Author: admin

  • Newtown Corner

  • Newtown

    Australia famously discovered a more varied cuisine well before the British Isles, which leads me to suspect that it was partly the Ozzy influx into London that turned the mother country on to progressive cuisine, but then again it might have been the endless parade of foody TV.

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  • Brisbane – Surfers Paradise

    We drove to Brisbane after leaving O’Reilly’s and were mightily impressed by this compact little ’boutique’ city. It’s easy to get around, full of parks and even sports an artificial beach on the South Bank so you can swim in clean waters whilst looking at the glittering city centre.

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  • Hammock Complex

    As you can see we are getting good at this jungle hammock thing…

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  • O’Reilly’s Rainforest Reserve

    At O’Reilly’s you get to spend time in the cool mountain rainforests surrounded by gorgeous tropical birds, a free treetop walk through the jungle hammock and a fine wine produced by the O’Reilly vineyard. This made me chuckle as the idea of a good Irish wine is a little bit of an oxymoron – well kind of. I drank a little too much and manged to fall out of my hammock and keep the neighbours awake.

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  • Byron Bay

    Byron Bay is one of those places that has been eaten up by it’s own success, a bit like the Thai islands, or any little idyll that has suffered the spotlight in fact.

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  • The Big Banana

    The east coast of Oz has so many gorgeous places to see, yet one of the most well know crowd pleasers is The Big Banana that sits glaring over the road just outside Coffs Harbour.

    Now the problem with having the moniker ‘Big’ before your name is that you expect it to be nothing less than, well, big. The big banana didn’t really live up to it’s bigness in my books, but let’s not get Freudian about that or we’ll be here all day.

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  • Work Beach River Eat

    Well that’s about it right now. I have to prise myself away from this idyll to take a look up country or I’ll have to take up residency here in Bellingen. Now that’s no bad thing and we are considering it as an option, along with half of the rest of the world too. It’s a nice dichotomy to be in, but for now we are up for a trip to the gold coast and some of those little waterfalls with idyllic little pools we have heard about up country.

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  • Batty

    We crossed over the Bellingen river and took a left hand turn through the old caravan site to be met by a forest full of bats hanging in the trees like some mass vampire convention. They were taking little training flights, grooming, walking about the trees upside down whilst making an awesome racket.

    When the time is right (sunset) they all take off at once and head off in search of fruit (they are fruit bats, or flying foxes). They seem to know where they are going as it seems each bat has it’s own destination.

    At sunrise they all come home and hang out, literally.

    If it gets too hot they die as happened a few summers ago, they just roast and fall off of the trees. They have little back legs but can’t stand up, so I am guessing they get most of the moisture they need to survive from the fruit they eat. Damned cute little fellers they are.

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  • Food

    Australia once had a very English/Irish diet. Well that’s what I read in the guide book. Occasionally I am glad of this fine food heritage as I tuck into a good old Aussie pie.

    I am also glad of the fact that Australia has moved on. This was lunch today…

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