Goombungee

Warren told his bike mates that he wouldn't go again in the afternoon as he may find himself getting tired and then making mistakes. he said he would go in the morning but ended up didn't because of the rain.

We went instead into the township of Goombungee. Not sure how many people live there but there were two coffee houses, one doubled as a general store, the other doubled as a gift store. There was newsagent/post office and a pub with the school also in the main street.

After coffee we walked the town, there was a geo cache to get, two in town and we got both. The road was divided down the middle and there were play houses on the grassed areas between the roads. the play houses were painted up in licorice all sorts colours and there were blocks also painted suitable for kids to sit on.

Goombungee Trail bike ride.

This was about 9.30 am on Saturday morning, all clean and ready to go, he was waiting for his two mates to come past as everyone needed to ride with a buddy.

Fast forward two and a half hours.

This is after, the only part of his face shows is under his nose and it looks like he has a mo but no, its just dust and dirt.

He thought he had broken his knee guards but it seemed that a nasty stick had "jumped up' and spacked him on the knee and the rivets had popped out and he found them in his socks.

How the bike travelled to the event.

It rained in the afternoon and apparently poured during the night even thunder but I was sleeping and didnt hear any of it.

This was the way out of the paddock, with Mary having to pull the van as well as the bike's weight, we waited until lunch time when it was drier before we left, even then the ute slipped a bit and she was struggling, a few bike riders were watching us and we got cheered on especially when we got to the top of the rise where there was no mud.

The bike rides are a real family affairs.

A dad holding his daughter back until it was safe to cross, she then slipped it into gear and putted across the road to the pee wee track.

We left about an hour after this, we went to check out the best way to get out. 

Chicken Meat Balls

I made these yesterday and they are ready to pack for our weekend away. So easy to do with the help of the thermo. I blitzed some cauliflower about a quarter of a small one, 10 secs at 5, then I had taken out a chicken breast from the freezer and it was slightly thawed. Roughly cut into smaller pieces and put that in for the same but the pieces were a bit big so i gave it another 4 secs, added an egg and some onion salt.

Rolled into balls and coated with chick pea flour. The last bit I did four hamburger type patties, I was sick of rolling. The meat balls were cooked in garlic fused olive oil and the burgers were cooked in coconut oil and i think they turned out the better ones.

We will have no electricity so they can just be reheated using the camp gas stove. fresh eggs and bacon are going too and thats about it. I checked the pantry in the caravan and there is enough tinned food in there to feed several people so no need to take anything more.

I will pack our lunch for on the way.

Deepwater

Now a township with Deepwater as its name? We didn't see any deep water but this is the sign post coming into town.

Why? because it is the scarecrow centre of Australia it claims and later this month July, there will be a scarecrow festival in town. We didn't see any others but this is a cute one.

We just may have stopped because there was a cache there. A magnetic one which lead us to believe the cache was somewhere on the sign but no, it wasn't. In front of the sign, was a large log, good for sitting on and the were bolts at the base of it, pesky little cache was attached tot he bolt.

Nice colourful sign to greet newcomers into town, got to put a smile on faces.

Inverell

I think that is how it is spelt. A nice place with a lookout and a lake which is where we spent most of our time in town.

After crunching over icy grass at Armidale we headed off to Inverell and this was the first stop. off to the left is the look out. A lady was there with her dog? that is the white scrap of fluff following Sheridan. Zac the pup was four months old and he really didnt think that we should have been there interrupting his day.

He spent a lot of time barking at us and when we walked over to see the look out, he followed her still barking. His front feet lifted off the ground when he stood and barked.

We did our thing and then drove down town tot he lake. Some one promised me platypus sightings! hah, they werent silly they were staying where ever it was warmer but we had a nice walk around half the lake before returning to a warm car. The path was concrete for about 100 metres and then went to a well formed dirt path, with a few seats along the way.

oaj

Bus trip to the Ginger factory

An organised trip to one of my favourite places for coffee and scones. As I am not eating things like scones and bread it was only coffee today after I had visited the NutWorks factory across the road.

Lots of different nuts and hand creams etc using nuts, especially the famous macadamia nut. I didn't end of buying any as I would have had to carry it for the rest of the morning. 

Our trip started at 9.30, and we spent two hours there before returning for home at 12.30 pm.

I had a look in the shops at the ginger factory, they always have stuff that is different and I wanted to buy a couple of small things for gifts and felt that I could get something there that would be suitable, which I did.

I also took a walk in the grounds, some areas I didn't go into as it had rained over night and not all the paths are paved. 

Beautiful big trees, although it was cool today it was still very pleasant.

There are a few fountains around and mostly there is a seat nearby so people can just sit and watch the water if they want.

Animal tiles in the main path.

Almost back to the cafe there is this massive tree, I love the way the branches twist and turn.

A nice day out and then three of us had coffee to determine next months outing. A small train goes around the gardens regularly and that is rather fun to do but I have done it before, I prefer to walk the area.

Letter boxes

We found quite a few letter box caches while we were away. I have always found these are quite cute, especially if they are an actual letter box.

Often there is a little puzzle to work out to get the combination lock to open it. I had solved one, the questions all related to Noah's Ark and that was also the name of the cache. I knew all the answers I thought but did check with Mr Google on the number of daughter in laws that Noah had, better to be safe than wrong. In the end we didnt pick that one up but it is there for a later trip.

This one is also called Noah's Ark. The middle part opened up and the log book was inside that. Thhis was was very similar but the questions were different. It was outside some-one's house but the greenery was quite thick and it was quite a way away from the house.

Slow boat to China was the name of this one, so cute, the back opened, a typical junk.

And then there was this one, called The Cream Box. The others are for real, the name on the letter box is G Cach, it had a "No Junk Mail" sign on the front, combination lock with the numbers in the hint.

We did a fourth one but silly me, I didn't take a photo of it.

It was in the shape of a very skinny man, using a gas bottle as his middle, pipes for arms and legs. His legs had been cemented in to Rubber boots. One arm had a letter dangling from it which had the combination of the lock. Ha, had to find the key first! his hat twisted and raised just enough to get the key out which had been placed in a mint tin to keep it dry.

Inside his belly were two containers, one with SWAG and the other with trackables and log book.

What a great find that was, it did have 152 favourite points and I can see why, I also gave it a fav point.