The Moulamein of the North

Alas, today we leave Mullaway.  A lovely spot and I could quite see myself living happily there.  Noting the weather of the first 4 days, I don’t think I could be accused of having any rose-coloured glasses (although perhaps the summer humidity might be an issue?).

After a stroll round the headland we piled into the car and headed off at pretty close to our target time of 10:30.  We rolled gently up the Pacific Highway (going over the Dirty Creek Range ascending to the dizzy heights of 110m AMSL: surprisingly neither of us got altitude sickness – this must be a residual training effect from our trip to Cusco)!

The first town we got to was Grafton.  This looked far less up-market than Coffs Harbour or Woolgoolga.  Then I realised we were in South Grafton and I wondered whether calling anything ‘South’ gave it an inferiority complex leading to social deprivation and low self-esteem?  Frances offered South Bruce as a counter argument and I realised that South Canberra is generally not too bad (at least compared to Gungahlin or Tuggeranong).  Whatever, the tone of Grafton lifted somewhat once over the Clarence. 

I got some fuel (just over 30mpg) at the Shell servo – bad idea as the Woolies one had E10 3c/l cheaper – and then Frances did some shopping for essentials such as potato chips and licorice.

We rolled out of town noting a parked truck painted as being owned by “Craig Pigg – livestock carrier”.  From Grafton it was 100km along the Summerland Way to the next real town, Kyogle.  This was a great drive through nicely vegetated country (even where cleared a fair bit of timber was left, presumably as shade trees for the stock).  The birding excitement of the day occurred along here with a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles soaring over a clearing. 

Less exciting, but IMHO still interesting was the number of Cattle Egrets accompanying every bunch of – wait for it – cattle.   

We agreed it was a good job they weren’t oxen or we might have had the first Australian sighting of Oxpeckers!

After Kyogle, where we just missed the Saturday market, but had to follow some dweet on a tractor through town at 30kph, we swung on to the Murwillumbah/Nimbin road. 

Blast from the past parenthesis.  The last time I drove along here – possibly in 1988 – the start of the road was accompanied by a wrecked car, with a sign saying “This is the 75^th car to roll on this road since …”.   As on that occasion darkness was falling and I had driven a fair bit already I wondered what was coming.  Corrugated dirt, with many unsigned sharp corners and steep hills is what was coming.  I think this is the only time I have done handbrake turns from fear!  We made it.

This time it was daylight and the scenery was spectacular as we traversed the Tweed and Nightcap ranges. 

As we went along it was interesting that we passed at least 4 turn-offs marked to Nimbin.  When we go to Adelaide across the Hay Plain the same situation arises with Moulamein although it is usually 90km off the Sturt Highway rather than 13km as posted to flower-power central.  The only problem with the drive was a dweet (a different dweet, not the tractor-pilot) driving a Hyundai with Queensland plates – who did 60kph most of the time but sped up to 80 where it was possible to overtake.  I eventually got past this person and then followed one of the packs of bikers (not wearing colours) on this interesting road into Murwillumbah.

After a few misdirections in the town, we headed out to Tomewin and ascended the cliff to our friend’s place.  Hooly Dooly!  It has the most spectacular view over the Tweed Valley to Mount Warning,

is a brilliantly designed place and is generally wonderful.  I noticed some old carpet she has laid to suppress weeds and recalled our friend saying that pythons lived under there.  So I lifted the edge of the carpet to find Cane Toads!  In fact they were rather large Cane Toads!

The property is called ‘Wynne’ after the Wynne Prize for painting.  This reflects the winning painting for 1921, “Valley of the Tweed” by Elioth Gruner, being painted at a look-out across the road from the property.

After dark there was a fireworks show somewhere up the valley.  Que?  Cracker night is on the Queens Birthday long weekend, which was last weekend.  I know we are close to Queensland but I would have thought the folk would have known the date if not the time!

Eat lerp – twenty million Silvereyes can’t be wrong

Waking up to a view of Mt Warning is a very good way to start the day.  Frances commented that it could be the most photographed mountain ever.  I’m not sure about that, unless she was forecasting the number of images taken over the next week, but it is certainly one of the most spectacular views in Australia.

