Tamworth-Bingara-Inverell-Tenterfield

We are now safely tucked away at the Scarborough Holiday Village park (Redcliffe, Queensland) and will be here until the end of Jan or maybe even mid Feb; so I thought It would get the last of the updates for 2009 done before 2010 gets here.

Both Linda & I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and do have a fantastic New Year; we wish you, your family and friends all the best for 2010. Stay well and drive safely over the festive period (look out for the lunatics).

TAMWORTH

After leaving Forster we headed down to Raymond Terrace to pick up the New England Hwy to catch up with friends at Branxton (near Singleton); stayed on there property for a couple of nights before heading up to Tamworth.

We stayed at the Paradise Tourist Park ($29 p/n); this is a Big 4 which we are not normally keen at staying at but the park was in a good location to town and we were only staying for a few nights (ended up 4 in total). The park is divided into 2 areas but it does not matter which one you end up in; amenities were good and well maintained and the overall maintenance and cleanliness of the park was very good. Sites were a mix of slab and grass but with a large van the grass sites would be the pick with plenty of room to move; they did have some shady sites but as always my opinion is stay clear of trees; bats, bird shit, sap, leaves, seeds, twigs, branches falling on the van does not make up for the shade (up to you). The park does have a pool, & BBQ’s, a little disappointed of them charging $1 for 20 min cooking time on the BBQ’s (penny pinching in my opinion), being a Big 4 no dogs allowed but there are a few parks in the Tamworth area that allow pets.  

Tamworth is a good place to visit and if you were going during the country music festival (mid Jan) it would be a blast; it is not my cup of tea as it is more a very busy regional centre rather than a country town and very commercialised. Don’t get me wrong, it is just the population of 40’000 leans it to just another place to look at shops. We seem to enjoy ourselves more in the smaller towns of say 10’000 or less, they are certainly more friendly and “Major Retailer” free apart from maybe a Woolies, IGA or Coles.  

Our site at the Paradise Tourist Park (no trees for us). 

The Golden Guitar; thats me with the training bra and money belt.

Chad may have had the biggest teeth but was no competition for the biggest ……………………NOSE (what else did you expect). 

Part of the walk in Tamworth of the bronze statues; the kookaburra did not seem to care who’s hat he shit on!

BINGARA

After Tamworth we headed up the “Fosikers Way”; this is classed as Nundle, Tamworth, Manilla, Barraba, Bingara, Warialda, Inverell & Glen Innis. Our first stop after Tamworth was Bingara; the main reasons we did not stop before then was the bush fires and the extreme temperatures. We stayed overnight at the council park in Bingara ($20), it was 43 deg C. The park had good amenities and they were clean; we were told it was only $8 a night but council bumped it to $20 just recently (only what I was told).  

The Roxy cinema in Bingara; tours cost $3 and well worth a look at the old cinema complex, we could not go on the tour owing to a catered function being set up but thanks to the staff taking us inside we did get a couple of pictures.

Inside the Roxy; brings back some memories of how it used to be.

INVERELL

What a great place this is for a relaxed break from the travelling; so much so we started here paying for 3 nights but ended up staying 2 weeks. The population here is just under that magical 10k and it is somewhere that will be on the repeat visit list.

As I always do the park review comes first; the park is called the “Inverell Caravan Park” and is closest to the town centre, it is owned by a fairly young couple who purchased it from council some several years ago. The work put in here by the owners should be highly commended as it is hard to fault. Amenities are first class and are spot cleaned throughout the day. The slabs as shown take you van and awning; we have our van on the slab with legs down plus the awning out and we are on a one complete slab. The park only has tourist sites along with the usual holiday accommodation cabins; the mix is 60% slab, 40% grass and all have plenty of room. The park is pet friendly, has a salt water pool; rates are $25p/n or $150 p/wk.  

We are the van in the centre of the picture; note the size of the slabs in the foreground

Copeton Dam is 30km from Inverell; the catchment area is 5360 square km and has a submerged area of 4600 hectares, when full it holds 3 times the volume of Sydney Harbour. You can drive over the dam wall and continuing for another 3km will bring you to Copeton Waters State Park, not sure what the camping fees are but once paid it includes the use of a camp kitchen, BBQ’s, 9 hole golf course, adventure playgrounds and floodlit tennis courts. Boat hire is also available (or take your own). 

One of the days whilst at Inverell we headed down to Tingha (25km from Inverell) and above is the Tingha post office; all of the businesses here had wire security screens, the ones at the post office looked like they had been made out of reo. Tingha was involved in tin mining and was mostly mined by the Chinese which kept the town thriving in its early years. The town has a population of around 900 so only a pub, general store and newsagency plus a servo here.

The above is typical of the houses and landscape with exposed rocks everywhere from the old tin mining days. 

The above is a picture taken from the lookout at Inverell over the town.

TENTERFIELD

Stayed at the Tenterfield showgrounds overnight; fee was $16 and the amenities were okay, nothing flash but at least clean with soap & paper hand towels. Plenty of power and water points available but if you get in late you may end up on the more uneven parts of the ground and need to level up. The town has just been graced with a target country and a Bi-Lo and has a good array of the small country town stores; having a population of approximately 7000 makes it big enough to warrant some larger stores (like the Bi-Lo and Taget) but keeps it very sociable and friendly. 

