Broccolini and Snake Bean Stir Fry

I got some good broccolini as it is in season. I also had some snake beans that I had bought to cook with potato for a dry curry as usual. Some days I just need to take it easy and working hard over a hot hob is not welcome specially when the outside temperature is pretty high. I ran over the list of veggies I had in my fridge and freezer and decided that I would use the broccolini and the beans. If this was not enough, I would take out some of the mixed frozen vegetables to add into it. Once everything was chopped, I did not need to add the other vegetables. But just for those interested the vegetable mix I have is French beans, broccoli, snow peas. Just as I started out flexibly with the vegetables, I also made up the other ingredients as I went along.  I would add a half inch of fresh ginger cut into matchsticks the next time. The end result could not have been better. I had this stir fry with a pile of creamy mashed potatoes. Some left over stir fry was reheated and had as a filling of a sandwich the next day. It is nice to have found a different veggie dish that I like. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of broccolini (generally about 8 stalks per bunch)
• 1 bunch of snake beans (generally about 10 – 12 beans per bunch)
• 1 medium onion
• 3 – 4 cloves of garlic (you can have more of less according to your taste or indeed omit it as well)
• 1 table spoon of pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon of crushed wattle seeds (I used the wattle seed tea which is coarse rather than powder)
• 1 tablespoon of hemp seeds
• 1 ½ tablespoons of green chillies sauce (I used Byron Bay Jalapeno Chilli Sauce which is tangy and not very hot. You can adjust this to your taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons of Olive oil for frying

Method

• Chop the broccolini and the beans at an angle to about 2 inches long pieces. I kept the tender tops of the broccolini separately from the stalks.
• Finely slice the onion and garlic cloves.
• In a wok or large heavy frying pan heat up the olive oil.
• Once the oil is really hot, add the onion and garlic and stir.
• As it gets semi cooked add the pine nuts.
• Stir the nuts and onions a couple of times and ad the beans and the broccolini stalk first.
• Add the salt at this time.
• Once they begin to soften add the broccolini tops and continue to stir.
• Add the chilli sauce and pepper
• Stop cooking when there is still a little crunch left in the vegetables.
• Put it out in a serving dish and sprinkle the wattle seed and the hemp seeds as garnish.

Papaya Salad

I often see green papayas in the fruit and veg shop and think one day I should try some. When I was a kid, I used to visit family friends and grandma there used to make papaya salad…… I dimly remember. However, I am not sure how exactly she made it. I have friends who make it and also seen some recipes but really needed to get over the inertia and buy some. One day while chatting to a friend online we got to talking about what was cooked for dinner and papaya salad was one of the dishes. I got a quick rundown on the ingredients and the method. Of course, not having written in down I had to rely on memory and these days it is not as good as it used to be. Did another recon of the food websites and got a better idea of what basics were and created my own from the ingredients that I had at home. Also, I cannot use the soy sauce that was identified in some recipes as I am allergic to it. Neither do I use palm sugar or fish sauce hence the adaptation of dressing ingredients. I must say it turned out nice, tangy and crunchy with a hint of heat.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of shredded green papaya
• 1 medium carrot shredded
• 1 medium onion finely sliced
• ¼ cup finely sliced long beans
• 1 ripe tomato (I used the roma one) again finely sliced
• 1 table spoon of roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (you can use honey as well. I tried using that as well once)
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. (again, I tend to taste and see if it is right as people can tolerate different levels of sourness.)

Method

• Shred and slice all the vegetables and put in a bowl.
• Put the sugar, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small jar and shake to mix well and dissolve the sugar completely.
• Then pour the dressing over the papaya, carrots, onions and tomato.
• Stir well and garnish with the coriander.

When served immediately the salad is nice and crunchy and dressing light on it. You can keep it for a few hours in the fridge and the dressing has a pickling effect and acquires a different dimension. I had some left over and sat it in the fridge for later and found this delightful change.