 I referred above, with a small amount of contempt, to us being close to Queensland.  I think that, rather than anything to do with electronics, is to blame for us getting ABC Kids programming rather than ABC News Breakfast from 6am to 9am.  Looking – very briefly - at the program on offer I could see that it had been designed to be very politically correct: about 6 kids of all sorts of races (possibly even one gringo).   A more hopeful note is that the CGI characters all floated off with big eyes and silly grins, although neither Timothy Leary nor Ken Keasey were given credit for the script!  Bleccch!

I spent some time on the deck watching Mt Warning change colour as the sun came up and noting down the few birds who either came into view or whose calls I could recognise.  There are a lot of Whipbirds in this area.

Our main aim of the day was to visit a Market or two.  The first of these was intended to be Nimbin, not because I particularly wished to go to those markets but I did feel the village had an important role in Australia society (from the Aquarius Festival) and I wanted to see what it was like now. 

As we headed off towards Murwillumbah a strange looking bird flew into a tree.  It was sufficiently odd looking for me to back up for a good look.  What an excellent  idea: this was only the second Pacific Baza I had ever seen!

Once we turned off the Kyogle road towards Nimbin the quality of road declined dramatically.  (Taking another trip down memory lane, on our previous visit to the area I attributed the state of the Kyogle road to the Shire being unwilling to put money into a road serving a bunch of goddam hippies.)  I suspect the same still applies to Blue Knob Rd, plus the boundary between Tweed and Lismore Shires is about halfway along the road so there would also be a reluctance for one Shire to do up a road to somewhere else.

We found the market which was not exactly a hive of activity. 

Frances wandered in and acquired some bromeliads while I stayed out with Tammy and acted as referee in her discussions with a large Border Collie type beast.  The funniest bit was the BC keeping trying to pat her on the head.  It didn’t know that it was likely to lose a foot if it persevered in that approach.

The village was very interesting in a strange way.  The whole place seemed to be set up as a tourist trap but there did seem to be an underlying philosophy being marketed.

 I referred above to a couple of writers who would certainly approve of the emphasis given to certain hemp products around the town.  

This topic rears its head again in about 5 days time: it may also explain why there was a 4x4 full of NSW finest wandering around the town (it is unclear whether they had come to hassle the local entrepreneurs or to get a sack of goodies for inhalatory purposes).

The message on a door about stopping coal seam gas

 was reflected in signs in a number of spots around the area opposing fracking.  (Apart from the many problems with this nasty technology which can be supported by logical facts, the observation that it was invented by Halliburton should be enough to condemn it on emotional grounds!)  Later in the week I read that 3,000 people had attended a recent Lock The Gate rally in Murrwillumbah: well done Tweed folk!

I have since come a cross a copy of the Nimbin Good Times (describing itself as the Alternative Journal of the Rainbow Region) which has a front page story about a proposed development of a Zorbing site in the village.  The proponent thereof seems to be associated with the YHA and has all sorts of “good ideas” about making the YHA independent (from what, is not specified) plus planting 500,000 trees over 150 acres (what metric system?).  It will get tourists to spend more time in the village (current visitor stay is 4 hours).  The opponent as quoted lives next door and talks about the dam into which the Zorbas get deposited having some rushes that ducks breed in and having filmed swans there.  He also mentions “commercial venture” as though it is an obscenity (probably a fair call) and talks a lot about destroying the peace and quiet.  He is probably getting into NIMBinYism – and in his circumstances so would I: ban the Zorb!

As well as all the hippie stuff Nimbin had the usual facilities of a small country town.  The work on the outside of the bowling club was rather innovative

as was the attire of the bowlers (and the rock music being played to accompany the game.

Of course with all the tokes being took around the town there was the possibility of a roach ending up in somewhere combustible so they had a Bushfire Brigade.  The signage on the outside of the shed is again innovative.

