Yackety Yack, Day 34 – Tum Bull Gum?

Day 34 Sunday 11/6/2023 Murwillumbah, sunny 9 – 22

Another beautiful morning. The flat tropical grass is heavy with dew each morning but quickly dries. Butcher birds sing. Last week the forecast for this area was daily rain, but apart from the misty rain when we arrived the weather has been perfect.

This morning we tripped the van fuse, as usual, we had the coffee machine, toaster, and fan heater running. Gosh, we’re slow learners. To alleviate the load, we turn on the diesel heater and it belches out a puff of diesel fume and stops. Bugger!

Elle goes off to lunch at the Tweed Valley Regional Gallery with a friend.

With Elle out lunching VeeWee suggests that we do the same. We decide on the impressive-looking RSL (Returned Servicemen’s League) club or as my cousin calls them “The Rissole”. It’s a two-storey building with an upstairs restaurant overlooking the Tweed River. We’re among the first to arrive. We order from ‘Today’s Specials’ and Woody is told that both his Pork Belly and my Crumbed Lamb Cutlets aren’t available. You just have to laugh, don’t you? At least VeeWee got her Baked Barramundi. We change our orders to a Burger and a Chicken Schnitzel and I was lucky that mine was hot. The little bite-sized biscuit that came with the coffee was the star, along with the view.

We return to camp to pick up Elle and Nic and take the scenic back road to Tumbulgum to have a look. Which I’m told is not pronounced as it is spelt or spelled. A short drive following the Rous River through cane fields and thickets of rainforest reveals attractive homes perched on the hillsides. Tumbulgum is situated at the junction of the Tweed and Rous Rivers. There are some classic examples of the style of homes of this area, attractive weatherboard homes on stilts. Tumbulgum Tavern (1887) is jumping with Sunday diners and people are picnicking on the lawns and fishing.

We return via the art gallery to admire the view of the valley and Mt Warning. It’s time now to start packing up and readying for the next leg of the trip.

Dinner tonight is light, but we do want to try cooking eggs in the pie maker. We both have different ideas about what would work so we each do our own thing. Woody puts in an English muffin filled with ham, spring onion, mushroom, cheese, and egg. I toast my muffin and cook egg, ham, and cheese in the pie maker. Both are delicious but Woody won hands down. Yep, the pie maker is a great way to cook eggs.