Sunday 31st May 2009
6.30 am and the days weather looks promising. No rain at all since we have been away except for the other night. Last night the stars were once again magnificent. With no city lights you get to see them all. Breakfast, sandwiches and coffee made we set off for Inverell. Leaving at 9.30 we expected to get there at about midday, which we did. Up to Uralla then along Thunderbolts way into Inverell. Very rocky countryside which is only good for cattle and sheep grazing. Didn’t see any road kill as we drove along on what were much improved roads that we could remember from 29 years ago when we last drove these roads. Not much traffic so we made good progress. I had set the address of where we had lived in Inverell in Tom Tom, which had a problem finding 56 Butler Street. On arrival with Beatrice’s memory coming into play we found the house and the girls schools etc etc. All quite nostalgic really, though I have to admit I couldn’t recall it all as well as Beatrice did. She explained she had to walk the area taking the girls to school and doing the shopping. (Of course I was working all the time.) It was at least 10 deg cooler here and not good for strolling around the town which we did for a very limited time. Enough to recall some past memories but really something that had all been a long time ago and we thought we wouldn’t be back again anytime soon. Happy memories of horse riding, school, social; activities and a way of life that has all passed by. I found where the old Norman Ross store had been, at least I think I did, but wasn’t too sure. Hong Ewens the old Chinese emporium looked gutted and was now partly a small supermarket. We had seen enough and decided to head back to Tamworth.
http://www.inverall-online.com.au/
Stopped at Uralla to view Captain Thunderbolt’s grave, his stature and Thunderbolts rock. This fascination that Australia has for bush rangers and murderers such as Ned Kelly from the earlier days of settlement seems to be ongoing. Very cold here so we hopped back in the car. We were looking forward to a hot meal, shower, reading the Sunday paper and listening to the radio. Up early tomorrow so we can pack up and head north to the warmer weather.
www.uralla.com/history/details.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Saturday 30th May
Another beautiful day forecasted, sunny with blue skies and up in the low 20’s.
Checked out about the repair of the leg today and it seems we do have to be here until next Wednesday as no one has one in stock. So we will day travel to Inverell and Glen Innes from here.
Went to the AELEC venue to purchase our tickets for the evenings show. Had a look around the area and at all the stalls where you could buy all the latest cowboy gear. Great hats, saddles, boots, shirts, everything and anything you could want to look like the real thing. Especially liked the big belt buckles and of course the Stetsons, which just about everyone was wearing and of course the piece de resistance a pair of spurs that you, could click around the place in. Of course that was the competitors, not the plebs like us. With our tickets in hand and our hands stamped with a guitar so we could back in we drove around to another caravan repairer hoping they might be have the part we need in stock. No luck, so we have to decide on Monday morning and call them if we want them to order the part. Not feeling the best and it blowing a gale outside so we returned home for lunch and a catch up around the place. Had our dinner, (me cooking outside again in 10 degs) we set off for the arena. Not far to go and very lucky to catch someone just pulling out so we got a handy place to park close by.
Another beautiful day forecasted, sunny with blue skies and up in the low 20’s.
Checked out about the repair of the leg today and it seems we do have to be here until next Wednesday as no one has one in stock. So we will day travel to Inverell and Glen Innes from here.
Went to the AELEC venue to purchase our tickets for the evenings show. Had a look around the area and at all the stalls where you could buy all the latest cowboy gear. Great hats, saddles, boots, shirts, everything and anything you could want to look like the real thing. Especially liked the big belt buckles and of course the Stetsons, which just about everyone was wearing and of course the piece de resistance a pair of spurs that you, could click around the place in. Of course that was the competitors, not the plebs like us. With our tickets in hand and our hands stamped with a guitar so we could back in we drove around to another caravan repairer hoping they might be have the part we need in stock. No luck, so we have to decide on Monday morning and call them if we want them to order the part. Not feeling the best and it blowing a gale outside so we returned home for lunch and a catch up around the place. Had our dinner, (me cooking outside again in 10 degs) we set off for the arena. Not far to go and very lucky to catch someone just pulling out so we got a handy place to park close by.