We have got a guide to birding spots in the Tweed Valley which included the Clarrie Hall Dam.  As we were passing I thought we’d drop in for a look.  The biographical material about Clarrie started off with several words about him being hard working lad on his Dad’s selection: this had me wondering why a cow cockie got a Dam named after him.  Then it emerged that he had been Shire President for some 17 years which explained everything!  There were not a great number of birds around, but we had a great walk through the forest beside the dam and spotted a Jacana trotting across the lilies on the far side of the dam.

As we headed back we found that the Uki market was still in operation.  They had a very good musical duo doing their work, which I listened to while overseeing Tammie’s interaction with a Pomeranian.  Astonishingly the Pom seemed to be faster than she was!  Frances acquired some olive products from one of the stalls.

After getting home I spent more time on the deck looking at the hordes of Silvereyes flitting through the treetops.  I have no idea how many there were but an awful lot.  I’m not even sure they were eating lerps (ie scale insects) but I did like the reference back to a famous Australian saying about blowflies.   On continuing to watch them they seemed to be eating berries (or possibly bugs that were eating the berries).

The other notable thing about the Sunday afternoon was the number of motorbikes thundering up or down Tomewin Rd.  Obviously it is seen as a challenging road to ride hard so the lads were out and getting into it on all sorts of bikes: from the exhaust notes both Harleys and Ducatis were popular.  Presumably the cops don’t fuss about this unless the death toll gets out of order.  (Another interesting memory is that this time last year we saw the same sort of behaviour on a road across the North York Moors.)

Murwillumbah, the town that parking forgot!

This morning’s pleasant sight was mist in the valley.  It was pretty dense up the Tweed Valley past Mt Warning but pleasantly patchy out on the flood plain.

We decided that today was the day to go and explore Murwillumbah, starting off with an alleged Egret nest site just out of town.  Before getting to town we found a bunch of Royal Spoonbills dining in a ditch beside a cane field. 

That is more than was at the Egret nest site (to be fair the Tweed bird guide did say they nested in Spring, not mid-Winter).

We then went to the Visitors Centre to see what they had in the way of walks around the town.  The short answer was very little: it was almost as though there are the beaches to the East and National Parks everywhere else and no history in the town itself.  The people at the centre were extremely helpful and gave me some stuff, and suggested that Nobby’s Creek Rd would be a good place to go for a walk with a dog because it had very little traffic. 

Before doing that I needed to access the internet so we headed to the library.  Nowhere to park there.  There was a street next door with a car park off it: all spots reserved for Shire employees.  Various other streets were tried and no sensible parking was on offer.   After about 15 minutes searching I found a tightish spot on the main drag and parked there.  Frances went for a wander avec chienne while I checked who was trying to contact me (and the rainfall for last week).  In the course of this stroll she noted a sign on a gate “Warning Security dogs on duty.  The remains of trespassers will be buried”.

So we then needed nutrients (a pie and an apple turnover in my case) which required a park in the CBD.  I presume all the shop workers park out front of their places of employment because we drove right along the street before we found a spot.  Possibly this isn’t bad, but I have grown used to there being parking lots around to which one is directed.

Having got enough calories to feed a village in a developing country we headed off to Nobbys Creek Rd.  It was an interesting road through pasture, with some remnants of forest here and there.  The little traffic was a relative term: compared to the Pacific Highway (or the New Jersey Turnpike) it had little traffic.  Compared to Widgiewa Rd, Carwoola it was 4 times as busy as when all the slaves are heading to work or dropping the kids off at the school bus stop.  (Looking later at a topo map of the area it emerged that rather than 2.5 km long, as implied by a sign at the start, the road was about 10km long with about 100 homes along it.  No wonder it was busier than expected.)  However we did find some good birds: a flock of 20+ Topknot Pigeons (the first I have seen for about 20 years) and a Little Shrike-thrush (my second ever).

After this stroll we went back to our abode where I went exploring the garden and surrounding rainforest.  Herewith a few images (nothing is named because I really don't know what they are, other than very pleasant to look at.

One item that was recognisable was the biggest cane toad I have ever seen.  Not quite the size of a football as some were reputed to be before inbreeding got to them, but still about 2x the size of yesterday's specimens.  The strip of tape was >15cm long.

