Newsletter #16 - Armidale to Newcastle

The weather again is overcast and a very grey sky, even a shower of rain, Pete has threatened to turn around and head back to Qld. Armidale was the next town along this highway, it again has historic buildings and also the place of the New England University. We ventured down the New England Ranges, a very steep descent with many safety ramps off to the side, these would be a welcome site should you lose your brakes! We took a back road again to by-pass Tamworth as we spent some time there a couple of years ago, even had to drive through some water over the road, 2 lovely ducks having a good time in the water.

Our next stop was at Wallabadah at the First Fleet Gardens. We have visited this amazing place previously, but wanted to return to see further work Mr Collins had done. A fascinating place, he has now added another section with names of those on the Second Fleet, relating stories from that era. A great work, so nicely kept too. Well visited especially by those doing family history. To date I have not found any forebears who were on the 1st Fleet but I have not gone back far enough yet, you never know.

Next morning we woke to beautiful blue sky and sunshine again, this is more like what we expect, we stopped at the little shop at Wallabadah, there is only one, and it claims to have the 'best coffee outside Italy' so we had to try it, I must say it was excellent coffee. The lady said they were taught by a friend in northern Italy and their friend gave them their coffee machine as a present. We also sampled a lovely homemade blueberry muffin, a good start to the day. The shop has a 'For Sale' sign on it so if anyone would like a new venture there is your chance!!! So many empty shops in towns and lots of places for sale, the smaller shops are doing it tough in country towns, we try and support them as much as we can whilst we are travelling.

We came down through Scone, 'The Horse capital of Australia' passed a big property named 'Emirates Park', lots of beautiful orange flowering Silky Oaks and fairly dry countryside. Coal mines and long coal trains we also passed on our way to Muswellbrook, nothing significant about this town except for the beautiful purple flowering Jacarandas, they certainly are spectacular and we have enjoyed so many. We didn't realize there was so much coal mining in the Upper Hunter region, hope it won't get down into the wine region. Down into Maitland and out around a back road lovely green river flats and huge cranes in place to put in a new bridge, on to Medowie where we spent the night at a Tourist Park which we remembered had been started by a guy from Newcastle who was on one of the Kidney Safaris we did years ago, it is interesting with aqua golf, fishing, cabins etc, a good concept, the only downside is that it is a bit noisy as it is close to the Pacific Highway, as the day had been sooooo..hot we had a walk around and enjoyed HH beside the pond and then in the entertaining area.

Next day we met Pete's sister in law, her daughter and grandson, Dise, Lucy and Spencer, for lunch at The Macadamia Farm, a great venue, award winning café with good food and service and a lovely gift shop attached. It was great to catch up with them all and have Adam call in to say hello also, we ventured back to Lucy's home for a cuppa, a very hot day again, but a good one. Our next stop was in Maitland to spend the evening with Lee, John and Matt Osborne (John was previously CEO of CMCA, we miss him at the rallies, he has now moved on to another interesting job) also Lee's Mum, Norma and Ken came for dinner. What a great night we had, good food, wine, conversation, lots of laughs and then we could just go a few steps into our motorhome (loaded up with goodies that Norma & Lee had made!) parked in their driveway for the night.

Next day was off to CMCA office in Newcastle to discuss with staff about things for the Club Shop at rallies and also the Caravan & Motorhome Show at Caulfield where we man the stand each year for the Club, good to catch up with them all and see how it all operates. That afternoon and evening were spent at Cardiff with our motorhoming friends Pat and Des, a good catch up with them. We travelled to Lake Macquarie Saturday morning following them to Coal Point to watch the 'Black Cat' (Catalina used during the war) fly over and land on Lake Macquarie, as part of the annual festival. We were opposite Rathmines, the site of a very large air force base during and after the second world war. Lake Macquarie was a very suitable landing base for flying boats and the Catalina squadrons were based at Rathmines. This was quite a spectacular thing to watch from a great vantage point (thanks Des for your local knowledge) and worth the wait.

The next newsletter will be the final one for this trip. This one has been done whilst travelling along the Hume Highway, Pete is driving naturally!! Love this technology....

Trust this finds you all fit and well.

Love from Jan ‘n Pete