Side Effects

I have an undifferentiated connective tissue disease since 2007. You might have read about my issues in some early blogs. This has been a trying journey and has changed me as a person. I think for the better but I will let others be the judge of that. Chronic illness and pain have been constant companions particularly in the early days. Not knowing what is wrong and if there is ever going to be an end to this pain shakes you up at many levels. The inability to even move your eyelids without excruciating pain was the nadir of this hard time. This led to loss of self-worth and self confidence too. Acceptance came with some understanding of the disease and a diagnosis. Strange how people get hung up on the labels. I am not bothered about the label so much as understanding the reasons for my symptoms and that the treatment was totally symptomatic right now. Thus, irrespective of the label the treatment remains the same. Having accepted that this is for life unless there is a miracle got me to the next step of identifying what to me and my husband is an acceptable quality of life. We certainly never wanted to be stuck in bed in constant pain unable to self-care.

This started what I think was a hard journey to taking the scary and dangerous drugs. People say they have side effects and will kill you and I quip back that my body is already killing me so what I am looking for is quality of life and not quantity of life. I wanted to be able to self-care, do house work, cook, go to the shops and even occasionally go out as the minimum I look for in life. My husband also identified that doing everything like caring for me, house work, cooking and full-time work was hard without any help. We made massive changes to our life – moved to a warmer country as now cold weather is very hard too bear for me. Gave up the idea of working as that reduced a huge amount of stress. With that I had to rebuild my self-worth and confidence – it was akin to phoenix rising from the ashes.

I will not bore you with the details but I gave this background as I want to tell you about the good things that came with this illness. I reconnected with the inner child, rediscovered my sense of humour and reconnected with people both from the past and new ones. Spending a lot of time in bed and within the bedroom I made good use of the IT skills I had developed for work. I learnt the use of social media to create a social world that would keep me from being isolated. Social isolation is a reality no one ever talks about and we just pretend all is fine. That is so wrong as we hesitate to ask for help and others hesitate to offer help. As our life gets reorganised around managing the health issues, we are not the party animals we used to be. Hell! I am not even the same person I used to be, I think.

I have a Facebook account and I use as my profile photo one from when I was 21. People recognise that and find me. I have over the last 10 years reconnected with school friends from St Anne’s High School, neighbours, childhood besties, batchmates from College of Nursing AFMC, who I lived with for 4 years. All who got lost in the rush of life, work and families slowly were searched for and contacted. I thoroughly enjoy talking and catching up with all of them. I have a positive and happy approach to life, and just laugh at and about everything. It is a good coping mechanism. I have also learnt patience, mindfulness, learning to balance activity and rest, weighing up the worth of activities that I choose to do as the price of pain should be worth the pleasure I get. Go with the flow attitude was achieved with perseverance. I am not saying all is well in my world but that I am able to cope better with the slips into anxiety, depression and pain which though a normal white noise now, can flare. I have learnt to recognise the signs of the downswing and at once start pushing myself to do what it takes to get the mood back up as that enables coping with the pain. So, you see now that chronic illness while devastating has not been without its positive side effects. 

During this time, I joined a UCTD group on Facebook. For a long time, I was an admin as well in the group. I spent a lot of time talking to people who are all at the different stages of this disease and also different stages of grieving for what is the loss of self. I spent time not just monitoring as an admin but also befriending people and sharing my experiences with them so that they can learn from my mistakes and make better choices regarding all aspects of their care, being able to advocate for themselves and best of all be able to reach acceptance ….. as well as know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel even if it was a long way off right then.

So I invested a lot of time with people who needed someone to talk to … to vent.. to grieve with… to laugh… to share and to just be with…… And I am so grateful for the people I met as I learnt from them just as much as they learnt from me. Friendships have been forged across the world and across cultures and across languages that remain strong even when there are gaps in communication due to flares or personal problems. We slip right back into the grove as soon as we touch base. If someone is not around and you are not aware of any problems, we make the effort to reach out to ensure they are ok. There are generally no topics that are not talked about as this illness is all pervasive and we are not coy or shy any more. We will give advice from our experience, help research the issue if need be, contact others who may be able to help, have slap up virtual pity parties with cakes and cocktails. We rally around the one who is feeling weak and vulnerable and invoke the UCTD gang to virtually go sort out the people bothering one of us. The weapons of choice can be walking sticks, wheelchairs and anything else we can think of and carry. This venting and humour are so useful in coping for example we laugh about and at one or two of us who constantly fall over, or who have issues with gas – I think at one point we were talking about maybe starting our own bottling plant! LOL

So I was surprised and touched when in a messaging conversation one of my friends wrote this to me:

“Hah! I learned from the best! Seriously you’ve been such a good teacher and friend since I got sick. You’re my favourite side effect lol!!”

