Australia, Queensland, Gympie: Visiting Cooloola Berries is a Great Way to Enjoy a Day with the Family and Friends

It has been a while since I have written a posting to the Compassionate World Traveler Site. I do apologise for that. It is not that I have not traveled, or even had some compassionate visiting experiences in the world since my last posting in 2014. On the contrary, I have had many.

Since then I have started volunteering at the local Tourist Information Office. I have also completed a Certificate III in Tourism and every month for the last 18 months, I have visited places around my new adopted community with my fellow volunteers. Maybe it is this transformation of the personal travel experience from being the visiting traveler myself to at the same time being an advisor to the tourists visiting the local area that has been the changing factor for me expecting more of my own personal travel experiences than before. For me, even the whole concept of travel has had a profound transformation. It turns out that what I now want is to feel that the places I visit and the people I meet there truly connect with me and my compassionate nature. That helps to heighten the personal experience and I as a traveler am bound to leave with some new knowledge, a refreshed mind and a renewed conviction that the world we live in is indeed, a great place to be. So, the new attitude has taken its time to reform but now that I have found my way, it feels as a right time to blog once more.

I cannot praise highly enough of our recent experience at the Cooloola Berries Family Farm in Gympie, Queensland in Australia. What a way to spend a day with grandkids and enjoy the fresh produce of the local area and the compassionate nature of the owners Kim and Jason.

They run this farm with their whole family with the warmth and care that really makes the visitor feel at home. I felt like I was in Finland as a child, picking strawberries and running around the field like a free spirit. Even my daughter commented very similarly, saying that it really felt like it because the children were able to have such an unrestricted wide space where they were allowed to just play and pick and eat as many berries as they felt like. The adults could sit at the café tasting food and observe it all in relaxation. No need to run around herding the kids and shouting 'no, nos'. The little cabby house, the tractor and the berries were entertaining enough for a long while for our children.

Not only the simplicity of the play but at this place they make their own #tastesunshine ice-cream in the house. We went on a Saturday, which is of course a Cooloola Berries Pancake Day, ice-cream included. Of course there is lots of other food possibilities as well but we wanted to feel the freshness and experience the delight of being alive on that day. So pancakes it was:

Kim told me that the café buyes the basic ice-cream from Bulla and then they have a machine that blends the berries and other ingredients to the mix and ola, a new special natural in-house flavor is created. Of course, I and my grandson chose strawberries. My daughter chose to have chocolate and my granddaughter ate the mango and ginger ice-cream. What can be better than that? And there we were, enjoying a very memorable day, siting on some strawberry material covered chairs in the shed area while looking over the strawberry fields. It nearly made me poetic and wanting to sing some old Beatles songs about 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. The comments I heard around me were: 'Next time when we come, we will try this, instead'. It feels like we now have found that special place to come and celebrate anything and everything we used to have in our former place of residence.

Getting there was a bit tricky, though, because of the distance from the Gympie town past the adorable rural landscape. The distance turned out to be 25kms through the Tin Can Bay Road and then taking the Wolvi turn and following the little strawberry signs that guided our way to the farm. Driving there proved to be an experience itself. I found it very enjoyable and invigorating.

So, there you have it. Check it out though their WEBSITE. The strawberry season is through June to December and the blueberries are ripe in December. Enjoy and share.

Globally, December Month: Finding Christmas Lights Around the Corner

My father was a first person I knew who set out a Christmas tree in the snow, in Lapland, Finland. He had to make sure that the lights would stand the outside freezing cold weather of -45 Celsius and not blow up. This was during the 1970's and there were no specially made lights for outside use, particularly for the cold climate.

There were snow lanterns, though and the favorite of them was the drive from Kemi to Rovaniemi on the Christmas Eve, where most of the 125 kms of the highway would be lit with ice-lanterns 10 meters apart to celebrate Peace in the World. In my mind experiencing that represents the compassion of Christmas Spirit around the world.

The first experience I encountered of a neighborhood where someone would decorate their house with lights for the joy of celebrating the Christmas Season with anyone coming around is from 1995 in Wollongong, Australia. There was one particularly famous house that we all went to see. It was fully lit with thousands of lights and had a particular attraction of Disney movies shown to the kids against the garage door. My kids still remember that well.

In 2000, I experiences the American Christmas Season lit with thousands of inventive lighting designs on every street of Ojai, California. After that, one of the joys of the Christmas season has been spotting lit houses in the neighborhood.

They can be anywhere, just around the corner or they can be taking part of the special Christmas Lights competitions around the cities, in Australia or anywhere. Some houses have taken part for years and years.





There are many themes available for the decorators. Many of the houses that can be spotted celebrate the traditional Christian Christmas theme, including the Star of Bethlehem and the Manger. Everything imaginable is lit. My particular favorite are these presents.






It is important to pay attention to details as many lit objects are very small or high up the trees.




This house in Ipswich, Australia for example has been decorated for the last eight years. The owners sit outside every night and talk to the people who come to look at their house. It is fun. They take part in the Christmas Light competition every year. So far, they haven't won, but who knows when that happens. And if they do, they will get more lights to hang around the house. Many people spend weeks decorating their houses to be ready on the first of December in different cities globally.

Compassion can be expressed in many ways. I find that lighting up your house to show your Christmas Spirit is one of the nicest ways to display compassion to the world. Donating your time and effort for good cheer is a show of 'Joy to the World' in a non-expensive (the solar powered lights can be used) and fun way of contributing to the world around us.

Lets all enjoy our December to the best of our ability and pay special attention to the lights of Christmas! it is a very enjoyable experience.




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