One issue with walking around in rainforest is that some of the vegetation is rather unfriendly.  After looking at plants like those in the next two images, and thinking about Mr Weissmuller swinging from vine to vine, I have concluded that "Tarzan" is actually a Bantu word word meaning 'person with no skin on hands'.

A brief visit to Johville

The view this morning was enlivened by the steam (or smoke, I am not sure of the technology) from the Condong Sugar Mill hitting a temperature inversion about 100m up. 

Before getting to the topic of the title I’ll just record that at noon the external temperature recorded in the car at Tweed Heads was 19 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky.  Then I heard the weather in Canberra: 6 degrees and the rain expected to stop by evening. Yes!!!!!

It was a brief visit to the next State to the North, Oh my goodness, yes, don’t you worry about that!  Just long enough to record 6 species of birds for my Queensland list for 2011.  The drive along Tomewin Rd towards Currumbin was quite interesting, and I could certainly see the attraction of the road for the weekend warriors on 2 wheels.  If I felt like working I think I’d open a stall selling new foot-pegs for motorbikes at one end of the road, and franchise someone to do the same at the other. 

Fortunately for the sake of the Subaru I had a passenger who doesn’t like being chucked around (I must get the full race seat belts fitted sometime and throw these pussy inertia-reel jobbies away).  There is also the potential for Chunderpooch to revisit us which is another reason to take it gently on steep and winding roads.  At one point we noted a sign to ‘Bains Rd: formerly Rainforest Glen’.  Obviously Mr Bain had fixed up that naughty rainforest!  Shortly after this we saw a cyclist getting in shape on a 10% grade.  Then we hit the 14% grade he’d already conquered !

So after getting to Currumbin we didn’t go and get Lorikeet guano all over us but hit the Pacific Highway and headed for Tweed Heads, back in NSW and the 21^st Century (CE - I’m not sure about other cultures’ timetables). 

We started with a couple of walks recommended in the Tweed birders pamphlet.  The first was along part of the estuary system covering a boardwalk and a dirt road.  The highlight of this was an Osprey – my first for some time.  We next went to an area off Vintage Drive.  As we went in the names of the streets – all types of wine – seemed familiar and then daylight dawned: we had been to this spot in 2008 on our way back from Brisbane.  Still good as we added a couple of simple birds (Black Swan and Coot) to the trip list.

We then decided to find our way to an Aldi store in South Tweed Heads.  The main problem was that one of our maps only showed about half the roads (and some of the names were out of date) while the other one only showed half the area.  This meant we took a fair tour of the area, but eventually got where we needed to go. However we got there.   Coming back a surprise right lane turn caught me out and we spent some time touring the largest and most confusing set of roadworks in creation.  I think this must be some sort of test to keep undesirables from migrating from Queensland: it was much better signed to get to Brisbane than anywhere else.

Eventually we made it to the road to Fingals Head where we took a signed track to the beach.  This was the perfect beach: wide, gently sloping clean sand, beautiful surf rolling in and about 6 other folk on the 5km of sand!  Dogs allowed!  Just before we got to the turn-round point (ie close to a couple of other folk and about 1.5km from where we hit the beach) we saw some dolphins surfing.  One of them did a complete aerial off the top of a wave!

Frances had noticed a lighthouse on top of a headland so we decided to visit it.  It was a great spot- dogs welcome on leads on a great walk though a bit of forest (picking up Bar-shouldered Dove en route). 

 Several folk were on the headland watching the Humpback Whales disporting themselves as they migrate to Hervey Bay.  We saw quite a few spouts, several tailfins and a reasonable collection of breaches.  As we headed back to the car we saw more dolphins. 

As well as this the area was signed to the Giants Causeway: not quite as spectacular as (I am led to believe) the place in Ireland (apparently the Scottish end of that formation is part of Fingal's Cave: thanks Rob for the correction) but the guy fishing off the top was going to have trouble getting off as his escape route had waves breaking over it. 

Other fishermen were not as daft.

On getting home I gathered some material to light my fire (in the slow combustion stove) when I spotted someone in the valley doing a better job.  To my surprise it had died down in about 15 minutes (and no one else lit up after dark, drat it).