I was astounded to say the least and got very emotional about this – that is another side effect – getting emotional. This is one of the best compliments I have received in my life as it came from the heart spontaneously. When I laughed and said oh now I am a side effect my friend quickly said it just came out I did not mean to upset you. I said no no I like it. I have never been called a side effect before and am proud to be one. So, you see we find our side effects in every situation. May all your side effects be positive ones too.

Visit to Leura

We made a small side trip to Leura on the way back from The Gully which is the next town from Katoomba and is on the tourist trail but we have never managed to get to it. This was an ideal chance as we were not rushed as we normally return by motorway and would be well in time to avoid any traffic jam.

We stopped at the car park in the local Woollies and took a walk up and down the high street, looking into shops as fancy took us. There was a Australian Alpaca Barn selling items make from Alpaca wool. Such soft and warm things – socks, gloves, caps, scarves, jumpers, coats – colour everywhere. The woolly cap which I liked and thought would serve me well in winter turned out to be pretty pricey. Maybe I will come back another day and get it as now we are moving into summer.

The next shop had knickknacks, jewellery, clothes (you know the hippy floaty kinds of clothes) and I saw some good dresses outside so popped in to have a closer look. Of course, I get drawn to these sheer silk kaftans like dresses – so light, so colourful, pretty prints which were kind of familiar. The shopkeeper seeing my interest said they are made from Indian saris. I said yes of course they are Kashmir silk saris as that silk is very fine and light. Another one which is pricey but I definitely will go back and get one after I have worn the dresses I have right now. Since I got the dresses out the weather has turned cooler – just my luck.

The next shop ‘Leura Fine Woodwork Gallery’ was selling carved wood products. Such beautiful bowls, pepper mills, photo frames, show pieces, sculptures, little boxes, tables and much more. I am definitely going back to buy a couple of frames, as I need to check on the size of the photos, I want to put in them. There were beautifully carved kookaburras and puzzle type boxes. All so tactile and I now really miss my collection of wood sculptures and bowls etc that I had to leave behind when I moved to Australia.

On to the next shop, just a deep breath made me feel giddy with the chocolate perfume in my nostrils. Josophan’s is a chocolate heaven and I have no words to describe the fabulous concoctions.  There were different kinds of hot chocolate and we got a chilli hot chocolate – maybe I can have some this weekend as it is going to be cold and dreary. It should cheer me up. Have a look at their webpage to see all the goodies. They also had a number of chocolate shoes, beautiful ones and also a chocolate corset with lacy design and all. Who would want to destroy and eat it? But the best thing was the new Ruby Chocolate. It is the first chocolate to be discovered in 100 years. Click here to find out more about Ruby Chocolate. It is every bit as smooth, fruity – raspberry kind, sweetness more like the dark chocolate. Definitely worth trying it. I got some little buttons and also slices with cranberry and pistachios. I must say since it is a thin piece of chocolate the cranberry tends to be dried up and pistachio does not seem to marry well with the chocolate as hazelnut does. I also got some individual pieces that shall be savoured soon enough. Walking back to the car we were happy with the purchase and mindful that the next trip would have to be planned soon.

A visit to The Gully

Going Places with Ernie Dingo – my current favourite TV series on SBS.  Ernie Dingo explores Australia's iconic destinations from the Kakadu National Park to the Great Barrier Reef. He introduces the people who live there in a symbiotic relationship with nature. Ernie is a native Australian who is very attached to his country. He meets people who share his passion with the land. He visits natural treasures and has conservation with locals and explains the tradition of aboriginal people. It is very well done, never over the top, informative and beautiful. Ernie knows a lot of stuff, especially about wildlife, history and plants and he actually connects with people. It is a gentle programme and I thoroughly enjoy the views, conversations and learning about the Aboriginal People and their culture.