What a great evening’s entertainment, brumby catching, horses doing all sorts of tricks and of course the riding of the bucking horse. It was a great competition and great fun with some terrific horsemanship on display. It was very cold sitting there even though it was inside so as soon as it was all over we made for home and the heater. Car temp recorded 7 deg as we left. Too cold for us so we might just leave on Monday and head for the warmer weather up north and have the caravan repaired in Queensland. Will post some photos another day.
Earlier in the day we visited Pat Chaffey, Resident Artist at her studio.We had been been recommended to go there by our neighbours who were impressed with her work. How right they were, all beautifully framed watercolours and pastels. We got talking and we asked her if she was still painting. She told us how she was just getting over having broken both her ankles in a car accident that killed her husband and a passenger in the other car whose driver walked away uninjured. Her pet dog also broke its back. It was the huge dog that barked at us as we walked down her path to the front door. She said she was carted off to hospital, her husband was taken to the morgue and the dog to the vets. She could laugh about it now as she can't change the past. She asked about what we were doing and said that we should live every minute of our lives to the fullest as you never know what life is going to serve up. We really enjoyed meeting her and would have liked to have bought one of her works, however it didn't seem to be of a concern to her and she wished us well as we went on our way.
Earlier in the day we visited Pat Chaffey, Resident Artist at her studio.We had been been recommended to go there by our neighbours who were impressed with her work. How right they were, all beautifully framed watercolours and pastels. We got talking and we asked her if she was still painting. She told us how she was just getting over having broken both her ankles in a car accident that killed her husband and a passenger in the other car whose driver walked away uninjured. Her pet dog also broke its back. It was the huge dog that barked at us as we walked down her path to the front door. She said she was carted off to hospital, her husband was taken to the morgue and the dog to the vets. She could laugh about it now as she can't change the past. She asked about what we were doing and said that we should live every minute of our lives to the fullest as you never know what life is going to serve up. We really enjoyed meeting her and would have liked to have bought one of her works, however it didn't seem to be of a concern to her and she wished us well as we went on our way.
Tamworth/Nundle
Friday 29th May
Rained quite heavily during the night and am pleased to say no leaks occurred. As the trailer was on a slight slope I decided to try and level it up with the stabilising legs. Pity I hadn’t read the handbook before trying this as I found out they weren’t designed for this and I snapped the holding lock nut and bent the thread. It was now hanging there like a limp....... and as a result every time we walk about inside it rocks around as though we are on a yacht! Help was at hand from our neighbour who produced the yellow pages and gave us the names and addresses of where we could get it fixed. We would have to arrange to do this when we were hitched up and on our way out of town. To cut a long story short the part has to be ordered in and couldn’t be done until Wednesday or Thursday of next week. At this rate it will take us years to get around OZ! As Beatrice says it all bedding down time and we are learning as we go along. Of course we also ran out of gas which really impressed Beatrice as I had said it was full. So much for the $2 dollar shop gas gauge I bought. I saved the day as we used the electric grill we had packed as a backup. Needless to say I was outside in the cold doing the cooking, which I am told was right as I hadn’t checked properly. Beatrice had started off with a cold but was getting better; it was now my turn as I started to feel a bit of a cold coming on. With our maps we set off for Nundle (an Aboriginal word for “mouth” and probably applied to the mouth of the Nundle Creek where it flows into the river Peel) a little village of 200 people which owes its existence to the discovery of Gold in the 1850’s.Diggers flocked to the area when the precious metal was discovered at nearby Hanging Rock in 1851 http://www.visitnundle.com.au/ Beatrice also knew about it being famous for the Nundle Woollen Mill. On our way we passed the
