Back to Sydney

After two wonderful weeks in Noosa, it was time to head back to Sydney. Jaime, Jon and Lex flew back on Saturday, and Walter and I headed back in the car.

We headed inland to Toowoomba. A lovely town - at least what we could see - in the hills. Unfortunately, it started to rain and then got very foggy, so we could see little through the mist. Enough, though, to notice the beautiful Victorian houses as we entered town. We stopped there for the night. After talking with the receptionist in the hotel, we realized that any further on the inland route would take us to the areas affected by flooding. Not a good idea, as many of the roads are still closed. Therefore - Plan B - back to the coast. I mentioned to Walter, half seriously, that I would like to go back to Byron Bay, and stand at Cape Byron, the easternmost point in Australia. Walter, being the sweetie that he is, went to Byron Bay and here is the picture of me at the cape.


Along the way from Toowoomba to Byron Bay, we took a few tourist routes (we would call them scenic routes in Canada). One was the settlers route, that wend its way through small towns and villages. That one joined the falls route, which turned out to be a real treat. A little over 15 km of winding, twisty roads, up through the hills, with various stops along the way. The first stop was Brown's Falls, which we never got to actually see. The sign indicated it was 600 metres from the car park. That was 600 metres through mud and water, and after about 50 metres, Walter and I turned back. We would have needed hiking boots, walking sticks and a compass to navigate along the trail. From Brown's Falls, we followed the road up to Dagg's Falls - a lovely area. But the best was another 5 km up the road at Queen Mary's Falls. These were truly beautiful. We walked to cliff walk along the top of the falls, and then down to the bottom, and back up again. What a wonderful area.

This picture on the left is at the top of the falls. Below is the actual falls themselves. You can stand on a walkway at the bottom and be cooled by the mist rising from the water. Beautiful!

The little country store was a gem. Although the name is hard to read, it's the Wiangaree Ramada. The store had books and magazines, card, household products, on racks, and general hardware (nails, screws, etc) in bins below. The counter had penny candy in large jars, and in the back was a take-away place. We stopped for lunch and asked what was on the menu. The owner said ham. We had homemade ham sandwiches - ham sliced from a large roast, thick slices of cheese, on buttered bread, all wrapped up in waxed paper. Delicious.

Got back to Sydney on Tuesday afternoon. It was a great trip to Noosa. As it turns out, we left just in time. The road we took on Saturday to take the kids to the airport was flooded by heavy rains. We were lucky - we missed it. Next week, we're off to the Hunter Valley for some wine touring.