  

Above is where we set up; we did stay hooked up as town was only a 500m walk away.

Above is the Tenterfield Saddler; the song written by Peter Allen was about his Grandfather (George Woolnough) who was the Tenterfield Saddler for 52 years. The building dates back to the 1860’s.

 

Above is the oldest cork tree in Australia; it was brought over from England and planted in 1861, the thick trunk and branches are covered in a thick textured cork. 

Above is St Stephens Presbyterian Church; this church was the venue for the marriage of Australian poet A. B (Banjo) Paterson to Miss Alice Walker. 

We were told of the butcher in Tenterfield (above) which sits opposite the Tenterfield Saddler; the meat sold here is all local and the various flavoured sausages are well worth a try. We bought several different cuts of beef, pork, lamb etc and all so far has been first class. Typical of an old butchery the meat is all wrapped and packaged into the old style brown paper butcher bags. Tenterfield is well worth a few more days than we had and there is lots to see and the history goes well back to the mid 1800’s.

Well that is it for 2009; we are hoping to get further afield in 2010, it has been a mixed year with my Dad’s health but overall not too bad considering. Linda & I hope you enjoyed the Blog this year and follow the updates we do next year.

Have a great New Year and stay safe on the roads; looking forward to seeing you somewhere on the road in 2010.

Will post again soon – The DavLin Rig – David & Linda

 

Port Macquarie & Forster

PORT MACQUARIE

I will start with the usual park information and where we stayed; The park is called the Sundowner Breakwater Tourist Park and for obvious reasons (it sits on the breakwater for the slow thinking folk). It is tagged as a Big 4 and does at this stage carry the Big 4 banner, however the park has been recently acquired by the local council so it offers the Big 4 rates if you are a member but if you ask for a weekly rate it works out cheaper without a membership. The normal rate is $32 p/n or $189 for the week; if you quote your Big 4 membership the rate is $32 x 7 = $224 less 10% = $201.60.

The park is in a prime spot; from our site below you can just make out the rock on the breakwater in the background; the main town beach is approximately 200m from where we were parked. The amenities consisted of 4 blocks and they are average and a little dated and the quality in the 4 blocks varies by how much refurbishment work as been done. The park does have a large and very appealing pool so ideal for the non beach-goer (like me); the park is located right in the heart of town so the car can be left parked if you wish. All (99%) of the sites are grass and some are a reddy type soil so it would be best to pick your own site if possible as if it rains it does become quite messy (we fortunately missed the rain at this park). This park is not pet friendly but there are a couple of other parks that are. 

Above was our site. 

We were at Port Macquarie during the half iron man competition; I did enter and if you look closely you will see thats me in 5^th position. It was a hard race and gruelling race but I managed to take out 4^th spot (better luck next year).

I did find myself a surf board but and angle grinder to remove it was a little harder to locate (no power point to run it either). 

Linda found this big spinning top which proved a little hard to upright and get going; it is actually a “Folly”.

The history is that Windmill Hill was originally known as Gillman's Folly until Major Innes had a windmill built there in 1825 to grind wheat and corn for government contracts. The windmill had large canvas sails driving a hand-milled wooden shaft with a stone grinding wheel. The remains of the windmill were accidentally destroyed by fire in 1900. 

In 1971 the Port Macquarie Conservation campaigned to save the site from development and to turn this vantage point into a reserve. Windmill Hill is one of sixteen sites of heritage significance adopted by Port Macquarie-Hastings Council. 

 

Just out of Port Macquarie is a farm (Riccardo’s) that grows hydroponic tomatoes and strawberries; the tomatoes grown here are always in the top 3 winners for all the shows each year. You cannot pick the tomatoes but you can take a container and pick your own strawberries, there is no bending down as they are all grown on upright frames. When you have picked enough they are weighed and you pay for what you have got; I found it much more economical to just eat as many as you could without being sick and pay for bugger all. 

This large reptile was photographed near our site at Port; he was after the baby plovers and was about 1.4mt in length. 

FORSTER – TUNCURRY

What a great place this is and the park again was the pick for location; if anything it was only 100m to the beach and a nice one at that.

We stayed at the Forster Beach Caravan Park which is located on the southern side of the bridge that divides Forster and Tuncurry; price for the park is a flat $25p/n (no weekly rate), the amenities are very good and kept clean, the down side is it has timed showers but you do get plenty of time. The park is right in the Forster main township but if you want Woolies and Coles etc they are about a 5km drive.

The only down side to the sites is they tail down into the gutters quite sharply so with a large van be prepared to lift the front end quite significantly to level off, if your van is low to the ground you may scrape but they do have some boards for laying in the gutters on arrival and departure. Once in it is a great spot and we would definitely revisit here. This is a no pet park but for those with pets the Lakeside Caravan Park is quite nice and situated on the river in Tuncurry; the rate here is $175 a week.

