We Drive From Moree To Lightning Ridge Via Walgett

by David Sloane | Apr 10, 2016 | Silverton & Lightning Ridge

We Drive From Moree To Lightning Ridge Via Walgett

we drive to Lightning Ridge via Moree and Walgett. Moree looked like a much nicer town than I had imagined it would be. We saw cotton plantations and huge bales of cotton in some paddocks, the paddocks and scale of everything out here is completely enormous.

Paddocks Stretch To The Horizon

Pack up was easy as we had no annexe to deal with today. Drove to Lightning Ridge via Moree and Walgett. Moree looked like a much nicer town than I had imagined it would be. We were very surprised, it goes to show that you should go and have a look at these places yourselves and not just listen to the rubbish people say about them. We saw cotton plantations and huge bales of cotton in some paddocks, the paddocks and scale of everything out here is completely enormous.

Welcome To Lightning Ridge

Paddocks stretch to the horizon. We saw emus on the side of the road when we got nearer to Lightning Ridge, neither Amanda or myself have ever seen emus in the wild before. They are massive birds, bigger than they seem to be in zoos. We arrived at Lightning Ridge and set up camp at the Black Opal caravan park. It’s unusual in that the surface of the entire park is some kind of pea gravel that is compacted so hard that the office lend you a huge hammer drill so you can drill holes for your pegs.

MARS Extremo Set Up @ The Opal Caravan Park Lightning Ridge

The camp has a couple of comedian/bush poets called Mel and Susie doing evening shows so we went and watched. They are both awesome. They are a couple of ladies who travel the country doing shows out of their travel bus. They are excellent > http://www.melandsusieontour.com.au/.

Mel and Susie

If you’re looking for ideas of things to do in Lightning Ridge thene check out this post 33 Things To Do In Lightning Ridge That We Enjoyed

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Goondiwindi & We Stop In At Texas Along the Way

by David Sloane | Apr 9, 2016 | Silverton & Lightning Ridge

Goondiwindi & We Stop In At Texas Along the Way

Goondiwindi

Packed up early and got in the car and headed off to Goondiwindi. On our way we stopped off at a little roadside diner to get a drink that I can’t remember the name of. There was a fellow wearing jeans and thongs buying a can of coke and he mentioned to the store owner that it was trying to rain and the owner said yeah been trying to do that for about a year. It is very very dry.

Bonshaw Store On The Way To Texas

We called in at Texas. It’s not a bad little town and it has some good camp sites down near the river so we’ll have to come back and check it out further.

Texas Memorial Hall – Texas QLD

We made it to Goondiwindi and set up the camper this time without the annexe. We stayed at the Goondiwindi Holiday Park and they have an artesian pool and we went for a swim and it was very nice. It’s a nice little caravan park.

We had dinner at a Chinese/Malay restaurant and enjoyed it a lot. After dinner we went across the road to the artesian bore baths. They are really awesome. The water is about 39* which doesn’t sound all that hot but it actually is. After sitting in there for an hour you feel really relaxed.

Dinner At The Chinese/Malay Restaurant

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We Check Out Tenterfield & Have Lunch In Glen Innes

by David Sloane | Apr 8, 2016 | Silverton & Lightning Ridge

We Check Out Tenterfield & Have Lunch In Glen Innes

Went in to Tenterfield and it was a much bigger place than we thought it would be. Amanda wanted to see the pub where Peter Allen began singing but it turns out we were 150 k’s too far north and needed to be in Armidale for that. Visited the Tenterfield Saddler and it was cool. We liked it a lot.

The Tenterfield Saddler Made Famous In The Song By By Peter Allen

Amanda inside The Tenterfield Saddler

The Imperial Hotel

We then headed back to Glen Innes and had some superb pork chops for lunch at The Imperial Hotel. Amanda bought a really cool hat. Sort of a floppy Akubra kinda thing. Looks good. Visited the local museum in the old hospital and it was great. Heaps of old stuff to look at. We even scored a free cup of tea.

The Imperial Hotel

The Standing Stones At Glen Innes

Then we went looking for the standing stones and that turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been. Eventually we found them and had a look around. Had another fire back at Gunyah and cooked up some steak and snags, they were pretty good.

The Standing Stones At Glen Innes

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Gunyah Deepwater River Camping Near Glen Innes

by David Sloane | Apr 7, 2016 | Silverton & Lightning Ridge

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping Near Glen Innes

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping is an old property just out of the town of Deepwater near the northern NSW town of Deepwater. You can camp on the property. Deepwater is about 50 km north of Glen Innes. What a place!

