Author: Ken

Is another one of those charming little towns you’d probably only visit if you were travelling up the coast or lived in the area and wanted to get away somewhere sleepy for the weekend. 

Leonie had booked us in for over a week as we planned to leave the Van here while we visited Fraser Island. We arrived later than we planned as I spent a few hours at Zone RV HQ on the way up while they diagnosed why our fridge would only work on 240v and not 12v. 

We’re finding out when your home is the van – any sort of repair or maintenance can be a bit of ‘federal case’ – the logistics of what you do when the van is being repaired, especially if you need to move out and in again can be a right pain. In this case we we’re glad we didn’t have to empty our fridge/freezer or have it completely replaced. Zone arranged for a Dometic engineer to visit us in the park the next morning – one PCB swapout and all was well.

The late arrival meant it was easy to justify getting Fish ‘n Chips from the ‘Snack Shack’ as recommended by the park owner. Correct Decision. Turned out to be the best fish ‘n chips we’ve had so far across 3 states. It was the salad that made all the difference – massive amounts of really crispy green lettuce leaves combined with delicious ‘Red Emporer’ fillets made it 5 star! Still not sold on the need for grated cheese with a green salad though. Highly Recommended.

Next day, we got the bikes down and all five of us went for a ride to explore the town. There is a great path that starts near the CP and takes you right to the marina. We past a great kids park, the ‘Snack Shack’, Fresh fish Market and found out where you can feed the famous Dolphins of Tin Can Bay at the marina.

I love these bike rides with the whole family, it’s really quality family time, and I’m so glad we made the call the to bring the bikes on the trip even though they weigh quite a bit, we’ve used them loads.  

Rest of the day was spent chilling around the CP – the girls we’re entertained till night time playing with some new friends they met in the CP. At every opportunity they are frantically asking can we go back and play with our friends.

This is only their second time on the trip  that there have been other kids in the park and they’ve had a chance to make friends. I suspect as we head north this will happen more often – kids are so good at making friends quickly.

We headed out to Rainbow Beach for the day and planned to drive the beach for a bit and have lunch. I had read about the ‘Carlo Sand Blow’ and it being great for sand surfing so we stopped in town to hire a couple of Sand boards and found our way there. 

It’s a great big sand dune that stretched all the way to the ocean with fantastic views down to ‘Double Island’. We all had a blast flying down the steepest part of the dune but the lady in the hire shops was right – it’s exhausting climbing back up it! 

Onward to Rainbow beach itself – I had planned to maybe drive on the beach as far as the lagoons at ‘Double Island’ but we had left it too late, the tide had turned and I didn’t fancy being the subject of one of those facebook vids of your 4wd bogged and flooded on a rising tide!

So we setup on the safe side of the rocks for probably the most relaxing afternoon on the beach since all the work I had been doing recently and out time in Byron Bay.

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity of getting some great photos of the girls at this clever piece of public art in Rainbow Beach before heading home for the day. Fortuitously, the girls had a rainbow outfit, perfect!

On our last day, before heading to Fraser Island we just had to go and check out the ‘Dolphin Experience’.

It was a lovely morning with the river glassy. For $10, you got to get up close to the dolphins who come say hello most mornings and feed them. 

After experiencing the ‘Dolphin Feeding’ lottery of Monkey Mia in WA and the careful controls to ensure the level of feeding does not impact the natural hunting abilities of the Dolphins, we we’re a bit surprised to learn everyone would get a chance to feed these Dolphins. 

However we only fed them very small fish, and we learned the feeding only provides a very small percentage of their daily requirements. Needless to say the girls loved it and it was well worth getting up early for.

After a great breaky at the Dolphin Cafe – it was on to Fraser Islan

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE kitty cats. So I am going to share on our blog all the cats I meet on our travels around Australia. 😺

First here is us saying goodbye to our beloved River. I am missing her so much. Before we left mum laminated these picture for me and they are in my bunk area.

Let me introduce caravan cat. She sit by the door and tells me she loves waiting for us to come home and open the door.

The first cat that I met on our travels was a travelling kitten. She was on a lead sitting with her family at the the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse. She was a dark grey with stripes, a sweet little thing but we didn’t get a picture of her.

