The Weekend at Alstonville

The weather was a bit dreary on Saturday and we weren't sure where to head for the day.  The kids were happy meeting the one-eyed horse and playing with the Farmers dogs.  They were very happy to just enjoy some free time to play on their scooters with Margaux.  The kids chatted to the farmers (a young couple who were from Longreach, he was in the area to obtain his Helicopter licence). When I chatted to them we worked out she was from Custer in Washington (a small town where Damian & Erika live!).

Later in the day, Margaux and Karli convinced them that the dogs 'needed' to get married... so they took them to the paddock and had a small ceremony to tie them in matrimony. Haha!

Complete with a bow-tie for the groom, a 'veil' and flowers in the colour for the bride! Fairly sure Mr Farmer was mortified at the thought of his cattle dogs being put through such embarrassment!

In the evening, we went to the Byron Bay Artisan Markets.  It was enjoyable there, although smaller than we had hoped for.  We did enjoy some delicious Balinese food there for dinner.  After dinner we walked down the main street to watch the surfers at Main Beach. It was a beautiful balmy evening, the carpark packed with surfers and backpackers!

We headed back to our caravan and let the kids watch The Man from Snowy River. Blast from the past! The kids enjoyed it too, funny little comments and running commentary kept me giggling.

The following morning - Sunday, we had decided to walk into town (about 5 minutes) to the Uniting Church.  We snuck in just in time.  The ushers nicely gave the kids an activity pack to keep them busy during church! It was an interesting service which began with a personal welcome to us, then the members of the congregation were asked to raise their hand if they'd celebrated a birthday that month, or an anniversary! It took quite some time to get to the sermon (which was brief), Mars had walked out with Axel to try and get him to sleep.  The kids enjoyed the activity pack!

After church a lot of the members came and introduced themselves and commended us on our well-behaved children (ha!) and asked us about our travelling story. They were so pleased to see young people in church - their church was full of seniors.  After chatting for a while we walked back to our caravan.

We had some lunch and then the kids scootered around for a while. We managed to get them all down for a rest, the late night was not helping their moods.

For dinner we joined up with Bertrand and Lucie with Margaux and Hugo.  It was very nice! Bertrand made an amazing raw desert - a real treat!