Now that we have whet your appetite with descriptions of our thunder egg fossicking adventures, it is time to share our adventures in the heart of Australia’s gem fields. Once the boys heard there was a town named Emerald, they were insistent that we go see it for ourselves. We stayed in Sapphire and also visited Rubyvale. That’s right – those are the actual names of the towns and not surprisingly, all of the activity is gem centered.
Here is a quick look at our search for sapphires.
Spoiler alert… we did not stumble upon fortune 🙂
One thing I’ve noticed here in Oz is that there are seemingly endless ways to refer to the bathroom in Aussie speak. Context has helped me, but few of these names resonate with four year old Americans!
It seems like it was only a few months ago I was explaining to my young sons that “restroom” was another word for “bathroom”. Then the lesson expanded to the Men’s room is for Poppa and the Ladies room was for Mommy – they could use either as long as they were with the right parent.
Fast forward to Oz and now I’m explaining that “toilets”means “restroom” – straight forward enough– and “gents” means “men”- also not that hard.
Maybe it’s Queensland, lately things have gotten more complicated…
“Ok – let’s go to the bathroom”
“But Poppa – that says Blokes. what are blokes?”
“Oh, Blokes also means Men.”
“But why did Mommy go into the ‘Sheilas’ room?”
“Sheilas means women’s”
“Who is Shiela?”
“Ummm, I’m sorry I have no idea….but I promise that’s the bathroom and there is no one named Shiela inside.”
Yesterday capped it off when Mommy had to go into the Ewe’s room!
Our favorite (small) treasure hunters’ ears perked up when we mentioned that one of the potential stops would involve looking for gems and other valuables in the ground. When we mentioned that it would involve going to a town named Emerald, the excitement was nearly overwhelming for them. Decision made. We would go fossicking. We began our fossicking efforts in search of thunder eggs.
For those of you not familiar, fossicking is essentially modern day prospecting. (This is yet another example of a word we have encountered where I am unsure of whether it is an Aussie term or whether it is just something that was so far from my life in NYC that I have no idea what it means, but it is perfectly acceptable in American English… remind me to share some other ones with you at some point.)
We began with a trip to Mount Hay Caravan Park outside Rockhampton, which is a location to search for Thunder Eggs. The boys and I headed off on our own as Jay had to work. I was skeptical as I approached the entrance. It was dusty and frankly appeared a bit worn down. The road up was steep and unpaved and I was reviewing in my head all of the people I had heard mention this was a great spot.
When we got inside, we got a friendly welcome and the proprietor explained to the boys that the thunder eggs were formed as a result of a volcano at this spot 120 million years ago (yay dinosaur times!) and the thunder eggs were formed where gas bubbles had formed in the lava and then replaced over millions of years with minerals from flowing lava.
We were sent out to the back with pick axes in hand and a goal of finding these bubble looking rocks. The boys took to it quickly. It was hard to tell if the pick axe, scrub brush or the search for treasure was more exciting, but whatever it was, they enjoyed it!
We weren’t sure what we were finding. At the end of our search, the proprietor cut open each of our eggs to reveal their ancient interior.
I will not soon forget our evening at the Lane at Palmwoods in Palmwoods, QLD. It was one of my favorite food and culinary experiences in quite some time. We began by shopping at Renae’s Pantry, which is an incredible local market. It is a carefully curated selection of organic, healthy, wonderful items of all sorts. There are pantry items, bulk grains and nuts, fresh breads, eco friendly cleaning supplies and certainly last, but not least some amazing produce – all presented beautifully. This would have been remarkable in and of itself, but Renae’s Pantry takes it a step further. Local growers of all sorts are invited to bring their fresh produce in for sale (they set the price) and then in exchange, they can use the money earned to shop at the store. It is a wonderful way to encourage local farming, keep money local and support health in the community. I loved it! We stocked up on lots of supplies as we prepared to head out of town for a few days.
The boys enjoyed the stop very much as they had the chance to roll their own oats. Oatmeal is one of their favorite breakfasts so it made it all the better. It was fun for them and even more exciting for me because I love for the kids to understand how food is made.
Rolling their oats!
We then moved onto the wonderful dinner that occurs every Friday night. The menu was mouth watering and the kids exclaimed we should order one of each, which we did.
Delicious dinner menu for the Friday night dinner at the Lane in Palmwoods
Dinner was in the back yard at various tables composed mostly of pillows on turned over milk crates. The ambiance was lovely with sparkling little white lights, a great local singer, a fire burning and lots of people filling the tables. It is clearly a local event. We were glad to have the opportunity to join into the community even if only for a night.
The trip began with a trip to the playground to get our evening kicked off right!