The Gully

View of the valley

A couple of week’s ago he was in the Blue Mountains and that was even better as some of the places are familiar. He went to a place called The Gully (to give it it’s Aboriginal name) and this was a place we had not visited. So next week inspired by that programme we found out exactly where it was and made tracks. It is just on the edge of Katoomba. It is called Catalina Park. The traditional owners of this area as the Gundungurra and Darug peoples and they used this area as summer place. It has a water source with wild life and plants for food and medicine – an ideal place to spend hot summers. After white settlement they were forced to settle permanently here. The history states even some white people settled here but it was hard life specially in winter. Houses were made of flattened tins and any thing else they could find. Winter time they used newspaper to keep warm. I have immense respect for them as I would never have survived such conditions.

The Gully Walk

Then, in 1957 some local business men decided to make a race course there to attract tourists and forcibly removed the people. The trauma caused to the land and to the community of people who were living in and around the Gully was profound and still reverberates. The construction of the race course which actually failed to generate the expected tourism devastated the area.

Lake

Duckling

Mother keeping an Eye

On 18 May 2002 it was declared an Aboriginal Place. Today the racecourse track still exists but nature is slowly claiming back the land. There is a lake in a big depression with a path around it and a creek flowing along one side. The creek area is also swampy and the vegetation is low and covers the water to keep it from evaporating in the heat. There is a grassy area with a few benches for sitting and enjoying the peace. A perfect place for a picnic. Now there are plaques in place along ‘The Gully Walk’ around this special place depicting the tragic story of life and times of the people who lived there both Aboriginal and the white. Some of those people and their descendants are still about locally. The traditional owners along with the local council are to look after this place and conserve the area.

Flowering Grass along the race track

Flowers on the grasses

Buds on the grasses

That was the background of the place. The visit was a surprise sprung by my husband. Instead of the usual Saturday morning shopping trip I was expecting he said let’s go see The Gully. We packed some ginger beer and water in the cool bag and stopped to buy sushi for the picnic lunch. We went around the back way, that is to say not by the motorway but via Old Windsor road to Windsor, then Richmond, Kurrajong, Bilpin up Mount Tomah and then Mount Victoria, Blackheath and Katoomba. On the way we stopped to buy some fruit from the shops around the orchards in Bilpin. Some lovely apples and pears were got as well as some local honey.

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We found The Gully pretty easily and parked. Seemed there were only one or two other people there as ours was the third car there. There was quiet and the silence only pleasantly disturbed by the birds chirping in the trees. The feeling was pretty peaceful but reading the plaques about the sad history was poignant. One can almost feel the emotions due to hardships faced by those long gone. And yet there seemed hope as those people were resilient. The walk was a fairly good path with bushed and trees. I saw many which were new to us, so of course photos were taken. The lake in the middle has a pair of ducks with 6 little ducklings floating about enjoying the warm air. After a walk we sat down on the bench beside the lake to have the sushi. But by the time we had eaten one we realised there were small clouds of tiny black flies everywhere and so we decided to move to the car so as not to get added protein in the meal.

Wild strawberries

Wild Strawberries 

Flowers along the creek

Pretty blue flowers 

These look a lot like honeysuckle but of course they are not

Fern in the swamp

Finished lunch and had another little wander outside and looked at the tall trees. Then started our way back.

Beautiful Flowers

A closer look

Three shades of of green with yellow in between

Colours contrasting

Close up of flowers

My version of Ash Reshteh – Persian Bean and Noodle Soup

My husband is a foodie – in that he scours the net for recipes from all over the world. Being a vegetarian he loves looking for vegetarian dishes from different countries. Also he loves sweets and thus has a huge collection of cakes and puddings and every type of dessert. There are times when he will pick out something to try and if we do not have all the ingredients we either have to wait and get it next shopping round or improvise. Now many a time waiting to get all ingredients is not good as we forget and the recipe remains untasted.