Rained quite heavily during the night and am pleased to say no leaks occurred. As the trailer was on a slight slope I decided to try and level it up with the stabilising legs. Pity I hadn’t read the handbook before trying this as I found out they weren’t designed for this and I snapped the holding lock nut and bent the thread. It was now hanging there like a limp....... and as a result every time we walk about inside it rocks around as though we are on a yacht! Help was at hand from our neighbour who produced the yellow pages and gave us the names and addresses of where we could get it fixed. We would have to arrange to do this when we were hitched up and on our way out of town. To cut a long story short the part has to be ordered in and couldn’t be done until Wednesday or Thursday of next week. At this rate it will take us years to get around OZ! As Beatrice says it all bedding down time and we are learning as we go along. Of course we also ran out of gas which really impressed Beatrice as I had said it was full. So much for the $2 dollar shop gas gauge I bought. I saved the day as we used the electric grill we had packed as a backup. Needless to say I was outside in the cold doing the cooking, which I am told was right as I hadn’t checked properly. Beatrice had started off with a cold but was getting better; it was now my turn as I started to feel a bit of a cold coming on. With our maps we set off for Nundle (an Aboriginal word for “mouth” and probably applied to the mouth of the Nundle Creek where it flows into the river Peel) a little village of 200 people which owes its existence to the discovery of Gold in the 1850’s.Diggers flocked to the area when the precious metal was discovered at nearby Hanging Rock in 1851 http://www.visitnundle.com.au/ Beatrice also knew about it being famous for the Nundle Woollen Mill. On our way we passed the
Chaffey Dam which is the main source of irrigation for the whole area and is a back up water supply for Tamworth. Vast areas of what would have been very dry land was very green with the growing of Lucerne ,hay and corn all irrigated with massive watering arms going up and down the fields and huge sprinklers. The dam was opened in 1979 and has been the saviour of the area as without it the rain could not be relied upon to grow the crops. It was sad though to hear that the local logging industry had just closed down with the loss of 200 hundred jobs at an average o $1000 a week going into the local economy, it‘s hoped that it will open up again one day. We did see many holdings and houses for sale whilst we were driving about which might have explained why there were so many. In Nundle we visited the woollen mill to see how it’s all done, with machines that were built over 100 years ago and still going strong. The Mill operates 48 weeks of the year 4 and half days of the week closing at 1 pm on Fridays. We visited at 10 past one! Never mind we were given a personal run down of how it all works by a very enthusiastic part owner who had been partly responsible for getting it all going. The wools produced are very fine and when made into cardigans etc are quite expensive. (See the web site) They also have machines that produce 200 socks an hour and they sell them all. The old machines he says are better as they were built to last. We drove up to Hanging Rock for the view over the area and then off into the state forest where we could see the logging that had been going on and now was all abandoned. It was getting late so we made our way back to little home for a hot meal and a whisky mac. (Medicinal purposes only) Earlier on in the day I had been able to get my Telstra wireless broadband up and working in a Telstra shop as the phone number on the one I had from Sydney to get it connected had been disconnected. (Pretty clever of them really especially since they are in the business) So on Saturday I should be able to get on line and hopefully get this on the blog. We settled down I amused myself writing this and Beatrice read. Quite a cold evening down to 8 deg however it had been a beautiful day with the temps up in the low 20’s.
Thursday 28th May.
We slept quite well though a little cramped and after a few discussions as to which one of us was taking all the covers during the night. Another sunny warm day of 19 deg was forecasted so we were keen to get everything sorted out. The first challenge was to set up the awnings. All achieved without too much hassle and in the end it looked pretty good. It was then off into Tamworth to stock up on some supplies .As we left the caravan park we pulled into the huge AELEC (Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre) http://www.aelec.com.au/ the pride and joy of the town. A huge complex opened last year and not yet completed. Purposely built for equestrian events. The 2009 NCHA FUTURITY was on from the 29th May to the 6th June. After getting all the info from a tall cowboy wearing a great Rodeo Stetson( as nearly every other person was), we decided we would be back for the Saturday evening programme which we were assured we would enjoy and would have some understanding as to what was going on in the arena. (Its all about cutting) look at http://www.ncha.com.au/. We then continued on into town to visit the visitor’s information centre to pick up the local maps and find out about the places of interest. The afternoon passed quickly as we walked around up and down the main high street called Peel Street (after the river that runs through the town). Back to City Lights Caravan Park we settled down to Have dinner and watch a movie I had packed I had brought along with us, the new computer working just great.
