The weather has been good and then bad .. Christmas Day we were expecting huge rains and wind, however it ended up being relatively pleasant. We woke to a very heavy rain shower - both jolting up and doing the customary shutting of vents and windows and then falling back to sleep. We ended up jumping in the car and driving to Coffs Harbour and then stopping in at Pebbly Beach. Our Christmas lunch consisted of a ham and camembert sandwich in a park somewhere near Coffs Harbour.. and some chocolate to numb the Christmas spirit.
Today is such beautiful weather - if you didn't know of the preceding days, you'd think it had been like this all week.
I decided to try my hand at shortbread the other day - trying to get a bit festive. And I must say, it turned out surprisingly well :) And all in my awesome caravan oven. Aaron said this morning that he thinks we've used the oven and stove more in the last week than the previous owners did in the van's lifetime. And I think he is probably right. It was definitely a good decision to have the oven!
I didn't pack any cookie cutters (part of my culling.. insert sad face here), so had to use a piping bag nozzle.. which I think actually worked out much better than a normal cookie cutter - I cut out with the big end and then used the star end to make a pattern in the centre... very festive! I shared it with our new carabuddies and then Aaron and I seemed to devour the rest of them in no time.. oops. I think I'll have to make another batch though .. might try some chocolate shortbread... or choc chip ones... maybe just half a batch.
The shortbread, prior to the oven
Gnomeo and mate (still unnamed) playing Scrabble with us ..
Aaron looking up his words in the dictionary - I kicked his butt TWICE .. it's unheard of I tell you!!
The boys kicking back enjoying the fire and some drinks... note the goon bags (red wine & Pina Colada) to the right..
Aaron showing his artistic side - Gnomeo farted flames at his mate .. you can see he didn't appreciate it
In between the yacht maintenance and being un-festive, we haven't been doing too much. The other day Az was amped for a surf, so we headed to Brooms Head to check it out.. unfortunately it wasn't any good, so we sat around and charged all our electronics - which was actually a pretty funny sight. We had batteries, phones, computers, cordless tool batteries, ebooks - you name it, it was out on the table with cords twisted and tangled around each other, all vying for the power points. Each time we'd driven into Brooms Head, we'd noticed a sign that mentioned a waterhole. We were curious and as we were so bored and undecided on what we should do, we took the turn!
Boy, we had NO idea what we were in for. It was like we were in another world, so very different to the open bush and beach we had been camping in and driving through the past week. Once we got through the open bush scape and down a bit of a bumpy track, we found ourselves in the middle of the thickest, lushest rainforest we'd ever seen. The colours were just amazing - the rain had bought out the greens and the blacks, as well as the yellows in the wattle trees. It was just beautiful - the photos just don't do it justice. And the tracks were really challenging (well, I thought they were.. hehe) - I nearly had to bring out the sports bra again!! We both agreed that we had expected this type of track in the Cape - so not expecting it here. Aaron has been through this area hundreds of times, and even he didn't know it existed - I was pretty excited that we'd finally had a 'first' for him in an area that he'd been to just a few hundred times... and I was there to experience it too :) We had no idea where we were going, or where it would bring us out - we turned on the GPS and while it picked up the road we were on, it didn't actually take us anywhere. We drove up this super steep hill (we hadn't taken our haymen reese tow bar off the back of the troopy, so it kept hitting on bumps whenever we'd go over something .. imagine the scraping sound.. not nice) and were awed by the scenery - there was a thick fog curling around the trees and as far as we could see was just thick forest. It was so foggy that we couldn't even see the ocean, and could only just make out a few houses back at Brooms Head. We had no idea where we were!! We got to the spot where the GPS told us we'd come out to town... only to be confronted with another steep hill and corrugated roads. We decided to head back (the 12 or so kilometres we'd just driven) because at least we'd be sure that we would come out somewhere familiar and it was starting to get quite late. Luckily we're in daylight saving!!
On the way in we had passed a guy in a Landcruiser who had a few real Christmas trees poking out the windows and squashed up against the back... he cautioned us on the roads ahead and the water crossings .. Az smiled cordially and you could see in his mind that he was thinking "You haven't seen half the stuff we took on in the Cape.. this is going to be a walk in the park!" .. I had a quiet giggle to myself. As we were coming back after about an hour and a half of driving and exploring, we passed the same guy again - windows were wound down and pleasantries exchanged.. then Az asked, jokingly, "You blokes come back to check on us?" .. and they had!!! They were worried about us... Az thanked them and they exchanged 4WD tracks they'd both accomplished - very macho. So we were on our way out and then Az looked back and couldn't find them, so then WE waited for THEM, cause we were worried about THEM.. All was well though - we think they may have been scouting some more Christmas trees.. hehe. We both laughed when we suggested that we might see them selling them on the side of the road - to ourselves of course. So it turned out to be a great afternoon - you've got to love on the spur of the moment exploration sessions!
Az testing the waters to see how deep it was .. we were told 'over the bonnet' .. um, not quite
This was the view at the top of the big mountain we went up - can't see much apart from fog .. was very pretty though
You wouldn't think that I'd spent hours cleaning our Troopy before we came would you .. just a little bit of mud and grime ..
The beautiful contrasting colours of the yellow and the black - so much better in real life
This is how the track started - as you can see, totally different from the thick forest we ended up in
Not sure if you can make out the tiny bump in the middle of the photo - that's the mountain we drove up - this is from the road outside our caravan
Happy Aaron with wads of cash in hand - enjoying the moment
At the finish line... He even had a hotel on Mayfair!!! Thank goodness the game finished before I landed on that one!
I've decided that Monopoly might just conveniently end up in the post back to Mum and Dad for safe keeping...hehe.
So we're back at the yacht again today - the last day before we have someone come and inspect it. Keep your fingers crossed people - we need everyone's positive thinking to have it sold tomorrow.
We were looking over some maps this morning and deciding where we are headed next. We figured that seeing as we'd driven through to Coffs yesterday that we might head inland and go to Dorrigo and do a bit of sightseeing.. and then head back to the Coast and head down south.
If anyone's got any spots they can recommend, feel free to drop us a line and let us know - we're just looking at maps and reading touristy stuff.. so would welcome any 'local knowledge'.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas day, and enjoyed spending the day with loved ones. We were thinking of everyone and sending cyber hugs.
Until our next post xxx
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