Farmer’s markets might be a bit of an obsession of mine. I have been known to drag our family to the market in the middle of howling wind and driving rain to make our weekly appearance at the Grand Army Plaza Farmer’s Market. It was one of our family rituals and one we all enjoyed each Saturday morning. I know Jay will take issue with my saying that I “dragged” the family because he too has become a market devotee. The combination of excellent food quality, supporting local small businesses and the community aspect made the market one of our favorite family activities.
Breakfast of dumplings, omelettes and samosas
Breakfast of dumplings, omelettes and samosas
We have made an effort to stop at many weekly markets as our trip has gotten underway. We knew we had to make the stop when we read that the Eumundi Market was the largest in all of Australia. It takes place in the small town of Eumundi, Queensland every Wednesday and Saturday. We had stopped in Caloundra for a few days to catch our breath after all of the rain and chose Wednesday as our market day.
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about its size particularly since it was not close to any urban center that I usually associate with larger markets. The first indication that the size of the market was not being exaggerated was the difficulty finding parking. There were people streaming from every direction, apparently having parked at some great distance – there were even several pay lots that I associate more with concerts than with farmer’s markets.
Once we parked, we walked in under the huge sign – make it, bake it, sew it, grow it. Our first stop was breakfast as we had postponed breakfast until we arrived at the market. We decided to go with a wide assortment – mini dutch pancakes, handmade dumplings, handmade vegetarian samosas and a delicious vegetarian omelette. The omelette was the result of a recommendation of an American we met in line that said as soon as he got off the plane having moved from Australia two years ago, he headed straight for the stand to get that omelette. While I am not sure it would reach that level for me, it was delicious.
The rest of the morning we roamed the various lanes of the market. It had an extraordinary assortment of items. The boys were engrossed by the free thirty minute magic show – they saw it twice. Jay was equally enamored with a coffee stand that he found a way to frequent three times during our three hour market visit. There was also the opal jewelry vendor complete with pictures of him mining the opals himself about ten hours southwest of the market. He gave the boys each a small stone! There was an entire section of the market focused on relaxation with reflexology, massages, palm readers and live spa music. We didn’t partake although I was fascinated by its inclusion. There was a huge collection of clothing, homewares, craft items and endless miracle remedies for a seemingly endless list of ailments. And the market would not have been complete without the eyebrow threading stand, which I was eager to see… I am taking this whole camping look pretty far, but I need some maintenance! There was a playground on one end of the stalls, where the boys were able to play while Jay and I continued to take turns exploring.
We somehow managed to work up an appetite in all of our market-ing. The options were pretty extensive – Thai, Malaysian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Italian, Caribbean, French and many others. For lunch opted for a chicken schnitzel wrap (a weirdly bland choice given our options), a wood oven pizza (first pizza since leaving NYC), and spinach and cheese gozleme (Lake’s new favorite). It was a tasty and enjoyable excursion.
Spinach and cheese gozleme
Reunited with pizza
I had what I considered to be a cooking eureka moment the other day and thought it would be too good not to share. (Although I freely admit that the rapid cycling temperatures from hot to cold could be affecting my judgement…)
I began by sautéing an onion (I would have used two if I had them) and two carrots with a pound of ground pork and a pound and a half of ground beef to brown it. I added some red wine and after it cooked down added two cans of tomatoes, some tomato paste, chopped garlic, salt and pepper. It cooked for awhile and we had a nice dinner with the sauce over pasta.
I’m sure it sounds pretty average so far. The genius was yet to come. The next night I took some dried black beans, pinto beans and white beans and let them cook in boiling water until they were reasonably soft (maybe 45 minutes? Would have been shorter if I pre-soaked or used canned beans ). Once they were done, I added the leftover meat sauce, cumin, chili powder, another onion and a can of beer. If I had been home I would have added a dash of maple syrup and dark chocolate to deepened the flavor, but alas, not in my camping pantry. It cooked for another 30 minutes and voila perfect homemade chili. The catch was there was no herbs in the bolognese that made it too hard to convert to chili.
This seemed like a useful combo… And not just for camping. 
I went back and forth about writing this post, but figured it was an honest reflection on the epiphanies I have had in the last few weeks.
When we first began our life in caravan parks a few weeks ago, I found myself awkwardly entertained or feeling just plain awkward as I saw people stumbling from their caravans to the amenities block. I couldn’t adjust to seeing people walking in their bed clothes across the park and it was often accentuated with some cold weather gear as it was quite chilly in the morning. I found viewing strangers in aging bathrobes, rag tag clothes walking earnestly with their bag of toiletries to be a new experience… At least separate from he way it was sometimes experienced on the streets in New York.