The Doctor’s run

The first business of the day was to visit the Caldera Farmers Market at the Murwillimbah Showgrounds.  The use of the term caldera refers to this area being the cratered remains of a massive volcano which went feral some time ago.  Mount Warning is a plug left over from that explosion.   The market was less explosive but full of very good produce, some of which was acquired by Frances while I escorted our small friend around the showgrounds.  There were various rules about what could be sold, ensuring that it was ‘farm grown’ and not someone flogging off a bunch of stuff they had just acquired at the back door to Woolworths.

We then headed back up the road a short way to watch some cane being harvested.

 Frances commented that this didn’t look much like the “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll”.  It was quite skilful keeping the trailer in position with the harvester, and the turns at the end of the swath were an intricate dozy-doh. I was most impressed with the movements of the flock of Cattle Egrets flying out of the way of the harvester and dropping immediately in behind.  At another field nearby (cut yesterday) White-faced Herons and Masked Lapwings were also getting on the deal.  A little further up the road a Black-shouldered Kite found a cleared paddock a good place to ingest a mouse plucked from an uncut field of cane.

We next headed to Tumblegum (mainly because I liked the name).  It turned out to be an historically interesting village with an old cemetery that had been ‘restored’ by a community group.  They had done a great job of putting up an access path (more like a long flight of stairs) and some interesting notice boards.  However nature was striking back with ferns in particular covering much of the ground.

 In one case a tree had obviously started growing soon after the little boy was interred. 

That was North Tumblegum and the village proper was on the other side of the Tweed.  A nice little place, although the river appeared to be used for water skiing (which probably explains the 74dB limit signs).  Another sign indicated the height of the 1959 floods – about 2m above the road beside the river. On the dry side of the road were a few shops, one of which had some very nice wood carvings.  Frances was taken with a wooden seat (referred to as a Jack and Jill seat because it was set up as a two seater with a small bench – suitable for resting pails of water or glasses of wine – between them).  Surprisingly the statement by the owner of the shop that he had shipped a seat like that to Melbourne for $370 didn’t get the credit card to appear (yet).

After a quietish afternoon I decided to go for a run up the road.  There were two possible routes: along the Garden of Eden Rd (there may well be more about this thoroughfare tomorrow) or continue on the Tomewin Rd to the Queensland border.  I decided that the latter was the go, despite the lack of a verge in some places.  This led me to think that the run should be sponsored by a doctor. I just wasn’t sure which doctor, with the choices being Phillip Nitschke or (the late) Jack Kevorkian.  I did survive it, as (apparently) did the surprising number of push-bike riders using the road.   My visit to the North Eastern State was even briefer than yesterday’s, at about 15m.  The most amusing sight was a pair of White-headed Pigeons with the male attempting to impress the female.  His routine consisted of two quick steps and then a hop, the latter causing him to jump about 5cm in the air. 

Tammie posed nicely on the deck with some mountain or another in the background.

After dark, and while preparing a barbecue, I noticed what appeared to be a very long line of flames to the East of Murwillimbah.  Obviously a large cane field has been lit up – this one was still going some 45 minutes later.  In fact it was still “going” about 3 hours later, which made me think it was actually some street lights or suchlike.

Nearly Mt Cougal

I had thought to climb Mt Warning while in the area.  However what we read about it made it seem quite hard, so I decided instead to do the Mt Cougal walk, which has the further advantage of starting off more or less straight behind our accommodation.  Frances didn’t like the look of the words in “Take a Walk” by John and Lynn Daly so decided to stay behind.

The start of the trek was along Garden of Eden Rd for 2 km.  This was enlivened by some folk grading the Road.  I commented to the lady with the warning sign that I thought the road was pretty good already but she said that folk round here complain if their road isn’t graded once a year.  She didn’t know anything about the Mt Cougal track but thought the truck driver might!

 Indeed he did and it was just as well since on getting through the gate I took off along the nice vehicle track which was WRONG.  The truck driver pointed out the error of my ways, and opined that the track hadn’t been used much.  The walking track was a single pad heading off through some tall grass immediately beside the quarantine fence: yes folks I was back in Queensland.  The tall grass soon gave way to lantana, which in places arched over the track.  Someone ought to read the section on ‘maintenance’ in the bushwalking book!  This section was pretty uphill: I don’t think Frances would have liked it much!

