Misty Mountains

Misty Mountains

Hello Everyone,
I have been a bit slack, lately, but i am back on the ball now! i spent a few days in Brisbane with my cousin Kim, again, we really just relaxed totally as Kim was getting a cold. We finally set off towards the south as I needed to head that way and Kim needed to get to Coolangatta in a couple of weeks. We went to Tambourine Mountain as I wanted to revisit the gorgeous little village I had been to with my friend Meg about 8 years ago. Took us a couple of wrong turns, but we finally found it. It was just as I remembered it!  The road is very scenic- read hilly and windy! There is nowhere to stay there so we continued on to Canungra, and stayed at the showgrounds which were beautiful, with  a little creek behind and they supplied firepots and wood. Really enjoyable. I took off for dorrigo via Casino and a night at the RV village, It is huge! Somewhere along the way ,I took a wrong turn and ended up on the Eastern Dorrigo Way! A pretty horrendous road as i soon found out! after about 10 kms there was a strtetch of 5kms of dirt, quite good actualy,then some more bitumen, and then some more unsealed road, with a sign grader ahead! Ok I thought, it won't be too bad. Ha!! Following the road I found it was slippery, very twisting and hilly, I couldn't turn around and the surface was very greasy, so I just pushed on at 20kms  an hour. which meant it took me an hour! by the time I got into Dorrigo I was a complete mess!
Luckily once I got settled into Dangar Falls Lodge and sorted out my patchwork, I was ready to go. The tutors all stayed at the Lodge so I was able to get rides in, and then I met some ladies who were staying further out so I got rides with them. I had a wonderful time again, although I did some similar types of projects, they were vastly different techniques. It is always good to learn new things.
 So I did a seascape, very imaginative!, started a gorgeous solarsystems quilt, did a Carolyn Sharkey silhouette landscape, and then the stained glass wall hanging. Not bad for 6 days ! my back will take about 6 weeks to get over it! Now I am hell for Leather to Mildura for the country music festival. Got as far as Armidale, in horrendous conditions, over the Great Divide Range, in very strong wind conditions, (across the top of the range), and then hail or possibly sleet! I was glad to pull over at Armidale.
Until next time Vicki

Fiji

Hi everyone, sorry about the delay, had a bit of a problem whilst in Fiji. Couldn't access the internet at all. First photo is yours truly on wharf at Levoka.







This is Reef Endeavour at Savusavu, a really pretty place, we tok a trip from the harbour to a national park, which included a gorgeous waterfall where I managed to take a swim. It was freezing cold water but hugely refreshing, and when you swam under the waterfall it was like a massive hailstorm massage.! The weather was very nice, not too humid, and really balmy breezes.
Here I am in the creek/ river from the Booma
waterfall, behind the waterfall, the crew were diving off rocks into the water. Definitely not my cup of tea! We had a lovely picnic lunch with all conveniences, including the ships bar! and then it was off to a village (with an unpronounceable name) for a Kava welcoming ceremony and dancing and a Lovu, (which is like a hangi) all very tasty, especially after we were told the ships chef had supervised the cooking and supplied most of the food!
We met some lovely people on board, 2 sisters from WA, a scottish chap and his aussie wife who was a scream! an unfortunate Hawks supporter, and many other interesting folk. Kath and I had a really good time, the "ship" was only half full, which meant the crew knew all our names and were very keen on looking after us!. I did some snorkelling, and saw lovely coral, beautiful tropical fish, and the water was absolutely blue! Really amazing.

We spent another couple of days at Club Fiji Resort, in a beachside bure, the place was gorgeous! We lolled under thatched roof cabanas, read books and generally totally relaxed. The resort supplied a shuttle into Nadi, so we took it and wandered around, the shopping was pretty nice! Naturally I couldn't help myself and just HAD to buy myself another pearl! Very similar to my Tahitian pearls, I don't know how many more i need to provide for my grandaughters!
I am now back in Queensland, met up with my cousin Kim again, and now heading south to Dorrigo for my patchwork workshop, so I think i will only be posting new blogs fortnightly.
So until October, keep smiling and keep healthy,
regards Vicki