Now just a few short weeks later, I too find myself stumbling to the amenities block wearing an outfit that I would not have been caught dead in answering the door for the UPS guy a couple of months ago. I pondered describing my outfit, but then realized I wasn’t ready for such disclosures in a public forum. Let’s just say that it begins with ski socks and flip flops and just gets better from there…
Good news! We have returned safely and without major incident from a 4WD adventure on Fraser Island – thankfully faring better than this vehicle did on its adventures in rural Queensland!
More about our recent travels to come as we seek out a reasonable internet connection, but we are happy to report improved weather, loads of fun, interesting sights, and plenty of activities over the last week!
If you’re not already doing so, definitely follow MilesfromBrooklyn on Facebook and Instagram for more pictures!
Australia has a new solution to its draught problems: just send me outside to put anything in the roofbag, and the skies will open up! It’s no rain dance, but it gets the job done! I would count six times this week I have come in from the rain, waited until it stopped, and darted to the car, only to invite the next deluge right when I was totally exposed to the weather, rear hanging out, and halfway through some reorganization project!
As you may have guessed by our last several posts, we’ve had some or constant rainfall for what we count as nine days in a row now, and the forecast calls for storms to continue along our planned route up the eastern coastline through next week. Yikes! We need to adapt or grow gills!
Yesterday morning I woke up, hopped out of bed, unzipped the camper trailer tent, stepped outside to start the day, and found my toes squishy and my feet deep in puddles! I looked to my right, and to my dismay the small pile of firewood I had artfully stowed under the trailer in hopes of keeping it dry was nearly floating… Hasta la vista, s’mores.
(For any Australians reading, s’mores are an American camping delicacy consisting of marshmallows toasted brown over an open fire by long skinny stick, then made into a mini sandwich with Hershey’s chocolate squares melted on graham crackers…)
Yes, this was a real rookie camping mistake for a boy who grew up on the high side of a mountain. I should have known better, but I’ll admit it: Despite days of rain and no end in sight, I set up camp at the bottom of a sloping hill. I did this to get away from the (obviously more experienced) crowds atop the hill and to be closer to the pristine shore here at Moonie Beach- maybe not such a great idea in retrospect…
Not related to my choice of campsites, our camper trailer – dubbed Siberian Tiger by Finn- has been struggling with the constant showers. There has been a bit of a dripping with the rain in our camper canvas ceiling – this was a known risk as the canvas top needed to be “seasoned” a few times before becoming 100% waterproof (the folks at Cub chuckled and said this wasn’t the best first week to break in the canvas on camper – ha!)
So we decided to head inland to escape the rain and had a pretty fun day, driving the Waterfall Way on the advice of some new friends. We went from Belligen, through the high country, and made camp tonight on a lavender farm outside of Stanthorpe four hours west of the coast. The trip was great and featured many kangaroo sightings, to the delight of us all.
We drove a bit too far into the evening and had a heart pounding last hour of driving, where we literally saw a dozen kangaroos, hopping alongside our vehicle! Several of these guys decided to leap across the road right in front of us! Thankfully we were able to brake or safely evade them…. Did NOT want to break in our bull bars with a kangaroo in front of our four year old twins!!
Despite the rain, we have been having fun getting to spend time together as a family. Talking to our darling, almost 5-year old twin boys Finn and Lake. I’ve had great fun passing the time with them playing Uno and SkipBo, card games I remember playing with my brother Hunter and my dad when we visited our grandparents each summer. It’s funny how Uno has passed the test of time! The kids favorite cards are Skips- so much nicer than Draw Four!
Out of respect for the seriousness of drought, I will refrain from the alternate title I considered, “rain, rain, go away”. But wow, has it rained! We have had rain every day in our camper trailer over the past few nights save for the first 3 nights in the bitter cold (when it would have been snow!) and the two nights we ended up indoors while our camper trailer was being repaired due to the gale force winds we encountered one day in combination with rain.
We are wishing we were more capable meteorologists and perhaps better studied on the random towns we are now considering visiting in an effort to escape this weather. The forecast calls for rain in every direction from our current location for the next week or so. We are already feeling pretty waterlogged and with the tent not yet fully seasoned (and therefore leaking), this is more of a literal than figurative statement.
So we need a plan. The plan was to go up the east coast before turning inland and heading south again as the seasons change. It’s winter here now and we are at the tail end of the season to see some of the most northern areas before it gets too hot.
If we head inland now (and by inland I mean 1000 miles inland) it will be a challenge to make it all the way back east to see some of far north Queensland, which we have hoped to do.
Back to studying the maps and reinventing our next few weeks.
Miles from Brooklyn 