Armidale to Goulburn

Sorry about the long delay since the last blog.

Well, we arrived at Tamworth, set up in a caravan park and did some shopping. The following day the weather wasn’t too good so we went to see “Mrs Brown’s Boys – The Movie” and afterwards visited a few local attractions including the Golden Guitar. (Tamworth is the country music capital of Australia).

It was then off to Muswellbrook where we stayed at the Showgrounds. There are many old character homes here so we toured the town gathering its history. The next day it was off to Newcastle to stay with Phil, Kristie and newborn Madison for a few days. Luckily Sophie was staying that weekend so we got to catch up with her also.

I got to meet my new granddaughter Madison when we arrived in Newcastle.  She was only 4 weeks old, and I managed to get in quite a few cuddles which was lovely.

We were also lucky enough to spend some quality time with Sophie. Brian and I took her out shopping so she could buy her dad a birthday present, plus we also took her to Morpeth which is a lovely little place just outside Newcastle with lovely old buildings.  It was lovely to be there for Phil’s birthday too (first time in 11 years)! On the Sunday we all went to Annies Beach for lunch.  The beach looks like a desert, especially with the camels giving rides along the beach. Apparently this beach was used in a Star Wars movie.

Whist in the Newcastle area we gain visited the Hunter Valley and, you guessed it, we bought more wine - there’s no helping some people. We also visited Nelson Bay and took in a Whale Watching trip from Port Stephens. The weather was starting to break up and the sea was rough but we did actually see some whales although nothing close up.

It was then down to Sydney where we stayed at the Baden Powell Scout Centre at Pennant Hills. We caught the end of the very wet weather that caused severe flooding in the Sydney area so the first few days were a bit dismal.  We were lucky enough to be able to catch up with one of Adele’s friends in Sydney – we caught the train in to Kings Cross on the Friday afternoon/evening and had a great dinner with her, then we bought a gelato ice cream where there was quite a long queue.  I had rhubarb & peach !  Anyway, we did get up into the Blue Mountains where we saw some spectacular waterfalls

and another trip up the Hawkesbury visiting Richmond along the way. Ferry across Hawkesbury River.

We stopped for lunch by the river and were entertained by a series of powerful power boats screaming up the river towing water skiers. The boats were so loud, they sounded like aircraft engines and I have never seen water skiers travelling so fast. Our last full day was glorious so we caught the train into central Sydney and wandered around Darling Harbour

where we had lunch before boarding a ferry out to Olympic Park and back again. We purchased a pensioner day travel ticket which cost $2.50 (about 1 pound 20p) and covered our rail fare, both ways, plus out trip on the ferry. Great value.

We then packed up and headed for Goulburn. Along the way we stopped for lunch. One of the great things about a caravan is that you can stop, make lunch and boil the kettle for a cuppa.

It was 23 deg when we left Sydney, arriving in Goulburn to 17 degrees. It was very the first night and yesterday it didn’t get above 10 deg. We travelled 35km to visit a National Park only to find it was closed. Why would you close a National Park? Anyway, we learned from the information centre that there was a specialised driver training complex at Marulan about 20km out so we headed there. Guess what? It is closed on Tuesdays. After looking around the centre of Goulburn and visiting the cathedral and another old church, it was cold and wet so we headed back to the caravan to view some DVD’s and read. After an even colder night last night, we are off today “along the road to Gundagai”. At least the sky is blue and the sun is shining but still very cold.