Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 9

   Day 9:  Sunday 3/3/24 - Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Festival

Final day today for the Festival and we're up early due to not sleeping well and worrying about how to fix this awning this morning.  The minute we surfaced everyone came over to look at the damaged awning and discussions commenced between Craig, Razzle, Tommy and Craig .5 as to what could be done to fix it so we could roll it in securely and continue our holiday......

Well the guys came up with a plan, disassembling the awning on the outside edge, legs, arms and fittings came off and then they started trying to bend it back into shape with pieces of timber and using a pipe next to the water tank to lever it over.  If you go anywhere, you really need to get yourself a Craig .5 to take along, he comes out with an angle grinder and lots of other stuff you just wouldn't normally take camping 😆  and somehow they fixed it, well enough to get it rolled up and locked into place so we could continue our holiday!!  Thank you guys xo  It doesn't look pretty with cuts in the facing panel but hey, it closes and opens!

Okay, now to enjoy today's festivities which are in the park.  You need to buy tickets to get into the park which has wine tasting, entertainment, bands and food trucks.  You can either buy a day ticket for either Saturday or Sunday or a weekend ticket.  We drove down today in case wine was purchased and everyone was over the long walk.  Doreen and the girls went down earlier in Jon's car to secure a place for us to sit for the day and also took a pergola down for shade over the table.

Paid our entrance fee and headed straight to the German Sausage food truck (love me a good german sausage!) for breakfast.  OMG the best ever german sausages we've had, even husband agreed!  Joined everyone else at our little spot for the day - the girls did well securing a picnic table and extra chairs for all 12 of us.  Razzle laid out the plan for the day of wine tasting, we start at one end of the stalls and one variety at a time  eg.  Verdelho and go along the stalls of wineries and taste just that variety, if they don't have a Verdelho then you move onto the next stall and then start again on the next variety.  Then everyone chooses 2 wines to share with food, before going tasting again - sounds straight forward.  Being the designated driver today, I partook in some tastings or had a sip of Craig's instead.

Lunch, WOW is all I can say.  Craig and I went to the Brazilian food truck and had their Brazilian BBQ Platter > Rump Cap, Smokey Chorizo, Marinated Chicken, Pulled Pork, Salad and Chips for $33.00.  Holy Shiet, it was absolutely delicious!!  Sorry no photos due to being hungry and it being so delicious 😆

Our friend Jill gave each couple of little surprise,  a water pistol - what could possibly go wrong now!!    Well the water pistols erupted into a full blown water fight and nobody was safe LOL  We had people running around chasing each other, tackling each other, hiding behind other people, random people walking by getting squirted, running back and forth to the tap, it was just  complete carnage and absolutely hilarious!!

The only photo I took the whole day, can you guess why.....LOL

Eventually it was time to head back to camp and I wanted to have a glass of wine now!  Grabbed some Stanthorpe cheeses to take back and Craig comes back smiling from ear to ear because he's bought 3lts of Barrel Port from Flame Hill Winery 😳😵  Back at camp, nibbles out, campfire going and Craig's got nearly everyone drinking this port tonight LOL  There are going to be some dusty people tomorrow morning I think!

 

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 8 Part B

   Day 8:  Saturday 2/3/24 - Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Festival

Part B

Most of us headed back into town on foot around 6pm to watch the fireworks.  Stopped at the Top Pub for a drink on our way in as you do, then tried a small plate of what Razzle describes as the world's best chips from Shannon's Chips - they were pretty good actually.  There are plenty of food vans to choose from for dinner or you've got the pubs and restaurants around town to enjoy as well.  Down to the park to grab a spot to watch the fireworks that will be set off on the bridge just in front.  

Storm activity in the sky while we await the fireworks to start.  Hopefully they won't come through or be nasty if they do.

It was quite a unique experience to watch the fireworks so close to where we were sitting in the park.

Fireworks were great!  Afterwards we headed to the Brewhouse nearby for drinks and some dinner.  Nice venue with a great outdoor area at the back and pizza was delicious.

While there, a storm rolled in that was quite nasty and we hoped that our mates back at camp would drop the legs on our awning 🤞because we could not make it back in time to do it ourselves.  More on that later.

Once the storm had passed, we headed off to the next pub while the other girls had left earlier to see if the bands were still playing on the outside stages.  Unfortunately due to the severity of the storm all outside activities had been cancelled.  Had another drink at the Central Hotel then Craig and I headed back to camp after luckily grabbing a lift in a cab with someone Craig knew staying at the same caravan park.  Cabs were a little hard to find.

Arriving back at our camp, we were faced with a very broken awning that unfortunately our mates did not get a chance to lower for us when the storm hit.  After the initial shock and devastation wore off and 😞, we decided nothing could be done that night so cleaned up the debris around the place and went to bed. Craig spent time looking up the price of a new Fiamma awning and we pondered the fact that if he can't fix the awning so we can roll it in securely, then we may have to pull it off and head home early 😞

Certainly was not going to be a sound sleep tonight.

  

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 8 Part A

  Day 8:  Saturday 2/3/24 - Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Festival

Part A

Up early, shower first up so we're nice fresh for our first big day of the festival.  Cheese Kransky and tin spaghetti for breakfast, no toast due to the bread going mouldy because it's been as hot as the surface of the sun for days!  Our tour leader Doreen - side note on Doreen: our mate Doreen was born and bred in Stanthorpe, her family owned an Apple farm, she even won Miss Lovely Legs back in 1976 or something like that.  She was also the Apple and Grape Queen one year many moons ago when she was young  😆), right back to the story.  Tour Leader Doreen said we were departing at 9.30am for wine tastings at Symphony Wines, followed by Ballendean Wines and finishing with Jester Hill Wines.