We slept quite well though a little cramped and after a few discussions as to which one of us was taking all the covers during the night. Another sunny warm day of 19 deg was forecasted so we were keen to get everything sorted out. The first challenge was to set up the awnings. All achieved without too much hassle and in the end it looked pretty good. It was then off into Tamworth to stock up on some supplies .As we left the caravan park we pulled into the huge AELEC (Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre) http://www.aelec.com.au/ the pride and joy of the town. A huge complex opened last year and not yet completed. Purposely built for equestrian events. The 2009 NCHA FUTURITY was on from the 29th May to the 6th June. After getting all the info from a tall cowboy wearing a great Rodeo Stetson( as nearly every other person was), we decided we would be back for the Saturday evening programme which we were assured we would enjoy and would have some understanding as to what was going on in the arena. (Its all about cutting) look at http://www.ncha.com.au/. We then continued on into town to visit the visitor’s information centre to pick up the local maps and find out about the places of interest. The afternoon passed quickly as we walked around up and down the main high street called Peel Street (after the river that runs through the town). Back to City Lights Caravan Park we settled down to Have dinner and watch a movie I had packed I had brought along with us, the new computer working just great.
Setting Off
Wednesday 27th May 2009
The day for departure has arrived! We planned for 10 am and believe it not we were on our way on time not knowing what to expect and for how long we would be away for. We had decided to go up the New England Highway as the Pacific Hwy and surrounding area was still impassable due to the floods.
A beautiful day, sun shining and not much traffic on the road. We had set up Mr Tom Tom with Tamworth as our destination. Estimated arrival time 3.24pm if we didn’t stop. Up the F3 and off at the exit for Cessnock and on through to Singleton. All much easier towing than I thought. No problem keeping to the posted speed signs except for the hill climbs when the poor old X-Trail had to work much harder. As soon as we turned off on to the New England Highway we had our 2 hour rest stop and pulled over into a lay-by for our lunch and a cup of coffee. We were now members of the Grey Nomads crowd and in no time we were chatting to another couple who had just driven up from Wollongong and were going to make their overnight stop at Scone. They were newbie’s like us as they were just on their very first trip. They were well set up with a big new 4 wheel Toyota and a very impressive caravan. All refreshed to we headed off again, all at ease with the towing. Stopped for petrol at Singleton and arrived at The City Lights Caravan Park just south of Tamworth at 3.56 pm. Not a top 5 star job but all we needed was a powered sight and booked in for two nights. No problem really as there were many empty sites to choose from.
We selected our site after a bit of a time and prepared ourselves for the set up of the rig. Oh so much easier that we thought it would be. It wasn’t long before we had it all done, having left the awnings until the next day as it was now getting dark. It had been a surprisingly warm 18 deg however later on we did put the heater on in the evening. As a reward we decided to drive into Tamworth just a few Klms down the road for a drink and some dinner. Tired and ready for bed we settled down for our first night of many more in our new home but not before looking at all the stars in the beautiful clear night sky. Just beautiful!
The day for departure has arrived! We planned for 10 am and believe it not we were on our way on time not knowing what to expect and for how long we would be away for. We had decided to go up the New England Highway as the Pacific Hwy and surrounding area was still impassable due to the floods.
A beautiful day, sun shining and not much traffic on the road. We had set up Mr Tom Tom with Tamworth as our destination. Estimated arrival time 3.24pm if we didn’t stop. Up the F3 and off at the exit for Cessnock and on through to Singleton. All much easier towing than I thought. No problem keeping to the posted speed signs except for the hill climbs when the poor old X-Trail had to work much harder. As soon as we turned off on to the New England Highway we had our 2 hour rest stop and pulled over into a lay-by for our lunch and a cup of coffee. We were now members of the Grey Nomads crowd and in no time we were chatting to another couple who had just driven up from Wollongong and were going to make their overnight stop at Scone. They were newbie’s like us as they were just on their very first trip. They were well set up with a big new 4 wheel Toyota and a very impressive caravan. All refreshed to we headed off again, all at ease with the towing. Stopped for petrol at Singleton and arrived at The City Lights Caravan Park just south of Tamworth at 3.56 pm. Not a top 5 star job but all we needed was a powered sight and booked in for two nights. No problem really as there were many empty sites to choose from.
