Brisbane Trip - Days 15-17 (The Run Home)

Forgive me for not keeping this up to date.

The last three days have been mainly concentrating on the run home, from Yamba on the coast, through to Tamworth and Parkes in Central New South Wales, and on to Echuca, at the Victorian border, and finally home this afternoon.

Key points on the last few days traveling:

Drought

There appears to be a clear delineation of areas impacted by the drought as opposed to areas where rainfall doesn't appear to be an issue. The demarcation appears to be The Great Dividing Range. Anything inland of the Range still seems to be either suffering from drought or not yet recovered from the drought.

Evidence of this includes:

• The signs at our motel in Tamworth discouraging us of overuse of water with penalties for requiring clean towels ($10 per new towel).
• Conversely, the free drinks that were provided for deciding to use their motel and spending money in Tamworth "still trying to survive during the drought"
• The large number of shops and other commercial facilities closed in the towns we either drove through or stayed in.
• The landscape: Dry with empty creek beds. 
• Dust storms. We saw a number of these between Parkes and Echuca, including this one, near Narrandera (according to the ladies in the bakery at Jerilderie, these are a common occurrence):

Tourism

Armidale: Cafes closed after 2pm.
Tamworth: The self proclaimed home for country music in Australia, including this icon:

but also the greatest collection of Bradman memorabilia in Australia (Closed ANZAC Day)

Parkes: The Australian spiritual home of Elvis Presley. And also this:

Jerilderie: The home of the Kelly Gang, Sir John Monash, and Billy Brownless?

 Echuca: Paddle Steamers, 101 cafes and 102 great shops.

Food

Yeah, I'm going to mention one of the most important parts of travelling.

As a general rule, the local bakery will rarely let you down. They will most likely be open when you need them, their locally made pies wil be tasty, and they will provide service with a smile. I have found this to be the case in most of my travels over the years, but particularly in the last few days. Special mentions to the bakeries at Yamba and Jerilderie.

Apart from bakeries most food business seem to attempt to provide great food and great service.  I had already mentioned the Glasshouse restaurant in Tamworth, but top marks to the Star Hotel in Echuca, the Chinese Restaurant in Parkes and the Gold Club in Yamba. An Encouragement Award to Fusspots of Ebor in the tiny town of Ebor.

Total Km 4,230

Total hours behind the wheel 50

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Brisbane Family Trip - Day 14 (Eating)

One of the more involved parts of a family trip involves food; who wants to eat what, do we cook or do we eat out. It's a cost versus convenience versus experience versus indulgence thing.

We have been on the road for 2 weeks (14 days) now. In that time we have cooked the main meal (tea? dinner?) 5 times and have eaten out 9 times. Of those 9 times out, once was at McDonalds (almost not food), and most of the rest has been at the local pub or club.

At least once in every trip I try to enjoy a food experience.

Tonight was that night.

We arrived in Tamworth late this afternoon, however a couple of weeks beforehand I had researched online and had booked for a table for 4 at a place called Glasshouse Restaurant at Goonoo Goonoo Station.

The Glasshouse is about 20 minutes out of Tamworth and is located on an old sheep station that has had a lot of money poured into it over the last 10 years in order for it to be an eating destination. The architectural designs that combine new construction with the historical buildings earned it a swag of awards in 2017. This has then been matched with some glowing food reviews in 2018.

Now it's a Wednesday night, but also during school holidays in New South Wales, and the night before ANZAC Day. I'm glad I booked as there were no spare seats - with total seating for the night at around 100.

The menu is not overly adventurous, nor is it overly complicated. A few things to start with, a few mains and desserts, as well as some meals that can be shared.


We started with Beef  Tartare, to share. This was prepared with mint, watercress and nuoc cham (a Vietnamese Dipping Sauce). We enjoyed this immensely, with the East Asian flavours combined with raw beef.

Main Course saw a split, with Lesley and Nick choosing the duck breast, and Ben and I going for the  rump cap.

Once again the beef was magnificent, cooked to absolute perfection, with a relatively simple combination of carrots, cauliflower puree and asparagus, and additional potatoes cooked in duck fat and a salad.

The duck breast was cooked slightly pink and served with some puff rice and greens. It could not be faulted.

 After a brief period of contemplation, some of us decided to finish with dessert. Lesley had the yoghurt panna cotta. This was well presented, and did not last long on the plate.

Ben and I both chose the butterscotch bombe alaska. Words describing this dish will be replaced by pictures.

Before

After

 It's good to know that great food can be found in restaurants that are hundreds of kilometres away from the main culinary centres in the capital cities.

It think it will be takeaway tomorrow night, in Parkes.

Total Km 3,070

Total hours behind the wheel 39

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Brisbane Family Trip - Days 13 and 14 (Starting to Head Back)

With the Nationals now over the final phase of the holiday begins.

Monday was about having a bit of a look around a couple of parts of Brisbane, however the mood of the rest of the family is definitely one of looking to the trip back home.

We still have five and a half more days to go!

So, where to go in Brisbane? Our apartment was located in the cultural precinct of Brisbane, which included the museum, concert hall, ABC Studios, Music Conservatory as well as other cultural stuff.

The museum was closest, so first cab off the rank.

Only one happy snap, from the outside:

I'm not sure if you can guess from the photo - the museum had a special exhibit on NASA and space exploration. It not only included NASA, but had a fair bit of history regarding the initial German rocket program in WWII as well as the Soviet space program in the fifties. In also included replicas of a lot of the vehicles that flew to the moon as well as used on the moon.  It was well put together and worth visiting.

Lunch was next, at the The Charming Squire. They mucked up the order (Lesley didn't get her lunch). It was an easy thing to do (we're all only human), and I don't get too upset with these things depending upon how the restaurant reacts to it. They were perfect. Lots of apologies, a fix up of the missed order and some complementary food whist waiting for the food to arrive. I judge a restaurant by how they go about correcting mistakes, and they get top marks for that.

After lunch we decided to board the Big Wheel (sponsored heavily by Channel 7), and see the sights from up high, before then heading back along the riverside and back to the apartment. A few more pics:

Today saw us start the trip back home.

Highlight of the morning (for me) was the visit to Tropical Fruit World, just south of the Queensland border. It is the home of the giant avocado:

I would have liked to have stayed for the tour, however the family are starting to show signs of travel fatigue, so instead opted to try a big plate of tropical fruit. Apart from some watermelon, a blueberry, a pineapple and some mandarin I had no idea what the other fruit was. Dragon fruit? Papaya? There were about 9 or 10 types of fruit, most were new flavours to me and absolutely delicious.

Stopover tonight is at Yamba, a coastal town south of Ballina. I like the vibe here, and want to come back for a longer stay.

Tomorrow, we head inland.

Total Km 2,660

Total hours behind the wheel 34

Spotify :Relistening to Childproof - a live play podcast created by Tony Martin