Lake Macquarie

Went to Tamworth on Sat by bus from Nundle purchased bus ticket for the entire time of festival which is great as some of the venues are a little away from Peel St where there are a lot of buskers, some good others not so!

Listened to a family group called String Loaded a Celtic Fiddle Band, they were excellent also in shopping mall that was air conditioned.  There was Dad on guitar, 2 daughters about 18 & 16 on fiddles and mum on bodhran drum, enjoyed them so much went back and listened again in the afternoon.

Drove down to Newcastle yesterday morning about as far as trip to Perth from Boyup, a pleasant drive along and through the Great Dividing Range. Bob & Robyn White live on the waters edge of Lake Macquarie a beautiful lake which has a shore line of 175 Klms. Bob is dads first cousin his father Uncle Hensley was Nana Doust's (Joyce) only sibling. Had a great day and night catching up with them, they have lived in NSW since 1994. They have 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren, Sally lives in Perth and Kate is a teacher in Broken Hill.

Came back to Nundle today and guess what it's actually cooler and at present raining, decided to cook a lamb roast which we have both enjoyed this evening.

Happy birthday to Jessica, hope you have had a happy day it was lovely to talk to you and mum today.

Nundle

Had a lovely drive to Nundle from Parkes on Monday, through Wellington, Gulgong (Ten Dollar note town), Merriwa and Scone. Amazing country in the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range.

Nundle in a nice little town of approx 300, the caravan park is great with first class amenities nice big sites.  Ian & Coralie, Doug & Veronica stayed 2 nights here before heading for home.  We all went to the pub in town for a lovely meal the first night.

Have visited the historic woollen mill which still uses machinery some manufactured more then 100 years ago, it was fascinating to see the production of processing from scoured wool to the finished yarn.

Yesterday drove into Tamworth, a very large inland city of about 60,000 people, we are about 60 Klms away.Visited the Golden Guitar Information Centre to familiarise ourselves with the city, it's the largest music festival in the Southern Hemisphere and among the top ten in the world, attracting more the 700 performers at 2800 shows and 120 venues over the 10 day festival, there is no shortage of artists to see!!! We are able to go to Tamworth daily by bus from Nundle.  Nundle also has a numbers of performances in town or nearby.

Since we have been away over 2 weeks there has not been many days that the temperature has been below 40 and some as high as 48, the air con in the van has worked overtime.

Today we have had a lazy day ad catching up on washing etc.

Tomorrow going on the bus to Tamworth for the first official day of the festival.

Here are a few photos I took last night from the caravan park.

Parkes

Had Monday night at Nyngan, via Wilcannia and Cobar. All remote outback towns, Wilcannia is on the Darling River has a massive high bridge when the rains come, just a very small green pool of water at present. As we progressed down the Barrier Hwy a few farms appeared after pastoral country.

Nyngan to Parkes not very far, arrived before lunch with lots of other caravans heading here for Elvis! 

Have had a great time, won't be playing Elvis for a while, enjoyed the 3 concerts we paid for, plenty of free entertainment buskers etc. Didn't take photos hopefully you have checked out Facebook for: The Parkes Phoenix with heaps of photos to give you all an idea of what has been going on in Parkes for the last week. Thought Baden might like to see his name on the sign on road between Broken Hill and Wilcannia.

Heading to Nundle tomorrow, 

Hope all are well and enjoying school holidays.

Sight seeing Broken Hill

Had lazy day, have been to lookout over town, which is a memorial to over 800 miners who have died since the 1800's, great view of BH.

Bells 1950's Milk Bar with everything dating back to 50's had Spider and Milk Shake, had Nana Pegs green laminex table!

Drove to Silverton a historical mining town 25 km away, a town of about 60 now from 3000 in 1885.
It's enjoying a new lease of life with art galleries and  popular as a television and movie location. A Town Like Alice, Mad Max 2 and lots of TV commercials are made there.

Also visited Pro Hart Art Gallery, his 4 Rolls Royce cars are parked at the entry of the gallery which was purpose built, has a large pipe organ he used to play and his art studio with all his equipment inside, he died in 2006 has 5 children who are talented artists as well. Plenty of art to purchase if you have a big cheque book!

Broken Hill

Arrived today in Broken Hill quite early after short trip from Orroroo at base of south Flinders Range, pretty drive through Range nicest part of SA so far.

 View from Orroroo Caravan Park

Have had good trip so far despite heat at Fraser Range, 52 at 5pm, thank goodness for air con which went all night.  Has been very windy most of the way across the Nullarbor.

Looking forward to exploring Broken Hill tomorrow.