We have moved homes just a couple of weeks ago and the effort to pack and unpack and try to get some order into the new home is tiring. In fact, I am still moving things about so that things are where I can find them / reach them. For a whole week I could not find the energy to cook at the end of the day as fatigue is hard to fight. But eventually I got the kitchen up and running. This description is shows you how we came about sitting and vegging on the net last Sunday as we were too tired to do anything. He came upon Persian recipes in some of his favourite food blogs. This one popped out and while we did not have all the ingredients putting it off did not sit well today. Quick look through the cupboard and fridge showed that we had most of the ingredients and some we could improvise. So apologies to the Persians for taking some liberties with their recipe but hey ultimately it is the taste that matters and variations are always part of and art of cooking.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of red beans – drained and washed
• 1 can of chick pears – drained and washed
• 1 can of black beans – drained and washed (it was supposed to be 1 can of lentils but I guess we can play with which ever bean tins we have)
• 1 – 2 cups of chopped spinach (I added all I had in the freezer – tend to chop and freeze so I do not waste it if not used up right away)
• 1 packet of Singapore noodles (fresh vacuum packed ones – am sure you can use any other types of noodles but I think the fine ones will disintegrate. One of the recipe states you can use spaghetti as well. This will be cooked in the soup and of course the time for that has to be factored in)
• 1 cup fresh chopped coriander
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 medium green chillies finely chopped (the ones I have are fairly hot so I would say chillies according to your taste otherwise the recipe states ground black pepper)
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• ¾ teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Salt to taste
• 1 table spoon of olive oil
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt (beat it smooth)

Method:

Since all the beans are cooked and from the can it takes the cooking time down quite a lot as the recipes talk about dry beans and lentils which will have to be cooked for an hour to hour and half.

In a large pan mix all the beans, adding water to cover the beans by an inch and some salt to get the beans boiling and hot. Even though these are cooked beans it is good to boil and then simmer them for about 20 mins or more to soften them further.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan pan add the olive oil and cumin seeds. Get it hot so the cumin just starts turning brown and add the onions, chillies and garlic. Sauté them till the onion goes translucent. Then add the turmeric powder and cook for a 2 – 3 mins. Once cooked add this to the pan with beans.

Add the spinach as well, bring to boil and cook for a further few minutes.

Add the noodles which just need heating for a few minutes. 

Add the coriander last. The other herbs you can add are parsley and mint.

Serve it in bowls and top it with a couple of dollops of plain yogurt. (you can also use sour cream if you want).

Then enjoy this heartwarming 1 bowl meal on a cold winter evening.

Sourdough bread – A Cheat Method to get the Taste

I love sourdough bread, does not matter if its white flour or rye or whole meal, I just love that sour taste. Every so often I look up the various recipes and think shall I make some. The time and effort it takes to make ‘mother’ the starter for it puts me off. I am not sure I have that dedication to make the starter over a period of I think couple of weeks (that was the shortest time I saw for this).

So I would yet another recipe and another and eventually I gave up the thought of homemade sourdough. I have learnt to make naan and one uses some yogurt in making the dough. This made me think, why can I not use that to make bread and see what it tastes like? I tend to use sour yogurt and so it should give sourness to the bread. And yes I was right and I have my cheat version of sourdough.

Ingredients

·       300 gm of wheat flour (roti atta will do or plain flour)
1 heaped teaspoon of yeast (I got live ones that I keep in fridge)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 to 1 and half table spoon of yogurt (sour if possible)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
Water should be warm – I generally make it just hot enough to be able to knead as that will get the yeast going.

Method

Put the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Add the yogurt and then water to knead.

Just add water as you require (I do it by feel like how you do roti atta).

Knead it for a good 5 mins.

Once it is smooth and come together take a little oil in your hand and knead it so it covers the whole outer surface of the dough ball and at the same time it will line the bowl so when it rises it will not stick to the sides.

Cover it with a lid or Clingfilm so that it does not start drying out- I found that just using a tea cloth to cover tended to dry out the surface.

Leave it for a couple of hours and it will rise to double in size. The punch the air out and re-knead for a few mins.

Shape it up for the second rising. Now at this point you can put it in the baking tin and let it rise there. Just dust the tin with some flour so it does not stick.

Bake on high heat 250 C for about 30 mins. I would check after about 25 mins. But you should know your oven and the time it takes to bake your bread. Once done turn it out on a rack to cool as otherwise it will not cut properly.

You can have variations by adding garlic in when kneading the second time. I sometimes add poppy seeds. My point is once the bread is right you can add things you like.

Have it warm with butter or with olive oil and balsamic mix for dipping.

