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.

Boyup Brook

Left Geraldton and went via Mullewa, Morawa, Perenjori and Wubin to look at wildflowers along the way.  Not as many as we had hoped along the roads, didn't venturer off the main roads as I was not feeling too well with a sore shoulder.  Decided to stay the night at New Norcia on the oval with quite a few other vans, it rained  a lot during the night preparing us for the winter weather at home.

Short drive to Como the next morning, a big thank you to Brian & Jo for allowing us to park the van in their front yard yet again and have 2 nights with the Lockies and catch up on all the news and happenings since we have been away.

Had lovely Fathers  Day brunch (cooked by Tone) and set off on the last leg of our journey home.  

We have travelled just over 15,000 klms and been away from home for 80 nights, thoroughly enjoyed the comfort of our van, have had a great trip and seen some amazing sights along our way.  

On our next trip which we are already planning, the  blog title may be "Adventure B 4 Dementia" as we have done plenty of "Training" as Grey Nomads on this trip.

Geraldton

Left Coral Bay at 7 am heading to Geraldton for 2 nights.  Were planning on a night at a free camp site along the way but decided after staying extra nights in Coral Bay would have a long day of driving, arrived around 5 pm at Sunset Beach Holiday Park about 6 klms out on the north of the city.  Drove into town and bought Chinese takeaways for dinner, very acceptable after our travels.

Quite a lot of development happening in Geraldton particularly along the foreshore.  Had lunch at the Dome looking out at the very calm ocean.

 

The HMAS Sydney II Memorial that has 360 degree views over the city is a wonderful tribute  to the 645 who lost their lives during WW2.

Coral Bay

Not a very exciting drive from Karratha to Coral Bay.  Arrived around mid afternoon and set ourselves up at Bayview Caravan Park.  Quite a nice site three rows in from the main gate into the park.  Can't see the ocean from our site however Viv & Pam have front row at the People's Park so will be able to enjoy the view from there.

When Pam & Viv walked up to say hello and have a drink on the first evening there were 2 vans directly behind us with good friends of theirs from Bird Cameron days hence there was quite a lot of talking and laughing.

The weather is great around 30 and great for sleeping at night.

The Dockers were on the big screen at the pub which was good for all supporters, pies were bought from the bakery for lunch and with a good result Tone & Viv were very happy.

Went back to the pub for Roast Night, Pam likened it to a Myers sale, need to go early to secure a table as it is very popular!!  A very nice meal and pleasant evening.

Tone ventured into the water for a paddle, a bit cold for me but very nice watching from the sand.

Have had a wonderful relaxing 10 days here, not really doing too much except eating, drinking, reading, beach and lots of talking.

Enjoyed pies and and jam donuts from the bakery. Went out to the marina one evening and sat on the beach and had a couple of drinks which was very pleasant.  

On Friday morning went on the Glass bottom boat tour, saw lots of the reef and fish of all sizes.

Tone & Viv had a great day out on the fishing charter, with the "catch of the day"