days, but as we have to be stranded I am very glad it is here!

We had a visitor near the caravan this afternoon- this goanna!

Tweed Heads and more...

I wrote most of this entry on Thursday evening, but due to phone reception cutting in and out it will probably be some time later…
During the course of Monday morning a couple of campervans with young families arrived and it didn’t take Esther and Arthur long to find the other children and make friends- a welcome change for them from the “grey nomads” who tend to be our neighbours in most places.  Towards dusk, when I went in search of them to tell them it was time for dinner, shower and bed,  I found them in the camp kitchen with several other children playing “craft shop”. They had collected some long tough leaves and were weaving and knotting them into a variety of things such as balls, hammocks and machines for making cupcakes.  Their parents were invited to come and buy gifts from the shop, and the children stressed how special the things were as they were all handmade.

Arthur was happy to come and have dinner but it was not easy to drag Esther away!  The next morning she woke me at dawn, saying, “Mum, I think it’s starting to get light outside. Does that mean it’s daytime? Can I go and finish making things for our shop?”  Not wanting to wake Arthur I got up, too, and decided I might as well keep her company and plait a headband!

The rest of the day we kept busy around the caravan.     As the children were playing with the little girl (Nikita) most of the day, we invited her Mum to come over and have a cup of tea with us and later they also joined us at the campfire. She is a young woman who has been through an incredible amount, including bringing her little girl up alone as her partner died when she was only one month pregnant.   We had been quite impressed to watch her interacting with her daughter and when we told her so she got tears in her eyes and thanked us for the encouragement as she had actually been feeling at her wits’ end that day! 
On Wednesday we drove into Tweed Heads to visit Michaela.  Squeals of delight greeted us when we knocked on the door!  She had tidied her room in honour of Esther and Arthur’s arrival but while the grown-ups had a chat over a cup of coffee the three children emptied out her entire collection of toys before deciding to play with the dress-ups (leaving the other toys scattered all over the floor.) 

They wanted to show us some of the local sights, so after we’d finished the coffee we headed for Rainbow Bay.  The forecast was for storms later in the day but although air was heavy and humid and the sky a threatening grey, we had a lovely time morning on the sand and in the water.  Ironically- after avoiding “stingers” in the water until we got to “safe” beaches further south- I was stung by a bluebottle jellyfish! These are fairly harmless (unless there is an allergic reaction) but until the angry rash and little blisters eventually faded it felt as though I had a nasty burn on my arm! 

At lunchtime we had fish and chips followed by a walk along the Tweed River, and then drove to Danger Point.  Usually Mt Warning stands behind the Point as a beacon, alerting ships to the Danger Reefs off shore, but today the storm clouds obscured the mountains from view.  While we stood on the cliffs admiring the view, we noticed a pod of dolphins diving and playing among the surfers below. 

We had dinner with Michaela’s family and the children were fast asleep before we left.  They didn’t even stir when we put them into the car or carried them to bed, nor did they notice the heavy rain that had started to fall!

This morning it was still raining. The ground outside was wet and soggy.  The children’s thongs were floating like rafts in a small lake just outside the door.  The creek was flowing rapidly and noisily over its stony bed and the children soon discovered that the dry ditch behind our caravan had turned into a muddy “river”.  In between showers we explored the miniature rivers and waterfalls that have appeared everywhere, but for most of the day we had to stay inside except when Philip ran out of reading and we visited the second hand book shop in Murwillumbah to add to the ever-growing collection we have accumulated during the trip!

Not a happy camper! You hardy ever see a cane toad during the day, but this one appeared to have a broken leg and was slowly making his way down towards the shrubbery.

This evening we were sitting outside again, our feet up, listening to the cicadas. Philip was reading and I, of course, was blogging.  As I finished typing the previous paragraph I suddenly felt something land on my toes… and looking at me over the screen of the laptop was a kookaburra!  He tipped his head to one side and said “prrrp?”  We have, of course, been feeding the kookaburras every evening and this particular one is usually the boldest, but until now we’ve had to coax him to come gradually closer until he feeds from our hands. This visit was quite unexpected, especially as I didn’t even have any food for him.  He even let me stroke him a little, and hopped onto Arthur’s hand when he brought some food out. 

