Inverell April 2014

April 1^st,We finished packing up and did the 1 hour drive to Inverell. We passed a lot more roadside cows but Val was a bit slow with the camera and only took one photo. We booked into Fossickers Rest Tourist Park, for a week. After setting up, we went into Town, for a look around, and checked out the Visitors Centre.

April 2^nd, I went into town this morning to put my paperwork into Centrelink, then joined up at the Inverell Library, as a visiting member.

April 4^th, I was back in town this morning to pick up a few things from the Supermarket, so took the opportunity to take a few photos of some of the historic buildings. I also came upon the Tennis Centre and had seen an advertisement for a big tournament this week-end, so went in to find out a bit more. On the way home, I spotted a monument in a local park and went to investigate. It was a dedication to the families and inhabitants of this area that were part of the development of his area, leading up to the Federation of NSW. We rang Annaliese this afternoon to wish her a Very Happy 10^th Birthday.

April 5^th, I went down to the Heritage Centre this morning only to find that it was closed to the Public. The Inverell Motorcycle Restoration Club were hosting a Motor Cycle event in the grounds of the Heritage Centre. For a donation of $2 I was let in to look around the bikes. There must have been around 200 bikes of all ages and types. As an old motorcyclist myself, I found it very interesting. I stayed to watch the very organized way they all left the grounds. It was all over in around 15minutes. I then went down to the Tennis Centre and watched a mens singles and a girls doubles. That kept me interested until it was time to go for lunch. In the afternoon I decided to throw a line into the lake, that was at the end of our street, to see what was biting. Guess what! Not a bite, so went home for a Chardy.

April 7^th, Inverell is known as The Sapphire City so we had to have a go at fossicking while we were here.  We took the advice of some neighbouring caravaners who recommended Billabong Blue as the best and packed up some lunch and did the 20 minute drive out to Sapphire. For a cost of $20 each we were provided with all the necessary equipment and shown how to Fossick. Sapphire Blue has a working mine and they gather up a pile of wash from the creek and deposit it at the Fossicking Area. The process for us was to shovel the wash through a large sieve into a bucket. The next process is to pass the contents of your bucket through a fine shaker sieve, to get rid of the dirt. The third process is to sloosh a sieve full of stones in a tank of water to clean them, then flip the washed stones onto a bag on top of a 44gallon drum. Finally, with a pair of tweezers, gently look through the washed stones for Sapphires. We did this, with Val and myself working as a team, until closing time at 4pm. It was a backbreaking task for us both but we enjoyed our day and came home with 26 pieces of sapphire. Our biggest piece was about one cm long but nothing of great value. I did a bit of packing up this morning, before we left for sapphire, as we leave for Moree tomorrow

Glen Innes March 2014

March25^th, We said our “good-byes” to Terri, Patrick and Pixie and left Wallamba River Holiday Park, knowing that we were not coming back while the current Manageress was still there. We have enjoyed our stay with Terri and Patrick, fishing was lousy but the company was great. We decided to go to Glen Innes by a different route, after being told by other Caravaners in the Park. They had pointed out that the road through Walcha entailed 50 Klms of winding road through the Mountains, not great for towing a Caravan. We decided to then go up to Coffs Harbour, then out past Grafton to Glen Innes. We stopped in Coffs, did a little bit of Shopping and booked into the “Clog Barn” Caravan Park for the night.

March 26^th, it was a wet trip, rained all the way to Glen Innes and was very foggy up through the mountains. The road was good and we only had about 14 klms of windy road, so I knew we had made the right decision to come by this route. You know when you are travelling through “cow country” when they are let out to feed off the grass alongside the Highway and they do as they please. No “looking left and right” to cross the road, they just go! Luckily the rain had broken up when we reached Glen Innes and we were able to get set up at Fossickers Tourist Park, for our 6 night stay.

March 27^th, It rained all day but we couldn’t put off doing our washing any longer. We took it all to the laundry and had 2 full loads. The machines were well past their “use by date” and it took 2 cycles for each load and they still weren’t properly dried.

March 28^th, We drove into Town, checked out the Information Centre, did a bit of Shopping and I had a nice lunch at The Tattersals Hotel, in the main street. On our way back to the Park, we called into the RSL for a chardy and flutter, and went home a few dollars in front, thanks to a win Val had on Keno. After dinner I started with a dry little cough that I couldn’t stop and when I went to bed my head was filling up and I couldn’t get off to sleep. I felt so bad that I wasn’t game to go to sleep and I can’t ever recall having this before. I eventually found that if I lay on my stomach that I didn’t cough but it wasn’t comfortable, even without a pillow. Val woke up early for a toilet break and I sat up for a while and felt better. I did settle after that and get a few hours sleep.

March 29^th, This morning I woke up stuffed up in the head and had a bad chesty cough. We went down Town and found the Chemist shop closed so we picked up some tablets and mixtures from “Bi-Lo”. We had planned to go to The Australian Cattle Dog Trials tonight and the main event was a “State of Origin” challenge between the 6 best dogs from Queensland and NSW. Unfortunately I was not well enough to go so we had to give it a miss.

March 31^st, Today I was feeling the best since last Friday when this all started. Val has been waiting on me “hand and foot” and taking good care of me. This has been a lost “do nothing” week. I was certainly well enough to start packing up as tomorrow we move to Inverell