After checking out Gunneduh we drove onto Tamworth and found a free camp on the edge of town....
We decided to head into Tamworth for a look around and lunch...We did a walk down Peel Street and finally found an electronic salt and pepper shaker that we had been looking for, for ages, as ours had died weeks ago....As we were in town we decided to lash out and grab some Chinese for lunch..So we drove up to the lookout which overlooks the town with spectacular view and sat and had our fantastic lunch....Best chinese we had both had for ages.....
On the way into town we went past a sawmill, so before stopping off at our free camp, we called in and bought a 20kg bag of Ironbox timber for $13..great firewood...
The free camp was right outside "Pickles Auctions" and right opposite the Tamworth Airport...Pickles Auctions was the company that Alan had bought DABUS's predecessor from over in WA....We spent a couple of hours watching the planes landing and taking off before lighting the fire and cooking up a creamy chicken and mushroom carbonara dinner......
Once back in Tamworth we went to the Golden Guitar and the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was fantastic....After lunch we moved onto Werris Creek and pulled into the local oval before walking into town and checking out the local sights..Once back at the bus we got the fire going and cooked up a huge batch of Bolognese sauce for pasta and lasagna meals.. Then fish and chips were cooked up on the fire...The rain had started up about 3pm, so it was great having a cook up....An early night in DABUS and movie night...It rained all night....
We woke in the morning to the area being under water, so we finally packed up and DABUS made it's way through the water...And we have started our day rugged up in warmer clothing...
Back on the road, we drove through a town Quirindi, where the little Quirindi Creek was a raging river...We stopped an spoke to some locals that were standing there watching the river raising... They explained that it is normally a little creek that you can cross over....See the video... and it was raising as we were watching it.
Our destination for the night was Merriwa, going via Willow Creek, onto the Merriwa Road...On this drive we drove through speculator lush green valley's, over a beautiful misty mountain range, the bitumen turned into a dirt road....We were thoroughly enjoying the slow drive through these ranges, back down into the next valley the small creek were certainly flowing fast...We had to cross a few fast flowing causeways, but it just made the trip more interesting.
After arriving in Merriwa, we pulled into the RSL free camp for the afternoon and did a walk around town...Dinner for the night is a night out on the town....at the local RSL....
On the road from Merriwa to Mudgee we have seen about 5 turtles and a couple of dead wombats....The biggest surprise on this trip was driving through this gumtree forest all of a sudden we came across about a massive coal mine at Ulan...mining occurs on both sides of the road...
From Mudgee, we took the tourist drive through Lue, Rylstone before stopping the night at Ilford Community Hall...We are now in quiet hilly territory and DABUS is slow up some of these long inclines.....There was five other vehicles that pulled in for the night....We are in the mountains and the weather is freezing and drizzling......Dinner was cooked on the fire and an early night inside due to weather......Heading towards Bathurst through a beautiful heritage list town Sofala, the oldest surviving gold town established in 1851, the town has really narrow roads and is full of very unique buildings....Well worth the visit...
At Bathurst DABUS did two laps of Mount Panorama, our best time was 12 minutes with DABUS in 2nd gear going up the hill...Spectacular views and a great experience.....we had decided to attend Bathurst next year.....After lunch we went onto the Motor Racing Museum, which was a fantastic museum and certainly worth the $15 entry fee....
The free camp chosen for the night was Lake Wallace near the town of Wallerawang, heading towards Lithgow.......a great camp right on the Lake. We had three other motorhomes pull in near us...The next day we walked into town to have a look around, only 3.5km's from camp...After our walk, we had a CMCA chapter from Newcastle with about 15 motorhome park right near us....As the Sandown V8's were telecast on TV we settled in for the afternoon to enjoy the racing and some cooking....It rained all night....We had decided to stop for the weekend as it rained all day on the Sunday, so more V8's and more cooking.....We are surrounded by water, the wind picked up on Sunday night and dried the ground out enough for us to move on......Today we move onto Lithgow and the Blue Mountains....