We selected our site after a bit of a time and prepared ourselves for the set up of the rig. Oh so much easier that we thought it would be. It wasn’t long before we had it all done, having left the awnings until the next day as it was now getting dark. It had been a surprisingly warm 18 deg however later on we did put the heater on in the evening. As a reward we decided to drive into Tamworth just a few Klms down the road for a drink and some dinner. Tired and ready for bed we settled down for our first night of many more in our new home but not before looking at all the stars in the beautiful clear night sky. Just beautiful!
Monday, 25 May 2009
Departure Day tomorrow
Today we opened up the trailer and packed it ready for take off tomorrow morning when we head for Tamworth. Mr Tom Tom says its about 5 hours away so we should be able to arrive before it gets dark. We know its going to be colder that Sydney so we are prepared with extra blankets etc. Its all a learning curve so its all going to be quite an experience.
So Wednesday 27h May is the day and we return whenever!
will post some photos of our set up later.
So Wednesday 27h May is the day and we return whenever!
will post some photos of our set up later.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Collected Jayco
Wednesday 14th May.
Today I picked up the camper/trailer and was very happy to have Bob Hill with me giving me his moral support and guidance as we made our way home from the central coast.
It all seemed very stressful to begin with ,not having really towed anything before, however as a result of having completed the tow-ed course it gave me some confidence. Must say that it all came together as we made our way home, the car cruised along very well and handled the extra load with ease.
Now parked safely outside the house with a defender lock on the wheels we are one step closer to setting off.
Beatrice is reading all the do and don'ts and what we should and shouldn't take. Sometimes it all seems very over whelming, with so much to consider,especially if you are going off into the never never land as you have to ensure you have enough fuel and water etc to get you through the outback.
It all sounds and is very exciting and we are looking forward to getting started.
Today I picked up the camper/trailer and was very happy to have Bob Hill with me giving me his moral support and guidance as we made our way home from the central coast.
It all seemed very stressful to begin with ,not having really towed anything before, however as a result of having completed the tow-ed course it gave me some confidence. Must say that it all came together as we made our way home, the car cruised along very well and handled the extra load with ease.
Now parked safely outside the house with a defender lock on the wheels we are one step closer to setting off.
Beatrice is reading all the do and don'ts and what we should and shouldn't take. Sometimes it all seems very over whelming, with so much to consider,especially if you are going off into the never never land as you have to ensure you have enough fuel and water etc to get you through the outback.
It all sounds and is very exciting and we are looking forward to getting started.
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Learning to Tow Prior to Departure with Tow-Ed
Getting the run down on how to tow!
Getting ready to take off
Beatrice - Mission Completed. Qualified and has fulfilled all requirements for her Statement of Attainment in "Drive and manoeuvre trailers"Congratulations Bea - Watch out Australia!
(John qualified too!!)
Monday, 4 May 2009
Getting Ready
May 6th 2009
We have purchased our Jayco Finch off road camper/trailer and hope to
pick it up next week.
Tomorrow we do our Tow-Ed course which will help us with all the tricks in towing and handling and towing a trailer.
The electric braking system has been purchased and fitted to the X-Trail.
We now need to purchase a set of all terrain tyres and decide which VHF radio we need to have installed.
Finally we have to decide on the route we will take.
We hope to start off some time towards the end of May. So far so good.
We have purchased our Jayco Finch off road camper/trailer and hope to
pick it up next week.
Tomorrow we do our Tow-Ed course which will help us with all the tricks in towing and handling and towing a trailer.
The electric braking system has been purchased and fitted to the X-Trail.
We now need to purchase a set of all terrain tyres and decide which VHF radio we need to have installed.
Finally we have to decide on the route we will take.
We hope to start off some time towards the end of May. So far so good.
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