Yamba Days

I'm enjoying using my new heavy duty enameled metal citrus juicer. I bought it at Home of the Heart at Bangalow. This morning I had orange, lemon, and mandarin juice in our beach unit at Yamba. Yum

This is the front of our old fifties unit block in Ocean St. We love our little studio apartment. It's called 'Seascape'. We worry that it's not long for this world with all the development we see.

What a great way to spend one of our days on holidays in Yamba - a kayaking trip with Bob. Today he took us around some beautiful parts of the Esk River near Iluka. The day was beautiful after a few days of bad weather. Bob's website is http://www.yambakayak.com.au/

Bob packed the best picnic lunch for hungry kayakers. A very classy salad roll with the nicest smoked trout, Bob's home grown rocket leaves, his wife's beautiful semi-dried tomatoes, and nice ham.

Bob and David enjoy a chat over lunch. Bob packs all the comforts and we had a nice break.

Homemade currant cake courtesy of Bob's wife. We even had a nice cup of tea and coffee to go with it.

There is a giant grey kangaroo that has jumped into the water with a huge splash to swim over to greener grass on one of the other islands in the Esk River near Iluka. He's right in the middle of the photo, I think. I'll try to zoom in later.

Here he is after his swim. We couldn't believe how big he was, but Bob our kayak guide around the river tells us it is quite common to see them swimming in the rivers and he has seen them in the surf as well. This guy was a great swimmer! We think he may have been two metres tall and could weigh 130 kilos. Bob tells us that one nearly jumped on top of his kayak one day.

This is lovely Ros from Yamba Wellbeing Centre who gave me an amazing massage yesterday. This was supposed to be my treat after a day's kayaking, but we had to pospone our trip because of terrible windy weather. The massage ended up being a prior to kayaking treat! Website: http://www.yambawellbeingcentre.com.au/

We met Bronwyn Mark from Pot Belly Pies in Yamba yesterday. It was getting near lunchtime and we could smell delicious aromas coming from her shop. I had a shepherd's pie and David had a Balmoral Beef which contained scotch whisky and cream. They were yum!

You can't go past Bronwyn's shop. I'm trying to put a link in this post. Hope it works.

http://potbellypiesyamba.blogspot.com/

Look at the colourful packed shelves in Causley Fresh Deli in Yamba St. This placed has all the best goodies from Black Pearl Epicure and Fino Foods in Brisbane. Our friend, Michael Dalton, of Fino Foods recommends this shop to anyone who might be visiting Yamba.

Next door to Seascape you can see the renovation of On the Rocks in progress. We used to stay here when it was divided into units, but the local gossip is that a Sydney millionaire bought it for 7 million and is doing it up as one whole private residence. The decks have been extended and the workmen sure have a nice view to admire while they work.

We found this beautiful jam at the Friendly Grocer in Yamba St. It is made by P. Le Couteur at Gulmarrad which is on the way to Brooms Head. Phone 02 6645 1766.

Here's Gordon Merchant's mansion at Angourie. It's nice to see it finished. Gordon is the head of the Billabong company.

This is Mike from Causley Fresh Deli in Yamba. He's from Switzerlandbut he loves living in Yamba.

The highlight of our day so far was seeing lovely Fiona from my work in Brisbane. She teaches Year 4 next to me at school and she's back in Yamba visiting her family. Fiona grew up here and loves to come back to the beach. We went to Caper Berry.

David had a great afternoon yesterday when he went to the Rugby League grand final in McLean. The Lower Clarence Magpies beat Northern United from Lismore by one point so it was a nail biting finish. He met this guy John Mathieson who has made a tree change to McLean from Melbourne. He helps people who are putting on a play.

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Beachwood Cafe at Yamba is our favourite coffee and breakfast place. We've had excellent lunches there too. Carlos knows all the locals and most of the regular visitors too. It's a treat to listen to his friendly chats to everyone who comes by.

Beachwood Cafe at Yamba is known far and wide for Sevtap's amazing cooking. She has Turkish and Dutch connections and her flavours are wonderful. We've read write-ups in the Sydney papers about their amazing cafe.











For breakfast, David had the Turkish eggs which are served with a beautiful tomato sauce.














Here's David outside Beachwood Cafe in Yamba admiring their veggie and herb garden. This is the healthiest looking cherry tomato plant.

Here's a morning photo of Convent Beach looking towards Angourie taken from our front deck.

On the drive to Yamba, we always stop at Bangalow. Their main street has such a great country town feel to it although now it's packed with tourists because it's the start of the school holidays.

Utopia Cafe at Bangalow is our favourite stopover on the drive to Yamba. I had the pumpkin scone for morning tea. It was served with really nice jam and whipped cream. The coffee is always great.

I love the huge windows looking out onto the big Moreton Bay Fig trees at the back of the property. We also saw so many beautiful bauhinias flowering around Bangalow. They're a couple of weeks later down here than they are at home in Brisbane.