Peter's Ponderings

By Lofty

Termite Avenue

We'd been sharing the driving so far this holiday, but today I decided to treat Sophie and planned a day full of 2 wineries, a distillery and a coffee plantation, ending up at Mossman Gorge.

First up was the Jaques coffee plantation - it felt like a lot way off the beaten track and we drove past several large termite mounds. But once we got through the gates of the plantation, we found Termite Avenue (pictured) where the termites had built their mounds in a perfectly straight line along side the road for about 400-500 meters!

At a t-junction further down the road we a sign read "Give way to planes".... There's not much in the Highway Code which prepares you for the threat of being overtaken by a light aircraft!

The coffee in the plantation was amazing - as you'd expect, and I stared on in disbelief when an American couple turned up drinking take-away Burger King coffee!!

Next up came the wineries - one lovely, one rubbish. The good one was a little farm and a lovely lady who took us into their bar area and talked us through each wine - we ended up buying a really nice bottle of fruit wine (they can't grow grapes up in that part of the country). We also went to the Golden Drop winery which was so painfully corporate and devoid of all personality it was painful!

The last alcoholic stop was a distillery which had a coffee shop.

We bought a bottle of 100% pure honey vodka - I've never tasted anything like it. Vodka, neat, and really really nice!

Not only did this coffee shop sell spirits. It also sold Lingerie....

While we were off the beaten track, we tried to go further and find a remote river and lagoon, but the road rapidly deteriorated and before long were bouncing along rough rocky tracks shaking everything loose in Snoopy! It wasn't long before we admitted defeated and headed back to the highway to end the day at Mossman Gorge

It. was. freezing. Exactly what we wanted! Spending the afternoon in the river swimming in the really strong current and lounging on the rocks.

Fun day!

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