After a bit of mucking around through clumps of sugar cane I eventually got into the rainforest.  I was still following the fence which was a fairly impressive bit of work, in terms of the number of pickets and quantity of wire used.  A pity it was so overgrown in places that any vermin would easily be able to clear it.  At one point a nice wooden gate had come out on the losing side in a battle with termites: that made it even easier for the vermin – up to and including humans – to cross the border.

Some of the trees were very impressive as were the figs growing up them. 

I had also noticed a lot of pinkish-red fruit lying on the ground: presumably these were fruits which the plethora of columbids were dining on.  I didn’t see any of them, but did add Russet-tailed Thrush to my life list. 

The next landmark was an official blaze on a tree dating from about 1864 when the border was surveyed in this area. 

I’m not sure when the fence was erected but I was finding it hard enough to walk up here, let alone shlep a lot of fence poles and wire up.  Shortly after this (a bit longer into the walk than described in the book) I got to a stretch described in the guidebook as very steep.  Brother they were not joking.  My guess is that it was about 1 in 1, or 45 degrees, or a 50% grade.  After about 15 minutes of climbing this, basically using the tree roots as steps, my legs were grizzling more than somewhat.  Even the sight of a Russet-tailed Thrush (my only lifer for the trip) didn't inspire me greatly. 

When I then got to an area where the track veered away from the fence into an area of broken rock and largely vanished, I decided that a number of ducks had lined up.  However, rather than forming a pattern which would allow me to shoot several with one bullet, they were line abreast with beaks pointing away from me.  I thought of the legal maxim ‘ex cloaca anseriformes nil bonum venit’ (ie nothing good comes out of a ducks bum) and decided to pull the pin on the expedition.  A bit of a bugger, but I had had a nice walk in some rainforest and added a bird to my life list.

As is always the case with out and back walks I found that on the way back there had been a lot more downhill in the first half than I had realised: another duck!  On my returning Frances commented that this sounded like the family day walks we did in Tasmania which involved scrambling up banks above a 300m drop into the ocean!

Round 2 of the invertebrate wars has just been fought.  I found a small tick on Tammy and was able to keep her still enough for Frances to give the beast a dab of meths and then apply the tweezers with extreme prejudice.  Unlike the last time we did this, Tammie didn’t chuck a wobbly at the application of the meths.

There is definitely another cane fire down in the valley this evening.  As with the previous fire, but unlike last night, it seemed to burn for a very short while.  

It is something I have been very pleased to see this trip, as it has been part of the cane mythology which I had never before witnessed.  When looking at the next image, remember this was taken at night, and the fire was at least 5km away!

Roadside conversations

For some reason my legs felt rather stiff and sore this morning!

We started the day by taking the small dog for a walk along Garden of Eden Rd (carrying her through the jungle  - aka rainforest – up to the road).  This was a very pleasant walk, especially compared to battling with the trucks and bikes along Tomewin Rd.  A ute full of DPI blokes went past soon after we had started and then came back out.  The second time they stopped for a chat.  This could have been:

• rural sociability; 
• rustic curiosity; or 
• checking up on suspicious characters 

(or any combination of the above).  However it was all very friendly - after nearly 5 years we can do country bumpkin quite well.

When we got to the start of the walk (or the end of the road: your call) I took a photograph of an abandoned Kombi-type vehicle.  It was unclear whether this was the jungle taking over or a deliberate bit of artistry.

At some point in this expedition I scored a photo of a spider - one of the very few we saw on this trip.

Just as we started to drop down through the jungle Frances noticed an echidna wandering across someone's lawn.  As well as the echidna, this shot shows the thatched roof over the cabana next to a pool: such an approach would be very unusual on the South Coast but fairly common up here (which probably says something about the relative ease of gathering palm fronds).

Then in to Murwillumbah for this and that.  This included me checking my emails and Frances sussing out the op-shops.  I took a few snaps of the more interesting architecture in the main street. 

