2017 Caravanning​ Eastern​ Australia

We did a little historical drive this morning around Tamworth and then headed out to AELEC (Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre). It is the biggest ever construction undertaking by Tamworth Regional Council. It was a very impressive building and was set amongst other sporting venues. We were very lucky as there was an equine event being held in the arena and we were able to go inside and watch. Rob chatted to a lovely lady who was able to explain what was happening with the horses. Despite not being “horse” people we really enjoyed it. We returned to the main street of Tamworth and wandered up and down the street. Tamworth is very proud of it country music heritage and has quite a few statues, displays, busts and sculptures all related to music, in both the main streets and out in the beautiful parks close to town. I went for an extra walk while Rob did some shopping and found a fantastic playground designed for children of all ages and adults too.  ...

Just needed to add a little more to yesterday’s blog. Late in the afternoon we met our neighbours and had a rather long happy hour with them. They were retired teachers too and came from Ballarat. Peter was a retired history teacher and Jo his wife, worked in early primary and then as a Uni lecturer. Somehow we talked about cemeteries and the history you can learn from them. It was then that Jo realised that she and Peter had seen me at the Lightening Ridge cemetery. They too had been visiting the cemetery and had noticed me chatting to 2 local women about a certain baby’s grave that had a beautiful mosaic on it. They noticed Rob in the car and we all had a laugh. This morning before we left the park, we had to help Jo and Peter charge their vehicle’s battery as they had a flat battery due to leaving the car lights on all night. Once we’d help them, we drove to the famous country and western town of Tamworth.   In the afternoon we visited the information centre and the huge replic...

We drove to Narrabri today and arrived and settled in well before lunch. Rob had seen that you could visit the Paul Wild Observatory, The Australian Telescope Compact Array. It was about 20kms from Narrabri and we were very impressed with the visitors centre. I have to admit that quite a bit of the information was a bit more than my little brain could understand but I did enjoy trying! There was a theatre where we watched some very informative video clips. The CSIRO has a set of six 22metre diameter parabolic dishes which are used for radio astronomy. 5 of the 6 dishes sit on a 3km stretch of rail-track running east-west and the 6 th is 3kms further west. The track allows the dishes to be moved into different arrangements for better radio pictures. I think my brother would have really enjoyed the centre. The centre was free and air-conditioned and Rob and I were the only people there at the time. I took quite a few photos and would recommend a visit if you’re in the area. We drove ba...

Today we returned to the Black Hand Mine to finish off our visit. Our ticket was valid for 48 hours so we went in and finished watching a couple of videos we had been watching as well as doing a couple of the chambers we had missed. We were lucky enough to see the sculptor at work. We finished up in the underground opal shop and there may have been a few purchases made…..After lunch we visited the John Murray art gallery. This famous artist has lived in Lightning Ridge for about 28 years. His quirky outback art is very clever. We actually saw him high up on a ladder in the middle of town working on a mural, next to the petrol station. I bought a couple of funny emu block mounted prints. Rob and I both thought his painting of Tony Abbott in budgie smugglers was hilarious. Sorry..we couldn’t take photos of it but if you google, “The Budgie Smuggler” by John Murray, you’ll see what we mean. Rob then dropped me off at a cactus garden and while I admired these strange plants he did some sh...

We had a great day out! It started with the Lightning Ridge Markets…we didn’t’ really find anything to buy to bring home. After coffee we headed out to the “3 Pubs in the Scrub”. These pubs are located in the middle of the Grawin Opal fields. The roads out were pretty rough but it was worth the 70km drive out. Our first stop was the “Grawin Club in the Scrub”. It was the golf club. We arrived around 11.30am and this place was buzzing, full of locals and tourists. It was the club’s AGM so we figured that would have contributed to the numbers. It was all run by volunteers and we stopped and had a drink as well as a good look around. This club had been made using cypress pine logs as the white-ants don’t attack this timber. From here we drove a little further past numerous opal shafts and more dwellings and stopped for lunch at the “Glengarry Hilton”. Another interesting pub with just 2 people running the bar and kitchen. We both enjoyed our lunch and it was a credit to them that we coul...