Later in the evening I walked into the forest behind the caravan a little way as I had heard that there were glow worms there.  I managed to find them and got the children to come and have a look, too.  They were delighted.  Esther pretended that they were shining through the windows in Fairyland.  Arthur liked the idea too, but was keen to see a what they look like  up close and wanted to know how they glow.  I’d google it for him but reception is so poor here…

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Today is Saturday again.  Michaela's family have taken us to a lovely spot on the Tweed River where we're going to try some fishing and have a picnic.  I'll try to update again soon!

Still Waiting...

Over the weekend the camping ground became quite full but gradually the tents are coming down, the campervans are driving off and we have our part of the park almost to ourselves again. Michaela's family was here for two nights but they have also gone home now, so everything is quiet but for the sounds of birds, frogs and the breeze stirring the leaves.  Occasionally a voice can be heard from one of the remaining camps and the children are playing with another little girl who has just arrived this morning. (It doesn't take them long to make friends!)
It's been a very enjoyable weekend.  Michaela had only been away for a few days, but the children were so excited when she arrived again on saturday to camp with us for the weekend.  Her Dad, who had almost recovered from his pneumonia, was able to join them too this time and got a really warm reception too!   When they started setting up the tent our "tame schoolies" (as they called themselves) came over and offered to help.  The girls joined us around the campfire again, too, and showed the children how to make "smoors" by sandwiching a toasted marshmallow between two chocolate coated biscuits.  Yum!

Yesterday we went for a drive with Michaela's family.  We had heard from some other campers how beautiful the Springbrook area was and the road through the Ranges and across the Queensland border into the Surfers Paradise hinterland was quite spectacular.  Each ben in the road brought views of rolling green hills, lush forests, rugged mountains and steep rocky escarpments. We had left a bit late and had to make a detour for petrol on the way, so by the time we got to Springbrook it was lunchtime and the "Gourmet Galah" was the first cafe we came across.  We lingered over lunch while the children ran around in the gardens of the cafe along secret paths which took them across little bridges, past a fishpond and numerous aviaries. Unfortunately the galah after which the business is named, along with the forty year old cockatoo who shared his cage, had recently been eaten by a python.
By the time we had finished it was mid afternoon. There are many walks, lookouts and waterfalls around Springbook, but we would have needed a full day to do them all so we opted to visit the "Best of All Lookout" and just one of the falls. We had passed through the very appealing township of Chillingham on the way and just had enough time to stop there for a late afternoon tea on the way home. 

The outlook from the cafe- Surfers Paradise in the distance. 

The huge Antarctic Beech behind the children was a sapling two thousand years ago!

The prominent peak of Mount Warning is an easily recognisable landmark. It was named by Captain Cook 1770 as it is visible from the sea and serves as a warning to ships that they are near the Danger Reefs north of Cape Byron.

From the tallest trees to the tiniest forests of moss god's creation is awesome!

The Best of All Lookout was somewhere up there!

As well as coffee, we bought some sugar bananas here for $3 per kilo.

When I began writing an update for this page we were sitting in front of the caravan, waiting to hear from the mechanic and wondering just how long it will be before we will be on the road again.
I seldom get to sit and do anything for any length of time without interruptions and this morning has been no exception- the little girl's Mum came over for a chat, the children wanted morning tea, I saw one of the caretakers I'd been wanting to ask about something, an altercation between the kids needed arbitration- and now it is mid afternoon.  Meanwhile the mechanic has rung. It seems that his original diagnosis that the torque convertor was at fault was incorrect and the problem is rather more deep-seated. (Something to do with the pistons.) He's going to take the engine out to establish more exactly where the problem lies and there has been talk of a reconditioned engine... In any case, it looks as though our stay at Mount Warning is going to be even longer than we anticipated and we will be home a few weeks later than we had planned.