Tamworth

Thursday, 19 June 2014

 

Enjoying a singalong with Chad Morgan

Morning weather is becoming rather monotonous – cold and foggy again.  After consulting Doris TomTom and agreeing with her choice of route, we set off for Tamworth.  The scenery wasn’t very exciting for the first hour, just grey fog until we reach Leadville, then miraculously it all just disappeared and we had clear blue skies.

The previously Number 1 worst highway/road into Lightning Ridge has now been relegated to Number 2 worst highway/road.  The road from Gulgong to Mallaley was one of the worst drives we have done with the caravan.  Not only was the road narrow (no fog lines), windy, hilly and extremely bumpy, it was also a major short cut for every B-double truck within a hundred kilometre radius.  When we reached the turnoff from this road towards Quirindi and the knowledge that we faced nearly another 150 kms of similar, we had a quick discussion about continuing on the same road for another 41 kms until we met the Oxley Highway.  Although this would have added another 5 kms to our trip, it really was a no brainer to continue to the Oxley Highway and travel to Tamworth via Gunnedah.

By the time we reached the junction with the Oxley, we had left the cattle properties behind and were in cotton country – very much evidenced by the cotton bolls littering the side of the road.  We continued on to Tamworth in a much more comfortable manner and with no more mutterings about car sickness.

We are staying overnight at the Paradise Tourist Park in Tamworth, which is a very nice park with great amenities and very wide sites.  Unfortunately, the park was laid out when an 18 feet long caravan was considered huge!  Our allocated site (right beside a big pine tree) proved too short and with a bank at the road’s edge, we were unable to attach the jockey wheel.  Back to reception for permission to move to the next site and despite numerous juggles, we were unable to align the van exactly parallel to the small slab.  Himself is obviously more relaxed this year and was willing to leave it as was – phew!

We decided to treat ourselves to lunch today, finding a nice coffee shop in the centre of town.  Then it was a quick visit to the Big Golden Guitar (just to prove we have been to Tamworth!) and a visit to a service station for our daily fix of diesel.  With the temperature reaching 19 degrees this afternoon, it was nice to open some windows.