As quickly as the headache and sore throat came it went.
Good bloody riddance.
We decided to take
Lidia for a drive and thought Mount Tambourine would be nice.
It was a 45 minutes drive through lush forest and quite pleasant.
Mount Tambourine centre is a main street with "touristy" shops on both sides selling trinkets, handcrafts, secondhand clothing at hight than retail prices, bits of wood with stuff stuck to them that are meant to remind one of their visit there, the obligatory lolly shop and in this case a winery.
Everything that I mentioned earlier, albeit dinky and sad, can be expected with the notalbe exception of a winery.
I mean, when did anyone mention a winery when talking about the things that Queensland has and or does well?
Beer? Yes. Big tick there, and their craft brews get better and better.
Hippy stuff, e.g. crystal and kaftans and bush ganja etc.? Yes. Maleny. I rest my case.
Satanic communities? Yes. See above.
Mexicans? Yes. We're here aren't we?!
Friendly folk? Yes.
Enclaves to show how ostentatiously rich your are? Yes. Teneriffe, Mermaid Beach, Surfers Paradise, Southport along the canals are just a few examples.
Wineries? The answer could easily be "You've been sampling too much of Nimbin's flora!"
That's a "No" if you don't get the Nimbin reference.
We didn't even bother going in.
Here are some pics of the walk we took down the main street of Mount Tambourine (or is it Tamborine?) -
 |
Tasselldom.
What the ..... is that? |
Are you following me around?
I'm sure there is a great story behind the naming of this place
Two of the three best looking people in the village that day
Formula - Buy old stuff.
Hang it out on a tree to display.
Ask more than new retail.
Wait ...... wait ..... wait .......
Everyone sells coffee. Most sell food, such as burgers.
All of it seems mediocre.
Cuckoo and grandfather clock shop
Every place has to a have a Greek guy called George running an eatery.
But a seafood place up in the hills?
Despite my reservations of his choice of location I believe he does rather well.
We bought some fudge and some salted liquorice from this lolly shop.
The fudge was sweeeeet and the liquorice just salty enough.
Yes, every community needs a "tea house".
Yeah ........ but nah
A place that sells "fairy" stuff and dreamcatchers and other stuff that collects dust dreams.
There was one place left, that was recommended by a workmate of Tiz,
We were told that the guy that owns it has probably been "getting high on his own supply" and is pretty "out there". He sounds like a soul mate of mine.
Unfortunately he wasn't in and we had a very helpful and knowledgeable young lady serve us.
We tasted quite a few of the liqueurs they make, using grape based grappa/vodka, and they were all extremely good.
As a matter of interest -
Grappa is an alcoholic beverage, a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35 to 60 percent alcohol by volume.
Vodka, by one definition, has to be distilled to 95% alcohol or greater, from any material, and “needs to be neutral spirits distilled or treated after distillation with charcoal so as to be without character, aroma, taste, or colour.”
My suggestion is to go to the town first, use the public toilets as the distillery does not have any and then go and settle into a big tasting session.
On the way home we thought we might stop off at the fish co-op and get a feed of fish 'n' chips for lunch. There happens to be a good one next to where we are shacked up - Palazzo Versace.
You select the fish you want, you take it to the counter, they cook it and you eat it.
It not cheap though.
Below is pictorial proof of how it looks inside, what there produce looks like after being cooked and me not being able to leave anything behind.
Below are some pictures I took on our walk along the beach in the afternoon.
We noticed the dredger manoeuvring for it's daily routine so I snapped a bit of a time lapse sequence
I'd been in touch with Fiona, whom I used to work with many years ago, and as she and her family had moved up here a while back we though it a good idea to catch up.
This is Fee.
Big thanks to you Fee, we had an awesome night.
Fee made a bunch of suggestions and one of them was to catch up at the Helensvale
Nightquarter
Queensland may well be behind we Mexican in many ways but this place makes up for many of their backward ways.
So, we met with Fee, her most excellent husband Andrew and few of her equally excellent friends at Nightquarter and had a great night.
One regret for the day was having eaten all the fish 'n' chips, which left no room for a taste of the exquisite tasting 'Murican BBQ everyone else at my table were chowing down on.
Note to self - take more pictures when you go out, instead of stealing pics from your friends website!
