Nundle, Carroll and Gunnedah - 26th & 27th May

It is time to explore out of Tamworth. Our first day trip is to the small town of Nundle. This was a nice easy ride through rolling hills, cattle grazing and plenty of horses running free. Our first stop in most towns is the information centre which this time just happened to have a very extensive rock and mineral collection, what a coincidence. I have decided to spare you the photos this time but the collection for a non-museum one was outstanding. A little chat with the people at the Information Centre always puts us on the track with a bit of local knowledge. There had been extensive alluvial gold mining here in the past but very little sigh now except for a tacky fake mine set up inside a nice historic building. Gave that one a miss! We strolled down to "Ratter Flats" where we met a cute little Gnome of a man with shed full of hybrid old furniture that he has converted into his own style of "antiques". Once he knew we were on motorbikes and not buying anything he relaxed, chatted and showed us around his property. Nice!

The one that I did find very interesting was the Nundle Woollen Mill. Not a huge big manufacturing plant but a small Mill with historic processing machines restored from the early 1900's. There are viewing platforms where you can see all the machinery from above. Very good interpretive signs explain each machine from fleece to the final balls of knitting wool. We had already looked at one Antique shop lots of interesting stuff inside but nothing to grab our individual interests. Trish is still hoping to stumble across an Alexandrite mistaken as costume jewellery. I'm always hoping to find a Daguerreotype ( very early type of photograph ) mislabelled and going cheap. The next funny little Antique shop had a jumble of stuff unlabelled and higgle de piggledy all over the place. No Alexandrites but in amongst it was a Stereoscope ( used in the late 1800's for viewing 3D stereoscopic photographs. No price on it but in much better condition that the one I have in my collection at home. Upon asking the price and the response of $65, and having seen one earlier in our trip asking close to $200, I decided it had to be mine. Ooops, one more thing to post home and another parcel for Adrian or Helen to have to pick up from the Post Office. Sorry! Trish did buy a knitted owl shaped tea cosy, sorry about the use of it on my head in the video.

The GPS did its thing getting us back home by some different back roads. I do remember commenting to Trish on the way home that it was like riding through a postcard.

Next morning it was a day ride to Gunnedah the "Koala Capital of Australia" - here we go again, presently in the "Country Music Capital of Australia" and no music I wonder about the Koalas? The tourist brochure talks about the numbers around the town and how some live in the trees near the Information Centre. Oh well time will tell. On the way to Gunnedah we had to pass through the small town of Carroll, a definite photo opportunity there. Gunnedah is a just a big country town with a smattering of old building in amongst the McDonalds and other fast food chains. On arrival at the information centre and scanning the trees for Koalas we were told they hadn't been there for about 8 years. So much for another "capital of . . . . " The return trip via different roads was a delight but not a Koala in sight.

After our time in Tamworth we still hadn't visited the "Hands of Fame" where Country music stars over the years have placed their hands in concrete. After spending some time trying our hands in different artist's imprints to do like Cinderella and find which one we fitted, we decided not to look at the "Noses of Fame" where they have been persuaded to stick their noses into concrete.

Tomorrow we leave after an enjoyable stay in Tamworth though slightly disappointed there was no music. Of course we made up for that with Trish's musical composition online.

Dave