faFFing around - The Tour de SEQ - photo & fun heavy

[FenceFurniture]

fletty & FenceFurniture embark upon a short shed tour of South East Queensland. Anything could happen. This time we will have an empty trailer with us. It better not be empty by the time we get home.*

The faFF Tour de SEQ will commence next Thursday 10th May.

We'll probably head up to Coffs Harbour for the first night, and stay with a well known daughter. Then, up to Casino, across to Stanthorpe for a squiz at the Granite Belt, on to Warwick and across to Millmerran to stay with Bushmiller for Friday night. Paul has very kindly, although possibly naively, asked me this arvo if we were staying Saturday night as well. "Best ask your wife on Saddy morning mate". He may live to regret that, or indeed it may be revoked. There is talk of «a number» of bottles of red. Starting to sound like plural.

From there we are going across to Brissie where IanW has been equally kind (and silly - he's been warned) enough to offer us accommodation. UnFortunately his better half won't be on hand to keep things approaching under control. There is talk of «a number» of bottles of red. Starting to sound like plural again.

* faFF have just returned from a minor incursion up to Coffs and across to Moree. We were invited to drive a 3 tonne truck from CH to M full of furniture, unload it, pay for our drinks, return the empty truck to Coffs, and then home.

The problem is that it stayed empty. Despite out best efforts to locate Saw mills in the Grafton/Coffs area we only turned up one so far in Bonville, a little south of Coffs. Even then they really only produce landscaping grade stuff, up to 200x50. All green of course, but that's not so bad - we can get it put into a kiln in Sydney.

All the calls we made seemed to lead back to the same lady (although on different numbers). "YOU AGAIN!" was becoming a familiar refrain. It would seem that the mills are all either aggregating, being taken over, or going out of business.

....more in the next post....

[Simplicity]

This will be interesting I will be following all the antics all the way.
And good luck to all those infiltrated

Cheers Matt

[FenceFurniture]

A forum member gave me a list of mills to contact, and this morning I may have struck paydirt. The sawmill at Uki, known as the Uki Sawmill, thinks they may be able to help us, and the Bowraville SM sounded pretty enthusiastic about having some furniture grade timber in a fairly wide variety of hardwoods.

On our way up last Monday we called into Boutique Timbers at Telegraph Point. Man, what a place! I can't recall all the species they have slabbed and stacked, but I would estimate >20. After a couple of pies for lunch with Greg Ward we went cruising the property with him and brother Mal to select some timber. fletty picked up 2 very nice completely clear Red Cedar planks (about 2.3m x 400x50) and several Black Heart Sassafras boards. I have earmarked a few 200x50 figured Blackbutt boards, and a Sydney Bluegum board 200x50. They will be for a table to replace my twisted Ironbark behemoth that I purchased about 20 years ago. We will either pick this timber up on a return from SEQ or they will bring them to the Sydney Show in July.

After a very pleasant 3 hours with Greg & Mal at Rollands Plains we pushed on to Coffs Harbour, and stayed with fletty's daughter. Tues/Wed was out to Moree and back via Grafton and Glen Innes. This took us across the Great Dividing Range past several National Parks and lookouts.

The first really significant thing to catch our eye was the turn off to Raspberry lookout. It was here that we noted a considerable drop in temperature - it's ~1000m up, just like Katoomba. The view is a cracker!

1. Raspberry Lookout.JPG

Pretty sure fletty has a pano of that view.


There were a number of other possibilities, but we really had to get to Moree without much delay, so some mental notes were made for the return journey.

However, a restored 1904 house in the eastern outskirts of Glen Innes demanded, and received our attention.

3. House Glen Innes.JPG

I'll leave it to fletty to put up a pic of the front - beautiful detail and paint job. Yours for just $585k!

[ozhunter]

Watching with interest.

[FenceFurniture]

One of the mental notes made was a turn-off to "Boundary Falls" and that was good enough for us. None of our incursions were going to be of any great duration, so the penetration into the parks was always going to be shallow, but nonetheless worthwhile.

6. Boundary Falls - Washpool NP.JPG

Our timing for arriving here was immaculate, and I believe fletty has a pic that will explain that. It has nothing to do with the Hot 4 that farted its way to park next to us, from which baseball caps at goofy angles sprouting coils of hair emerged. (sotto voce to fletty "Dickhead alert!")

[FenceFurniture]

This was the highlight. It's been far too long since I've taken in rainforest air! Another example of two people photographing the same place in two different ways. I think only one pic between us was almost the same, and even then vertical vs horizontal.

So we walked about 500-700m along the delightful Coombadjha Creek. As other keen photographers will know, that can take *quite some time*.

9. Coombadjha Creek - Washpool NP.jpg

10. Coombadjha Creek - Washpool NP.jpg


I'll leave the others as thumbnails for you to click on to keep the page length a bit sensible.

8. Coombadjha Creek - Washpool NP.JPG .... 11. Coombadjha Creek - Washpool NP.jpg .... 12. Coombadjha Creek - Washpool NP.jpg

[FenceFurniture]

On the road in to Coombadjha Ck and Washpool Ck there was a very nice forested slope.

15. Forest - Washpool NP.jpg


13. Forest - Washpool NP.jpg .... 14. Forest - Washpool NP.jpg

[Bushmiller]

Oh! All that booze. I had better get some practice in .

Regards
Paul

[FenceFurniture]

Yairs. We already have.

[Uncle Al]

You blokes are having too much fun!. Go easy on the red, we want you back in one piece.
Enjoy your trip, there are some spectacular waterfalls up in the north eastern part of NSW, not sure how much rain they have had up there lately, but after a decent rain they are a sight to behold.

Happy traveling,

Alan...

[ian]

On the road in to Coombadjha Ck and Washpool Ck there was a very nice forested slope.

15. Forest - Washpool NP.jpg

What !! no signs of recent timber "gathering" ??

[Glider]

Some beautiful country up that way. Have a great time you two!

mick

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Sounds like fun travelling to me. The natural bushland photos are great.

I may just have some white cedar (mostly limb timber) up here not far from IanW if you are interested in filling the load? I've found it's a swine to turn but quite pretty once you do so.

David

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Hey faFF,

I think that you've posted this in the wrong forum. How can you two honestly say that a shed tour and timber collecting expedition can be called "nothing at all to do with woodwork"?

But, I can see that it would be difficult to see where to put it - so ..... maybe.

It will be good to meet you two, having read of your antics. And at least you've dragged me away from "other things" (like sorting out aged care costs) to the forums again.

David

[FenceFurniture]

Yes, it was a conundrum David; which was debated. You're quite right - it's "Plenty to do with Woodwork, indirectly", but it seems to me that Travel is really more about regular type travel. Doesn't really belong in the Shed subforum either.