DAY 17 - THE BLACKBUTT BAKERY AND ONTO MOORE.....

 We awake this morning to rain.  It was a good thing that we did most of our packing last night... In the end we were a little later leaving as it was just to wet to get out of the van and hitch it up to the car....

As soon as the rain subsided for even the smallest amount of time, we were out hitching up.  It was probably close to 10.30am by the time we finally drove out of the gate at the caravan park.    We did have too far to go today.  We only had 80 odd kilometres to travel  as our destination was a little town called Moore.  We were going to catch up with a good friend of mine who has lived here over 20 years now and this is only the third time we have managed to visit them out there..

By the time we got on the road, the rain was bucketing down again, so progress was slow as we  were only traveling somewhere around 85-90kph.  We had a 20km run to Nanango  and had planned to stop here and have a bit of a look around but because of the weather, we didn't end up stopping  and just decided to press on and head to Blackbutt where we planned to stop for lunch...

The Blackbutt Bakery has had good raps not just on TV, but by lots of travelers on the many Facebook travelers pages, so as we had to drive through Blackbutt today, we decided that it was worth stopping it out and checking it out for ourselves.

Blackbutt was another 40kms down the road from Nanango and we arrived somewhere around 11.30am.  We had received a message from Vicki to let us know she was a little later getting out of Brisbane and should be home in Moore sometime after noon, so we knew we had a little bit of time on our side....

Blackbutt is often referred to as the “Timber Town” of the South Burnett.  The town is named after “eucalyptus pilularis” trees commonly known as “blackbutt”.  It has a long and rich history associated with timber and agriculture with crops of avocadoes, olives and macadamia farms. 

Blackbutt  also boasts a variety of stores and accommodation options and interesting places to explore including the Roy Emerson museum, Nukku Nook, Wiikirri retreat, the famous Blackbutt Bakery, Bunya Nut Café, a regional cellar door operating from Blackbutt Art gallery and camping and caravan sites at the showgrounds. There is also an entrance point into the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail from Blackbutt located near the Blackbutt showgrounds.

By the time we got to Blackbutt, the heavy rain had subsided somewhat and it was just a light drizzle.   We found a park in the main street and proceeded to take a walk down the main street to the Bakery.  We were pretty impressed with the town.. Very neat and tidy with again lots of flowering pots along the footpath.

Main Street of Blackbutt

The Blackbutt Bakery was founded in 1904 and regularly wins Gold and Silver for their Speciality Pies in the Aussie Pie Competition and Baking shows. 

The current owners acquired the bakery in 2010, and since then it has grown from strength to strength and are known both nationally and internationally for their handmade gourment pies and goodies.

Since the family acquired the bakery in 2010, it has grown from strength to strength being published in baking journals and known nationally and internationally for their handmade gourmet pies and goodies.

Not only known are they known for their gourmet pies, but for their vast array of muffins, slices, sweet treats and slow ferment breads made fresh on the premises daily.   Their coffee is renown also, as they use their own special blend of coffee beans grown on the Tablelands of North Queensland.

Amazing assortments of sweets...

We bought a couple of the amazing looking Vanilla Slices  to take with us for afternoon tea with Alan and Vicki...

Although the queues of customers were not backed up out of the door like in Goomeri, it was still very busy with a constant stream of customers coming and going.  We ordered our pies and ate them on the deck that was set up with table and chairs...

After our leisurely lunch we took a stroll down the street checking out a few of the different shops before getting back to the car.

We only had about 20kms to go until we arrived in Moore, it was a pretty quick trip and we arrived almost at the same time as Vicki arrived home..

We parked our van in their front yard and lifted the top.  We had a pretty chilled out afternoon just sitting around, chatting and catching up on all the family news....  Since the rain, the weather had turned cold, so Alan lit the fire.  

We had a nice BBQ dinner and then taught Alan and Vicki how to play "Five Crowns".  Alan and Vicki are right into Opal Fossicking and they were sharing with us, about their trips out to the outback to go fossicking each year...

It has been really nice to catch up with these guys again..