Medieval Mayhem

Once again by guest journo Bruce The Goose Johnston...

It was a late night for everyone last night so, consequently, it was a slow start to the day today.  No stress, no worries, but our plan to be early out the door to explore the Sunshine Coast beaches became a much more leisurely departure. The local chooks came over to say hello and the boys spent some time constructing paper aeroplanes to see who could get theirs the furthest.

Then came the mandatory chat with the departing neighbours and a couple of minor repair tasks on the Santy before we even looked like hitting the road.  Soon enough though, we were heading down the highway towards Peregian Beach and the local markets.

Fletchy the Stink-Rat contaminated the interior of the car (I'm sure I could see plastic melting on the dash...) so it was a great relief to get to the markets and into the fresh but cold air.  The boys played on the first of many playgrounds today while we roamed the markets for nothing in particular, but picking up a small, kiln-dried clay bowl and a sexy wrap-around skirt for Andrea.

Fletch evacuated the dead rat before we got back into the car for the next leg of the journey.  We enjoyed the coastal drive along Coolum Beach and Marcoola before heading inland to Bli Bli.

Here we found the Bli Bli Medieval Castle.  This is the biggest castle in Australia and was originally constructed in 1971.

It is perched up on top of a hill, is surrounded by suburbia and has terrific 360 degree views to the ocean and waterways of the region - a tactically sound defensive position if I have ever seen one, for a castle anyway.

We had the mandatory "dress-up into funny hats" that Andrea dearly loves...

 

...before we ventured inside where the boys immediately found the stocks - always a winner.

 

Andrea and I reminisced about days of old and our fabulous wedding of almost a year ago (really!...) while we strolled the grounds and climbed the towers.  The castle had some quite interesting aspects to it including a dungeon complete with a manikin of a tortured prisoner, and a great hall complete with a throne.

 

When we finally dragged Sir Fletcher away from the throne, we had fun putting on some chain-mail armour - astounded at how heavy it is, and some typical medieval garments.

The tour through the castle took about an hour or so before we had a nice picnic lunch and coffee.  But the next most interesting aspect for the boys was the gift shop where there was a myriad of trinkets and shiny stuff for them to spend their money on.  Jack bought a nice dragon's head necklace, Jarrah bought some dragon dust and Fletch bought a Smurf.  Go figure.

Then it was off to check out the scenery at some more Sunshine Coast beaches.  The whole coast is full of waterways, canals, beaches and the usual cappuccino strips and Gucci shops.  It has a nice vibe and people seem to be out and about everywhere.  Mooloolabah was really pretty and the sun tried it's hardest to shine for us.

We stopped briefly to let the boys play on a playground at Alexandra Headland, another beautiful spot on the beautiful Sunshine Coast.  Our final beach stop was at Kings Beach at Caloundra, with its time delay fountain and salt water pool.

Although it was getting very late in the day, we couldn't resist a detour off the Bruce Highway at Yandina to check out the Ginger Factory.  Despite the fact that none of us really like ginger, the Ginger Factory was really cool!

We discovered a world of taste, living history, and of course a large range of ginger products.  Not being huge fans of ginger, however we opted for the Macamelts - scrumptious home made macadamia shortbread biscuits!  Yum! Yum! Yum!

 

We wandered around the beautiful tropical gardens eating those scrummy bikkies, while admiring the exotic plants, beautiful water features and lots of cool looking ginger plants.  Oh, and the Kombi of course.

 



It was after dark by the time the weary travellers arrived back to base.  BBQ, diaries, beer, bed.