Off set the convey arriving perfectly at 10am to be the first  for tastings at Symphony Hill Wines.  We all filed into the tasting room and basically filled it up with 12 of us - we have a couple of Doreen's "other" mates who are staying in town tagging along.

I did pity the poor fellow doing the wine tastings, it was challenging to say the least but also very entertaining for all involved and I think he was having as much fun as we all were.  At the end of all the tastings and purchases, he actually thanked us for making the start of his day really great.  Interestingly, out the back in the factory they have these awesome terracotta urns with wine fermenting in them.  With no barrel to influence the taste of the wine, it is apparently the purest form of wine and not to everyone's liking. 

A lovely mural looms behind the urns, specially painted for them of Sophia Lorenz, Penelope Lopez and Gina Lollobrigida - very unique.

Now, these urns are handmade in Tuscany, Italy by a 91 year old man who is legally blind and makes them totally by feel.  The Winery commissions him to make the urns for them and then ship them over to Australia.  They also have a ceramic egg as they call it, made in France and shipped over.

Overall we found their reserve wines were quite nice and we joined the wine club to receive 6 whites and 6 reds twice a year.  We also bought 6 mixed bottles of the ones we like to take on holidays with us.

Load 'em up and move 'em out, onwards to Ballendean Estate Wines now.  Wouldn't believe it hey, bumped into my cousins husband at Ballendean Winery, he's also from Stanthorpe and he also was there with a mate for the Festival, while my cousin is attending a Wedding Expo as she's a Celebrant.  Been ages since I've seen Laurel-Lea and Stuart, well didn't get to see Laurel-Lea 😋

Having a fun day wine tasting and it's like rent a crowd when we all arrive somewhere, we're quite loud and there's a lot of us - it's quite funny.  Not sure what the Lady doing our wine tastings at Ballendean Estate  made of us all, but she was kept busy back and forth along the bar making sure everyone was tasting what they wanted.  They had some wonderful locally made small goods/condiments to browse through as well.  I managed to find a tomato relish, black garlic paste, black truffle mustard, smoked garlic salt and black truffle and garlic salt.  Also pick up a mustard for our neighbour Michelle for keeping an eye on our place while we're gone.  Grabbed a couple of bottles of wine we enjoyed and a Mead as well.

Craig's big purchase (except it was free), was the pink pencil (he likes pink) we were using to make tasting notes - it's like having a child sometimes I tell you. 😆

Right, we took so long to get through these two wineries, some needed to head back to town so we could make the Grand Parade.  Dropped our car back at camp and jumped in with Craig .5 and Kylie for the trip downtown.  Grabbed some lunch from a food truck - Karaage  Chicken and Japanese Curry, was really bloody yummy.  Made our way up to the main street to find a spot in the shade to watch the Grand Parade.

The parade went for quite some time with comical figures walking around to entertain the crowds, Bagpipe bands a plenty, Festival floats, old cars and tractors, Fire Brigade Trucks, finishing of course with the Police car and all the time you had commentating going on to let you know what was what.  You don't get to experience an old fashion Grand Parade that much these days.  The temperature today was insanely hot, I felt sorry for the participants.

Comical figures entertaining everyone

Who remembers good ole Bill and Ben the Flower pot men!

Once the parade was done, we headed back to the camp site for a swim.

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 7

 Day 7:  Friday 1/3/24 - Sandy Creek Hotel - Stanthorpe

Massive drive to Stanthorpe today to meet up with our mates at Top of the Town Tourist Park for the Apple and Grape Festival.  About an hour and a half drive this morning.  After having a lengthy chat with our fellow campers next door, we hit the road.

This is our first Apple and Grape Festival, we are not sure what to expect and are the only Apple and Grape virgins in our group 😅

Top of the Town Tourist Park:

Power/Water Sites, Unpowered Sites, Ensuite Sites, Motel rooms, Cabins.  Amenities are great, nice and clean with ample showers and toilets.  Dump Point. Pet Friendly.  Swimming Pool, 3 x Camp Kitchens, Laundry, campfires on unpowered bush camping sites. Unpowered bush camp sites $28.00/night/2 people.  We enjoyed our stay.

Our friend Doreen always books the same area each year the festival is on, after checking in at the office we made our way up to our camp sites next to the water tower. Two of the group Jill and Tommy had arrived yesterday but were no where to be found, so we had a chat amongst ourselves about where best to set up so that all 4 caravans/campers would fit in plus the cars.  Craig gave Razzle a call (veteran Festival attendee LOL) who were on their way, to talk about it so everyone would fit in.  Decision made, Craig told me where he wanted to be and after some impressive reversing we were tucked in snuggly next to the water tank with enough room for our awning to come out and the car to park out of the way.

Set up done, Jill and Tommy showed up and we headed off for a swim in the park's pool - mate I reckon the temperature was in the high 30's 🥵  While lulling around in the pool another set of friends turned up Jon and Diane who also have a Hybrid Caravan, so we wandered back up to the camp sites to let them know how many more were still to come and what in, so there was enough room.  Razzle and Doreen arrived soon after with their TVan and parked up next to us, leaving Kylie and Craig .5 to arrive just on dark with their camper trailer.  I tell you what Craig .5 did an absolute smashing job of getting into the last spot in the dark with limited manoeuvring area - standing applause was given.  

We sat around chatting, eating nibbles and catching up.  I ended up cooking up some Maple Bacon Sausages with potato wedges for us and Razzle because Craig and Razzle definitely needed to get some food into their bellies with the amount of rum they were drinking 🥴😆

Most of the woman folk went to bed at a reasonable hour, the men folk, not so much.

King Parrot came to visit.