Gunyah Its An Old Property Just Out Of The Town Of Deepwater

Captain Thunderbolt Bushranger Grave

We drove to Deepwater and set up camp. On the way we stopped off and visited Captain Thunderbolts grave. When getting out to the grave I had a moment with the trailer, banged the drawbar on the road going through a dip and smashed the Anderson Plug lead.

Captain Thunderbolts Grave

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping

We are staying Gunyah Deepwater River Camping – it‘s an old property just out of the town of Deepwater. Deepwater is about 50 km north of Glen Innes. What a fantastic place. Its bush camping and we had our pick of spots along about 2 k’s of river frontage. We managed to get everything set up without too much arguing this time but according to Amanda I still picked a shit spot. It was about thirty feet from the one she picked out. We wouldn’t have been able to get the jockey wheel hooked up in her spot but mine was still rubbish!

Set Up At Gunyah Near Deepwater NSW

Dinner Over The Fire

After getting all set up we headed in to town we went to get some lunch. Only thing we could get was chicko rolls and chips from the diner. It was after two in the afternoon so everywhere else was out of food or closed. It’s the way it is in the country so no complaints from us. On the way back we collected firewood. We cooked dinner over an open fire. We cooked some rissoles Amanda had made and they were delicious.

Cooking Dinner At Gunyah Station

Uno Dummy Spit

As we often do we played a game of Uno and Amanda had a massive dummy spit and threw chips and cards everywhere. We listened to the local radio station 2T something and it was a good fun night.

Another UNO Dummy Spit

Werris Creek Railway Museum & Terminus Hotel Quirindi

by David Sloane | Apr 6, 2016 | Silverton & Lightning Ridge

Werris Creek Railway Museum & Terminus Hotel Quirindi

Went to Werris Creek and checked out the railway museum. Werris Creek was a pretty big railway town back in its day. Loads to see. The railway museum was really good.

Werris Creek Railway Museum

There was a lot of memorabilia from around the area. We found that the thing we have on our back deck table, the little red lantern is actually a level crossing gate lantern. Werris Creek railway museum is put together and run by local community volunteers and they do a great job of it. I’m guessing that a lot of them worked on the railway back in the day. We spoke for a while to a lady about the old telephone switchboard they had on display and she was actually one of the operators from back in the day so she knew all about it.

Werris Creek Railway Museum Level Crossing Lantern

Terminus Hotel

After Werris Creek we drove to Quirindi and had lunch at of all places the “Terminus Hotel”. We kept an eye out for walkers at all times and avoided ordering the pork. We love you Bob. The lunch we had was really nice. Hamburgers as usual!

Terminus Hotel Quirindi

Lunch At The Terminus Hotel Quirindi NSW

Quirindi – A Nice Old Town

After lunch we went for a bit of a walk around Quirindi. It’s a nice old town. A lot of the old original shopfront architecture has been preserved. Quirindi has got all of the usual things you’d expect in a country town. I could see myself living in a place like this.

Qurindi Main Street

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Coonabarabran for the Night & Visit Warrumbungle NP

by David Sloane | Apr 4, 2016 | Silverton & Lightning Ridge

Coonabarabran for the Night & Visit Warrumbungle NP

Warrumbungle National Park

Plans for today

Drive to Coonabarabran and set up camp in the national park
Get some vinegar and bicarb soda to throw in to the campers water tank

What actually happened

We drove to Coonabarabran. Was a nice trip. The phone tom tom lady again took us the back way so it was the road less travelled for sure and certain. Amanda decided we should stay in a van park instead of the national park so we’d be closer to town. We were closer to town for sure – and closer to about a million trucks going up and down the Newell Highway.

Fish & Chips For lunch In Coonabarabran

We went for a drive to the Warrumbungle National Park after having fish and chips in the local park. Cool park, it had an old well and some magnificent maple trees. The Warrumbungle National Park was great. Spectacular granite outcrops all over the place.

Spectacular Granite Outcrops All Over The Place

Saw some white gums and they had the biggest leaves I have seen. Drove past Siding Springs Observatory on our way to the Warrumbungles but it was closed.

White Gums With The Biggest Leaves I Have Ever Seen

We watched the series final episode of the walking dead on foxtel go – that’s pretty awesome to be able to do that while you are out on the road. Somebody got bashed to death by Negan with a club at the end but we don’t know who. Have to wait for the new series to find out.

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