When I got back to the car after that - Frances was sitting in the car doing quality assurance on a date scone- some guy was standing beside the car yelling at her.  Was he a National Party supporter objecting to us not driving a V8 ute?  Nope, all was cool: he was an honest electrician (possibly still a National Party voter, although the word honest may have to be retracted in that case) working on the shop outside which we were parked and he wanted to bag our spot when we left.  He was having to yell because the windows were up!

Frances commented that the punters of Murwillumbah – at least represented by those in the street and the op-shops - seemed a tad down-market compared to Woolgoolga.  I suspect her sample wasn’t exactly unbiased but it being court day probably didn’t help!  (The latter judgement was by me, having seen all the smartly dressed lawyers and their not-quite-so-well dressed clients sitting outside an edifice labelled ‘courthouse’.)

We headed off and as we went along had some discussion about how to get to our destination.  I knew it was in one direction and Frances kept talking about it being in another.  This became clarified when we realised I was heading for Liquorland while Frances was interested in the whereabouts of the Regional Art Gallery.  Since we went to both, this was really a question of priorities.

Liquorland seemed to offer what was needed (ie beer and red wine) for a reasonable number of shekels.  The only interesting bit there was a brand of beer called something like “Ïron Bar” complete with a picture of someone looking rather like Chesty Bond on the carton.  On reading the carton closely it turned out to have been brewed in Vietnam!

The Tweed Regional Gallery was a ripper (Frances rated it as the best Regional Gallery she had visited).  Rather large and with several display spaces.  One had a collection of Indigenous Artist prints with just about every big family (and most areas except the desert and Kimberly) represented.  That turns out to have been a touring exhibition from the Australian Maritime Museum.  They also had the Olive Cotton Photographic portrait competition which is run through this Gallery.  A very interesting set of work, including explanation of the various types of printing used (NGA take a hint).  The Gallery also specialises in collecting portraits and an excellent display of them around.  (I initially thought this was the Archibald on tour, but the quality was too high.) 

One work which seemed to go against categorisation was representations of each State’s floral emblem.  It was interesting that 7 of the 8 had labels of the form <State name> <vernacular flower name> <scientific flower name>.   In a display of typical arrogance the 8^th just had “Waratah” “Telopea speciosissima”.  Of even more interest was that the material used to create these works was cane-toad skin!

To top this off I stepped outside and noticed a large farm dam which managed to add three species to the trip list (of which Forest Kingfisher was the pick since they are supposed to have migrated away by now). 

Going outside also let me get a snap of some rock sheep.  Mounts Cougal form the far background.

As we passed back across the plain on the way home we got some photos of the after effects of canefield burning and stubble burning as it happens.

I took a walk up the road to get some snaps of this and that which I had noticed on my camera-challenged run.  The second image was not taken in Queanbeyan (perhaps this is something to do with names starting with 'Que..?).   If that was a crash from the road, I doubt if anyone survived this 20m drop.

 Mission accomplished, and as I was walking back a Ford Laser pulled up beside me.  It appeared to contain 5 lads whose appearance (such of it as could be seen around the sunnies and hoodies worn by most of the 5) and accents suggested they may have just come from Friday prayers.  The conversation went as follows:

• Driver “Excuse me, does this road go to Nimbin?”
• Me “Yes follow the road into Murwillumbah and there are signs to Nimbin.  Follow the road to Uki.”
• Front passenger “Ah.  Thanks mate.”
• Voice from back seat “Do they sell a lot of weed in Nimbin?”
• Me “I believe they have been known to do so.”
• Omnes “Ha ha ha!”

and off they went.  Obviously I am safe from charges of impersonating a police officer!

By this time the sky had become clouded over, and a couple of hours later it was drizzling when I put Tammie on the lead for a toilet stroll.  The moister weather had got the toads out, as I realised when I looked down and saw her nose to nose with one.  Fortunately she didn’t seem to realise what it was so didn’t try to eat it: cane toads are poisonous.  The required first aid is to stick a hose in the dogs mouth and make it vomit up the eaten material.  Trying to get Tammie to open her mouth when she doesn’t want to is a task removed from the labours of Hercules as being too hard!