Mullum to Armidale

On our last evening in Mullumbimby, we went out to the Spice It Up Thai restaurant. Marti has spent many years in Thailand, so had excellent recommendations for what to order. We shared appetizers, two salads, and a mussaman curry. The waitress kindly took this photo.

It was clear shortly after we left the Paciifc Highway to head west that we were leaving the more tropical area we had been in. The homes were very spread out, and there were only two very small villages along the way. The country side quickly changed to hills and farms. There were also heavily wooded areas.

We stopped for lunch in Urmallah at the hotel/cafe. It was delightful, very old style Australian

It was on the Clarence River, very lovely. I walked over to the river and found a family of lizards enjoying the sun, ignoring several people nearby. And one of them away from the rest was quite enormous.

We shared a lunch of a BLAT (avocado!) and a Caesar salad. The salad had a poached egg on top, an unusual sight for us, but it was good.

 As we neared Armidale, we saw a sign for Ebro Falls, so we turned off to see it. There was a nice park and a paved path to the edge of the ravine. There was also a lower falls, but it was a good walk away, so we decided to just enjoy the upper one.

 

 We came into Armidale a bit earlier than expected, so we used the GPS to find a used bookstore in town. And I found four of the Nevil Shute hardbacks that I am looking out for! I collect his books and figured that Australia would be the place to complete my collection. If you don't know about Shute, try to find A Town Like Alice and Trustee from the Toolroom in your local library. They are both wonderful.