Yesterday we headed off to the Eumundi Market, world famous, almost (at
least in Australia) for being the best art and craft market in Australia. And
now having seen it for ourselves and having called into markets all about the
country (except for Perth and Darwin and the places in-between and Tasmania),
we can believe it. We read in one of the promotional brochures that there are
600 stalls; I would suggest there are now even more.
The Eumundi Markets were established back in 1979 and were given a
revamp in 2011. There are purpose built permanent stalls and other areas for temporary
stalls set up and taken down twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays. These
latter are under a row of gorgeous trees which offer much needed shade in the
heat of the summer. The array of goods sold is endless; organic fruit and vegetables,
fashion, jewellery, sculpture, paintings, homewares, takeaway foods, and the
list goes on and on. That list should also include vendors with wonderful bird
whistles operated with so much skill that even the sceptics such as my dear
husband cannot resist and a stall to raise funds for the rescue of strayed or
injured snakes which offers the opportunity for punters to interact with these
fascinating reptiles or to have one’s photo taken wearing a living serpent scarf.
All of it is top class and draws the tourists who holiday on the Sunshine Coast
from Noosa to Caloundra and far beyond. We spent four hours there and
thoroughly enjoyed browsing the stalls, watching talented artists work and
generally inhaling the wonderful atmosphere.
Eumundi is only ten kilometres north of Yandina so we were soon there
once we got ourselves organised. Just as we had been surprised by the size of
Yandina, we were with Eumundi. I had expected little beyond grounds to house
the six hundred stalls, and yet it is a township of 1,700 residents, once albeit
perhaps briefly, home to Kevin Rudd and tennis player Pat Rafter.
Soon after 1 pm, many of the stall holders were packing up and so we checked
out the main street of the town. There we discovered the Berkelouw Bookshop, a
treasure trove of new and old books where one could spend weeks just wandering
through the well catalogued shelves of jewels. Further up the street we
happened upon the climax of an auction for a huge property, once the bakery,
just in time to hear it being passed in at $700,000 and something. And all the
time, the sun kept on shining.
The Eumundi Markets should be on everyone’s list of must-dos on the
Sunshine Coast, in our opinion. And it should be noted that the bird whistles should be taken from
their packaging in front of the vendor to check for faults.
Our day was capped off with the unquestionable win by the All Blacks
over the Wallabies in the first round of the Bledisloe Cup challenge; Go All
Blacks!
This morning we emerged from the van at an all-out record of laziness,
one that beats our own records of at least fifteen years. Why one may ask?
Well, it is not your business to know all but Saturday night in this
principally residential camp is punctuated with disruptions all night and that,
coupled with late night rugby, makes for sleep-ins.
We finally headed away from the camp south through Nambour and up into
the hinterland to Montville. We visited this delightful Blackall Range top
village, once aptly called Razorback, in early June last year with our friends
Neil and Pauline. We were no more or less impressed today than then, but did enjoy the fact there were slightly fewer fellow visitors. We wandered from
one gift and craft shop to another, into an Indian store where we were dazzled
with the array of bright and ornate fabrics and crafts, and into three art
galleries, the first two full of fabulous work where I could have easily spent
$30,000 to $50,000 had we bare interior walls and the funds in the bank, and the third, a competition
requiring critical input from us the viewers.
We sat in a small park and ate our sandwiches looking out over the
eastern seaboard, spying five large cargo vessels killing time before heading
into the Port of Brisbane. This is truly a beautiful part of Australia and it
is no wonder our friends have elected to make the Sunshine Coast their home,
and of course, the continuing fine weather does much to enhance the appeal of
the area.
We returned a few kilometres along the road toward Mapleton and to the
Kondalill Falls National Park where we walked the 4.7 kilometre track to the
base of these lovely falls on the Skene Creek which plummets 90 metres over the
rocky escarpment. It is an absolutely lovely walk through forests of piccabeen
palms and strangler figs and appreciated by a number of likeminded walkers of
all ages. This walk is a small part of the 58 kilometre Great Walk through the
Sunshine Coast hinterlands across the Blackall Ranges.
By the time we returned to the packed car park, I had decided that we
had done enough walking for one day. And so we decided it was prudent to head
for home, but not before having one last little adventure. We noted there was a
road, marked with a small thin line on the map, running from Mapleton through
to Yandina via the Cooloolabin Dam. And so we set off along the Mapleton Forest
Drive, not only a gravel road as advised, but basically no more than a forest track,
pitted and potholed, with massive speed bumps constructed for no good reason,
but sharper than any previously mounted. Fortunately there were few others
sharing the same route and equally as fortunate, the road was dry. This is not
a route to be taken when wet nor with a caravan in tow, but it is indeed a wonderful
picturesque passage through eucalypt forest.
Eventually we came onto the Cooloolabin
reservoir situated upriver from the Wappa dam on the same river, visited a
couple of days before. This dam was constructed back in 1979 and is larger than
Wappa, with far less recreational area but still quite lovely. Given the state
of the roads, it is unlikely that too many people bother making use of the
limited public area.
From here it was all downhill to Yandina and arriving here just before 4
pm, we were both surprised and delighted to find that the annual Yandina Street
Fair was still in progress. We had been cognoscente of it all happening today,
however had chosen to go elsewhere. We parked and wandered up through the
closed off streets, listening to the singers, scanning the stalls and
marvelling at the activity still going on. Yandina was truly rocking! And even
after we settled back at camp, we could hear the music and later after dark
fell, we heard the fireworks playing for some time before the fair was finally
ended.
I was pleased to catch up on Skype with Olly and learn that he and his
family were all well on the way to recovery from their bout of ‘flu and winter
lurgies.
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