The next cat I met was Streaky Bay cat. We met her as we rode into town on our bikes. She was sitting by the the sea, cleaning herself. She was really friendly and pounced up at me when I went to pat her. Then she followed me down the path back to my bike.

I really wanted to take her home, but she had a yellow collar so I guess she had an owner. It always makes me feel happy to meet a cat.

Streaky Bay is a great little town and we couldn’t wait to check out the bakery when we rolled into town last night.

Custard Tart Review – Charlotte

It’s a really nice bakery all the food looks really delicious.

The pastry was crunchy and crispy in some parts and in other not. Dad said the pastry was nearly burned in some parts which he loves.

The custard was sweet, wobbly and delicious.

Te amount of nutmeg just went perfectly with the amount of custard and pastry.

Overall the savoury tasting pastry and the sweet custard with the sprinkling of nutmeg just worked!

Custard – 5

Pastry – 5

Presentation – 4

Custard Tart Overall – 5

Coffee Review – Ken

I asked for a flat white – double shot and was offered a cup or mug. Coffee in glass is always better so I opted for a mug.

Presentation was pretty but with no creama art. Not a bad thing, the colour of the mug and saucer matched the overall decor of the bakery – classy! But we’re here to taste coffee…

Initially, although the temperature was again perfect for me, I thought it tasted a bit milky – probably my fault for ordering the mug rather than a cup.

As the coffee progressed though I really grew on me such that I was disappointed when I had finished with that last swig!

Temperature – 5

Strength – 4

Taste – 4

Presentation – 4

Coffee Overall – 4

Great coffee, I might try the normal size tomorrow and see if it turns into a perfect coffee.

I had an idea to travel this 300km unsealed road in our planning, it’s what our van (goldilocks) is meant to tackle easily and it’s the most direct route from Hyden to Norseman.

My first google search came up with a listing for the road on dangerous roads.org! But after a couple of tourist focussed sites called it a great drive and Leonie giving the OK, we decided to do it.

It would also cross the ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ and the ‘Holland Track’, skirting the Goldfields – an area I knew to be beautiful.

I made sure to test out the Sat Phone before we left, in case we had any issues as I knew there wasn’t going to be any phone reception, on most maps there isn’t even a road!

The very first section of unsealed road was pretty bad in terms of corrugations, but as soon as we had let our tyres down the ride was a lot more comfortable.

There wasn’t that much traffic on the road, which was to be expected, just a few cars, couple of ther vans and some road trains. Went through our first dust cloud left by a road train – you don’t see much ahead of you for a few seconds!

We had a quick look at the breakaways which had some prectatular rock erosion features and then headed on to where the chap at the IGA in Hyden had recommended – McDermid’s Rock – which turned out to be a cracker.

 

Charlotte and I thought it would be fun and possibly useful for others to review the bakery’s we visit while we hall it around Australia.

Charlotte has selected ‘Custard Tarts’ as the focus of the review and I’m reviewing Coffee – I drink a lot of coffee!

Custard Tart Review – Charlotte

One of my favourite features of the tart was the custard which was very wobbly which is nice and you could just eat the custard and it would be absolutely delicious.

The pastry was crispy and crunchy which went really well with the delicious custard.

Overall the textures were really good, but the pastry was quite sweet and so was the custard so it was a bit like sweet on sweet, otherwise delicious.

Custard – 5

Pastry – 4

Presentation – 4

York Custard Tart Overall – 4

Coffee Review – Ken

My coffee of choice is a long machiato (topped up), but I’ve ran in to lengthy debates/issues in the past trying to order a Long Mach when interstate so have standardised on a flat-white – all parts of Australia should know the ‘Flat White’ – an espresso shot with hot frothed milk.

I like to taste coffee when I drink coffee – so will be ordering a strong flat white i.e. a double shot.

I wasn’t 100% sure my order for a double-shot flat white was understood correctly as English didn’t seem to be the member of staff’s first language.

Turned out they got it – the coffee came with ‘Ex’ on the lid – assumed Extra shot – nice!

Temperature – 5

Strength – 5

Taste – 4

Presentation – 3

York Coffee Overall – 4

Overall a great coffee, the temperature was perfect for me, initially hot enough that I could sip it but not quaff it! There was just a little something about the taste that stopped me awarding it 5 out of 5.