BOG Muster 2015, Mullumbimby

The Bushtracker Owner Group (BOG) has a "Muster" each year where owners of Bushtracker caravans get together for social events, workshops, catch up with friends and generally have a good time.  The muster is in a different state each year and we attended our first in Rydal, NSW in 2012 when our caravan was only a few weeks old.  Since then we've been to Alice Springs, NT (2013), Nabawa, WA (2014), and now Mullumbimby, NSW (2015).  Next year we'll plan to get to Winton, QLD.  Each muster has a theme and this year it was "Blues Brothers".

The 10 days we spent with our Bushtracker friends were filled with social events.  We had delicious Spit Roast Dinner, Breakfast on the beach at nearby Brunswick Heads where we watched some whales playing not far from shore.  We socialised over a Trivia Night and had a delicious Dinner catered by the local CWA ladies (Country Womens' Association).

Cherryl organised a visit to the Madura Tea Estate which was popular.  We've been there a couple of times before and this time we were joined by 40 BOGgers.  We learned about how tea is grown in the area - there are only 3 regions in Australia where tea is grown, 2 in Far North Queensland (Nerada and Daintree Tea) and Madura in the beautiful Tweed Valley.  After our tour of the estate and gardens we toured the factory where both loose tea and tea bags are made.

On our way back to Mullumbimby we stopped off at the Tumbulgum Tavern for morning tea/lunch before making our way to nearby Murwillumbah to visit the Tweed Regional Art Gallery which houses the Margaret Olley Art Centre.  Margaret Olley is an iconic Australian Artist who came from the Tweed Valley and lived in Sydney at the time of her death a few years ago.  Some of the rooms from her Paddington home have been recreated in this Gallery.

Mullumbimby is home to the Spaghetti Circus and each year in September the town hosts the Australian Circus Festival.  Circus performers from all over Australia converge on this little town to learn and practise new tricks and perform for each other and the public.  The local Spaghetti Circus performers, all children, were practising during our muster and they invited us to be the audience for one of their final rehearsals.  We all enjoyed the performance and the rain held off as we sat under the stars.

After 10 days of socialising with our BOG friends, we packed up, said goodbye to the pair of kookaburras that had been keeping us entertained and set off for the trip south through NSW to Canberra.