We headed out Tuesday morning with our first stop being Dad's work - we were hoping to find out if they had any more work for Dad during October and November, but the schedule had not been finalized and so we still have no clue what is happening. After a short stop there, we met up with Niles (another instructor for QAC) at a local coffee shop. Dad and I had purchased a sub from 'Subway' for lunch, but decided to get a drink and a treat from the coffee shop. I chose an iced chocolate (what else? :-) and Dad chose a Cherry Ripe bar (cherries and coconut). Both were delicious! Niles is a really nice guy and we always enjoy catching up with him!
Our final stop was the Airbnb we had booked for two nights. This Airbnb had received really good reviews on Airbnb, so we were really looking forward to staying there. This Airbnb was on a 5 acre property with lots of animals - it was out in the country and was really nice and quiet. The hosts were really nice and welcoming and we especially enjoyed the eggs, bacon and toast breakfasts which were prepared for us each morning. The downside was that the mattress was terrible (old) and Dad's back was hurting both mornings. Also, the house was not clean and we were not happy about that. It's our first negative experience with Airbnb, but it's hard to know when the 7 reviews given were so positive (and 2 of them even mentioned how clean the house was!).
Me relaxing on the front porch of the Airbnb in Witheren, Queensland
The hosts have three dogs, four horses, chickens and a rooster
Our primary reason for choosing that location for the Airbnb was that it was close to where we wanted to go geocaching. A little story behind this geocache trek..............When Dad was in Canada, he and Ron went geocaching and found a travel bug in one of the caches. It had been placed there by a woman whose young Aussie daughter (Casey) is engaged to a young man (Ian) who has dual citizenship (Australia and Canada). They are getting married in Queensland next year and the woman thought it would be cool to place two travel bugs (one for the girl and one for the guy) into a cache in Ontario and try to get both of them to a certain cache in Queensland and back again before the wedding. The cache the woman chose was in the church yard of the church she got married in in 1979. So, Dad and I decided we would travel to the church (in a place called Tamrookum - a farming area with one general store which also doubles as the gas station) to place the travel bug in the cache.
So, on Wednesday morning, (after our big hot breakfast) we set out to find the church where the cache was. The church was easy to find, but not so the cache. We read the hints and knew we were looking in the right place, but still couldn't find it. We didn't want to give up, so we kept looking and then a woman came up to us and asked us what we were looking for - I asked her if she was Margaret as someone on the geocache site had said they had found the cache thanks to Margaret. She said she was and we told her that we were looking for a geocache which we were told was not on the property, but was near this white fence post. She told us that the cache was on the property (about a foot inside the fence we were standing at) - hooray, we found it. After that, Margaret told us that there was another cache on the site (which we also found) and then offered to give us a tour through the beautiful church and adjoining cemetery. The church is 102 years old and was built in memory of Robert Martin Collins by his widow, his sister and his children. The workmanship, especially inside the church, is incredible! Margaret spent over half an hour with us sharing with us the history of the church - it was so nice of her to spend so much time with us.
Ian, one of our hosts, cooking us our bacon and egg breakfast on the bbq - their stove had conked out just days before we arrived
Dad ready to tuck into his hot breakfast - the bacon was amazing - best we have had in Australia
Dad showing Casey's travel bug inside the church where her mother was married
Beautiful stained glass windows inside the church
Cemetery on the grounds of All Saints Church
We found two more geocaches in a place called Beaudesert before heading back for lunch in a little place called Canungra (about 5 minutes from our Airbnb) - I had read some really good reviews about a restaurant called the Metz Cafe there. We got there after 2pm and they closing at 3pm, so we were told that they only would be serving food which was in the heated display cabinet. We were disappointed at that as we were hoping to try something else on the menu, but we chose the quiche and salad plate and shared that - we also ordered two iced chocolates. Note: don't order things which have been in a heated cabinet all day - the quiche was so dry - almost like a frittata (which we don't like), but the iced chocolates were yummy. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing back at the Airbnb. We had thought about going swimming, but the water was too cold, so I sat on the edge of the pool reading a book while Dad sat in a chair on the porch where I joined him later to continue reading and also knitting.
Old railway station where we found a geocache
Our (non-fluffy) quiche for lunch
Hang gliders setting up
Dad sitting on stump on the way down to Curtis Falls (in Tamborine National Park)
Interesting tree in the forest (Tamborine National Park)
The roots of this tree were above ground and had grown around in an interesting formation - I am standing inside the circle formed by the roots
Lizard close up
Very hard to see (you will have to click on this photo), but there is a turtle on a rock in the middle of this photo
Beautiful tree in the middle of a roundabout in Tamborine Mountain
Bus stop where we found a geocache
Where we found the geocache on the way home to Hervey Bay - can you spot it?
Another hint.....look closely............see that little piece of bark on the tree - it's hidden under that
See the little key-holder peeking out from under the little piece of bark
This weekend has been all about relaxing and it's been lovely just tinkering around the house and getting caught up on emails, geocaches, researching about where we will be camping, etc.