Day 5 return from Barrington

We woke up to so much mist that I could not see the little hut on the other side of the river. It was cold first thing this morning and again wondered if this would lift before we left. The check-out was before 10 am and so there was no rush. There were steps leading down to river which we had not ventured down due to the rain. This morning since it was dry Paul decided to venture down and have a look at the river.

River Barrington

Local Mushrooms

He returned saying it was wet and slippery and the river was in full flow this morning. Indeed every night the noise of the river woke us up at least a couple of times. But as we made breakfast we watched the mist lifting and the sun shine on the mountains as they emerged from the mists. The early morning light making for some good pics I think.

Misty Morning 

Where is the sun?

Can see the rushing river at the bottom

Hills unveiled by the emerging sunshine

And it is a beautiful morning

Light piercing through the trees 

All bags packed and stowed into the boot and one last check before we handed over the keys and got back on the road to home. Since the day before I had been unable to get the pic of the road sign to Darawank we thought maybe we should go back down The Lakes Way and drive back through Forster. There was another motive for going down this road again. Any guesses? Oh yes the gelato shop…..

At last the famous sign

YUM YUM

One last look at the local pelican and this time the Tuncurry-Forster Bridge could be seen well and so this picture of it is my own. The one in the earlier blog was from net and it lost the colour in copying it.

Roosting

Tuncurry-Forster Bridge

Going through Booti Booti National Park this time we saw a lot of sea eagles – one or two flying and three sitting on telegraph poles but there was no place to stop to take pics. I have seen sea eagles at Gosford before and it seems they are along the coast. The Lakes Way goes along the Myall Lakes and meets up with highway at Bulahdelah. Just before we reach Bulahdelah there is The Grandis, on the western edge of Myall Lakes National Park. Here is the tallest tree in Australia. It is a 400 years old Eucalyptus Grandis or commonly known as a Flooded Gum ground circumference of 11.5 metres and 76.2m high. But the turn off was hidden and we drove past before we realised it was there. Once on the highway I offered to take over the driving for a bit as I felt guilty for not doing any driving so far. When we were going the M1 seemed to seamlessly turn into Pacific Highway as you turn from Maitland to go north. But returning back we accidently got on to the road to Newcastle instead of turning towards Maitland. Ah well…. we got to see parts of Newcastle which we wound not have seen otherwise. Fortunately there was a city bypass route that took us back to M1.

We had decided to stop at Ourimbah which is the exit just before Gosford for lunch. However, with the unwanted detour and roadworks we did not get to Ourimbah till about 2 pm. Once before we had stopped here for a break and visited the garden centre that is just off the exit. It is a lovely place to stop and have a cup of tea and cake. This time it was an orange and poppy seed cake for me and Paul had raspberry one. Since we had ice creams in the morning it did not matter that we missed lunch and went straight to tea as nothing else was left in the café.

The rest of the drive was easy and routine as we have often driven down this part of the M1. We hit the school time and so the progress was slow. Reached home about 4 30 pm and waved to next door neighbour that we were back!

Day 4 at Barrington

Yesterday had been a full day but with sunshine and warm temperatures. The night had brought yet more rain with the murmuring of the river getting louder all the time. There is an odd cackle of kookaburra coming through the closed windows, with the day light attempting to lighten the gloom of the still dark clouds while I savoured my first cup of tea. It was going to be a gloomy rainy day after all? I was quite prepared to stay put as this is also the first time I am out on the day I take my chemo. Most chemo days I am kind of OK at least for the morning with some rumbling of the stomach issues. Going out today was a definite challenge and the mood was- let’s see how far I manage to stay up.

Barrington River Crossing

While having the porridge – by now Paul had mastered the ‘tucker fucker’ (I just heard this new slang for microwave and could not resist adding it here… it is funny, apt and colourful!) and so no porridge was wasted, we decided to go further up the coast as travelling longer on the highway would not take up a lot of time. So as per usual come half past nine cool bag with blood orange drink was packed; also I get pretty cold when I take Methotrexate and since it was already a cool morning I decided to add trousers and a long sleeves top and a warmer top into the bag – better be prepared than to get cold when the fever spikes; and off we went.

