Tamworth, 2010

September 14th, We had a wet trip to Tenterfield to-day, with a stop at Warwick for lunch at The Palace Hotel. At Tenterfield we booked into Craigs Caravan Park for 1 night. The rain had stopped but it was very wet under foot.

September 15th, We moved on to Tamworth and booked into Austin Tourist Park (TT) for 9 nights. We had a nice lunch at The Galloping Gourmet in Uralla and we were impressed by the dressed dummies outside some of the shops along the main street.



September 18th, We have been chilling out and adjusting to the temperature change over the last few days. The overnight temps. have been 4deg. except last night which was a lovely ZERO deg. Brrrrrrrrr. Unable to stand it any longer I had to find our little fan heater to-day or else, go and buy one. Happily we found it and now can be comfortable at night.



September 19th, We went into Town to check out the Peel Street Markets. All the stalls were along the very wide footpaths outside each shop front and had a good range of goods for sale. Val bought some herbs and tomato plants as she has the “I need a garden” bug. We did a bit of shopping, had to buy potting mix and pots for Val’s new garden. After a quick lunch we headed off to the Botanical Gardens. The Gardens looked to be on the side of the hill and not impressive, so we decided to give it a miss and went next door to the Victoria Park Model Railway and had a train ride. It’s run by a dedicated group of volunteer model train enthusiasts. We enjoyed our ride, made us feel like kids again.



September 20th, Had to go into the shops again this morning, so drove up to the Oxley Park Lookout, 591 metres above sea level. The view was fantastic.



September 21st, This morning we had a visitor, sitting on the front drawbar of the Van was a very contented “Green Frog”, sunning himself. Val watered her garden and he never moved. We went to the Big Golden Guitar which is an Information Centre that houses a Country Music Wax Museum. The wax models are so lifelike and well displayed. An excellent display and well worth a look. Going back into Town we went to the Art Gallery and was surprised to find they had the 2010 Archibald Prize entries on display, including the “Winner”. Some we liked, some not, but we enjoyed the experience.

September 22nd, We went to Nundle to-day to look it over. It was recommended to us last time we stayed here but we didn’t get time to go then. Nundle was a Town built around the discovery of Gold in the 1800s. On the way we stopped at Chaffey Dam Lookout. It’s a small Dam which holds 62,000 megalitres and is used to supplement the water supply to Tamworth. We were impressed with the very green and lush looking countryside we were travelling through. Nundle is a very small Town with a population of 250. We parked and walked to all the old Stores, some as originally built in the 1800s. The Odgers & McClelland Exchange Store still original and still operating, was a walk back through time. The next interesting place was the still working Woolen Mill, the factory run by 4 workers. Lots of wool and wool products on sale. We had a nice lunch at The Mount Misery Gold Mine, then I had a look through the mine display. Very enjoyable. Then we drove the extra distance out to Hanging Rock Lookout and although not impressed with the roads, the view was spectactular.

September 23rd, Packed up to-day ready to leave in the morning for Stockton.