Burleigh Heads
On Saturday of this weekend, I got the chance to join a local friend in visiting the Burleigh Beach area again. We hiked up a short distance to the overlook, which allows you to see all along the coastline, North to Surfer’s Paradise and South to Elephant Rock. It was a little overcast, but still a beautiful view of the Burleigh Beach coastline.
South side view
North side view
Currumbin
A few friends of mine had explored the nearby Currumbin area two days prior, and were heading back on Sunday. They started at rock pools, hiked up a mountain, and stumbled upon a organic fruit stand and farm. With an invitation from the owner to join them again on Sunday for local music and coffee, three friends and I were up for the adventure!
We took an uber straight to Freeman’s Organic Fruit Farm, which was established in the early 1900’s, and is now the only commercial fruit and vegetable farm that remains in the area. With the perfect soils, Freeman’s produces bananas that have won first prize at the RNA show. There production includes bananas (New Guinea Cavendish and Lady Fingers), Custard Apples, Avocados, Tomatoes, Various Root Vegetables, Cabbage, Pineapple, Mandarins, Mangos and others. All fruits and vegetables are grown 100% organically and taste so fresh!
History of Freeman’s Organic Fruit Farm
Map of the surrounding area
View with original sign of the farm
Standing next to a 100-year-old banana tree
The owner of the farm showed us a trail looping through the farm with scenic outlooks, as well as a starter coffee tree he was growing to one day start the process of producing coffee. We saw all different kinds of fruit trees, and spent some time listening to live music.
Farmer Market gathering place
After relaxing a while and eating fresh mangos in the sunshine, we set up to hike down the mountain and find the rock pools and cliff diving in the valley, following directions from the locals. We made it down the mountain following the road in about half an hour, and came across a small park with a river flowing through it. After making conversation with a local couple, we found out that our “5 minute drive down the road” was actually a 30 minute drive. Needless to say, our plans changed. However, we spoke with the friendly couple for quite some time, and they ended up offering us a ride home and inviting us to dinner at their house! We all know the term “stranger danger” so of course were a bit hesitant to take them up on the offer, but ended up accepting. Their house ended up being about 15 minutes from campus (compared to where we were at the park was at least 45 minutes away with unreliable cell service). No worries because we knew how to get to the smaller more tourist-orientated rock pools that was a five minute walk away, where we could call an uber if necessary. While at the couples house, they offered us drinks and we talked about all sorts of Australia and travel-related things. They even ordered us all pizza and were quite generous hosts. After staying for a little while, we called and uber home, and made it back just in time to make the meeting with our friends to talk about planning our trip to Bali!
This may seem like quite the “viewer discretion is advised” sort of story, but everyone needs an experience like this once in their life, right? Adventure is out there, go and find it!
A view from the top of Freeman’s Farm