Low clouds over Bucketts Mountains

Thunderbolts Way from Barrington to Gloucester

By now the roads were familiar and getting to the highway was fairly quick with very little traffic on the smaller roads. From Nabiac we picked up the Pacific Highway and went north, past Possum Brush and Rainbow Flat, towards Taree. But this time we bypassed Taree and moved further up the coast passing Cundletown, Ghinni Ghinni and Jones Island. As we came up to Jones Island the heavens opened again and we feared this looked set for the day. There was not a break in the clouds but I had to have faith it would not last long. We considered the possibility that we might have to turn back as we have done a time or two when the rain did not allow us even to stop. But by the time we got to Coopernook after which we turn off on to scenic drive route to Harrington – Crowdy Head, the rain was gone and the sun back out.

This route took us to Harrington which is at the mouth of Manning River and on to the Crowdy Head that is at the headland. Harrington is a small seaside town which extends into the Harrington Beach State Park. Since it was early we decided to go up to the Crowdy Head first and look around before returning to Harrington in time for lunch. The road is through the rainforest, beautiful and peaceful. I did not realise that there was actually a small community in this place. The views from the road side are stunning and the Crowdy Bay appears never ending. There is a surfing club and of course the marina.

Crowdy Head Marina

The Lone Ranger?

We drove round the headland and the road round the few houses and saw that we could turn right and be back closing the loop. Now usually we have seen the map and got a good idea what was there but for some unknown reason we had failed to see there was a lighthouse there. Usually the lighthouses at headlands are unmissable but this one was just round the corner from where we turned off and with no signs for the lighthouse either we missed it all together. What a shame!

Crowdy Head Bay

Windy Crowdy Head 

Crowdy Head Bay

The way back along the Crowdy Head Road to Harrington took us to Beach Road where literally the beach starts. We decided to stop at the fish and chips shop right there rather than go into the town. Then we sat in the carpark at the edge of water and had our lunch washed down with blood orange drink. At this point the Manning River joins the Tasman Sea. There is a big sandbar right across the mouth and has a breakwall that goes across the water demarcating the shallow sandbar area to protect the entry channel for shipping. There is a gap in the breakwall with a bridge across which allows the water to flow into this man made lagoon.

Beautiful Pine tree

Harrington

While eating we watched the pelicans and pied cormorants and the first pair of black swans in NSW. There was a wooden sculpture, which is painted instead of carved, of the man who built the first school there with flotsam.  

Black Swans

Pelican again

Sitting to avoid the wind

Who goes there?

More Pelicans Arrive

Esmond (Essie) Hogan

We decided to move the car down the road to be able to go for a walk on the causeway. There were more sculptures at the carpark here depicting the people who used this area as port. Walk along the breakwall was very pleasant. The different colours of water on both sides of the breakwall as well as over different areas of sandbar; the common tern and little tern diving so beautifully and gracefully into the water and catching fish; pelicans that were catching the wind and surprised us by gliding sideways just out of hand reach of us; and watching the rush of water through the opening in the breakwall.

The Breakwall

Sandbar with seagulls

Pilots at Pilot Hill

More sculptures

On the lookout

Are you coming?

Nope am staying put!

Sandbar

Waves crashing into the sandbar

The sign has its own solar panel

Water flowing though the gap in the breakwall

Bye Bye Pelicans

This short walk was I think the end of my ability to function as I totally flagged. Back in the car, I slept all the way back to the cottage. I was helped back in and spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV. Now you would think that was it for this day’s fun but no there was more to come. I had been looking forward to being out in the countryside and with little light pollution being able to see the beautiful starry skies at night. But as you know by now the rain every night had put a kibosh to that. However this night the Gods were smiling and the clouds lifted as it got darker. Oh yea we found we had a neighbour in the next cottage and of course they had the veranda lights on! But oh boy the stars… sooooo many stars….. that never get seen in the city. I always used to see Orion when I lived in the northern hemisphere and had not quite managed to see it here. It was such a joy to see it again brighter than ever seen before. I wish it had been dry outside, I would have loved to lie in the grass and just watch the stars, me thinks one could almost see that band – the milky way! Looking out of the window on to the other side of the cottage the twinkling stars through the tree there could almost be mistaken for a Christmas tree light up with twinkling lights. Closing my eyes that night with the image of the stars on my retina….blisss!