Chillin'

We reluctantly left all things Margaret Olley and other gallery delights and headed for the Queensland border, via beautiful Numinbah Road, first stop Chillingham. One of Jo's many Buchanan cousins own Buck's Farm there, where Michael and I always stop when we are travelling that way.  They sell all sorts of delicious locally grown produce, and the only munchies for miles around.

We hadn't told them we were coming, so Jo was a bit of a surprise for Mr and Mrs Buck! They were actually getting ready for a family wedding that coming weekend. After some preliminary chit-chat, we bought some pies and were soon munching away under Gerard's and Ann's gazebo out the back of the shop.

Our dress theme for the day was message t-shirts, and this proved quite a challenge the day before.  Jan and I were both despairing when we each found the perfect shirt in the same shop at Currumbin Waters.  In the end, we all managed to find one that matched our personalities perfectly.  If you can't read the red writing on Jan's shirt, it says "DID NOT HAPPEN". Ann kindly photographed us in the shop, before we bought up big and headed off again.

We stopped at the border for the traditional border view photo, and then wound our way through the Numinbah Valley and around the back roads towards Canungra. There were two attractions to be found there: one op shop and a shop where Jan had bought some wonderful shoes in the past.  Both she and I were keen to get at the footwear, so we found a park midway between the two.  I headed off to the shoe shop at speed, only to discover that they no longer sold the shoes we wanted. It was most disappointing.

The op shop made up for the shoe shop.  Cheerful and charming, bigger than it looks from the outside, with low prices to match. I found a brilliant book about guitars for my nephew Tom, a great little summer dress for my granddaughter and I forget what else. We all bought multiple items.

Our destination for the evening was Boonah, still a fair distance away. so we dragged ourselves away from pretty Canungra, through areas bushfires had recently gutted (the ones that destroyed Binna Burra Lodge, where Michael and I spent our honeymoon), to our final stop, Beaudesert.  

We had "done" Beaudesert on a past trip, but revisited two of our past haunts anyway. One that we had really liked had closed, but we found the Uniting Church one this time. It is little, but air-conditioned, which was welcome as it was unseasonally hot. Despite its small size it delivered up not one, but two of the books I had been searching for.  It is also conveniently close to a drive-in shopping centre, where we had a long overdue coffee.