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.