Our site above; the gutters are quite deep. 

A view of the park from Pilot Hill; we are where the little white bubble is. 

Same picture showing more of the park as it looks over the Forster – Tuncurry bridge. 

Same area of Pilot Hill but taken looking north towards Coffs Harbour and also showing Tuncurry beach. 

Linda has been working on (and now completed) a Teddy for our Grandson, Jaxon; it has been made with love by Nanny Stevens so I thought it should be posted up for all to see.

We have been travelling up through the Hunter Valley and stayed at a friends place for a couple of nights at a place called Glendon (near Branxton) and are currently at Tamworth (bloody hot here).

We are leaving here on Wednesday 18^th November and heading up the “Fossickers Trail” so will post that one in a few weeks.

For those that are about in Brisbane we will be at Scarborough for Christmas from the 7^th December to the end of January 2010 (look forward to seeing you).

Love & best wishes – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Bexhill - Sawtell - Sth West Rocks

Well we finally left Tweed Heads and made our first stop at Lismore; we wanted to catch up with Robert, Kerry & Luke. We met up again with the rest of the family at a great barby held at Robert & Kerry’s place (thanks to you all for the hospitality & risotto pie recipe).

The Roadrunner Caravan Park has not changed much; the price is now $22 a night or $132 for the week. The 9 tourist sites are very nice and the view form all of these sites is as you see it below; the permanent sites are still pretty rough but all in all the park is the pick of the lot. This is a great place to stay for a period if you want to do the Nimbin, Bangalow and National Park trips. The park does not allow dogs. 

BEXHILL

Bexhill is approximately 15km east of Lismore as you head toward Bangalow; there is an outdoor cathedral which overlooks valleys to the east.

The seating is by way of what can only be described as horizontal telegraph post sections; the views from here are spectacular and is a must see if in the area. 

The sign above is as you first walk toward the cathedral; have a close look at who the caretaker is which is shown on the last line. Also at the site is a visitors book that can be signed and a secure box for donations.

SAWTELL

This place is a must see if you are heading down the coast; the town is situated about 12km south of Coffs Harbour and is a coastal township.

We stayed at the Sawtell Beach Caravan Park which is about a 10min stroll to the surf; the park does have its own private access to one part of the beach but the track was a little steep. The park is situated within a 5 minute walk and is next to the bowls club. This would be the pick of the 2 parks in Sawtell; very good amenities and they are cleaned at the times stated.

The park does not have it’s own pool but next door is the swimming centre; the cost for entry is $3.50 per person but the park will reimburse one admission per day per adult so not a bad deal. Although this is a top tourist and usually you only get discount with a membership card we secured a week here for $185 which is a one night free deal (always worth asking), maybe because it is off peak. The down side is there is only 5 slab sites, the others are all grass (so to speak) and are in some places difficult to level off unless you have ramps. This is a No pets park. 

Our site is shown above; we managed to get a slab as the mass exodus had just taken place with all the NSW schools heading back. 

The above is taken from the Sawtell lookout; the shot is looking north towards Coffs Harbour. 

The above is from the same lookout; the view is to the south and shows the Sawtell township. The area has a population of approximately 15000; the township is very village like and has some boutique type shops and cafes; the pub and the RSL reside in the same street. On leaving Sawtell for the suburb of Toormina (4km away) you come to a Centro shopping centre with the usual Kmart, Coles, Woolies etc. It seems like you move from a small country village to a major suburb in a matter of minutes.  

The birds above are a from a pair that nest in the same spot in the Sawtell main street every time; the day before this picture was taken 4 babies lived here; the day of the picture we were told one had flown the nest. Two days after the picture all of the babies had taken to the skies (or been eaten by a pussy cat); we prefer the “taken to the skies” story. 

On walking the Sawtell beach at the end you come to a timber stairway which leads up to a paved walking track; the track leads to the other side of the lookout to a small inlet. Quite a number of people walk this to swim on the incoming tide; The walk takes about 1.5hrs from the surf beach to the other side and back, some of it is quite steep but is very good exercise and well worth the trip. 

Above is a picture of the main divided street of the Sawtell township; very picturesque. 

We did do an overnight stop at South West Rocks which as you can see by the above shot is right on the beach; the park is called Horseshoe Bay Beach Park. We did want to stay and did book a full week but they messed up the booking; it is a long story but in the end we headed of the next day to Port Macquarie.

This would have to be the pick of the parks in South West Rocks purely for the location; the park is terraced and bigger caravans & 5^th wheelers can accommodate on the upper level (where we were; the picture is from our site). The amenities are average and most of the sites are grass with a few slabs; price is $32p/n or $189 for the week, the park is council owned and is pet friendly.

Be aware if you are going to this park that it is best to get confirmation of your booking; only 27 of the 67 sites have sullage so unless you specify you want sullage for a large van (or motor home) you may end up on a site having to empty a bucket positioned under your drainage point.

We would stay here again if we are down this way for a week or so but would be more aware of the blasé nature of the park management and staff.

We are currently in Port Macquarie and leaving for Forster on Wednesday 4^th November for more sun and sand (lucky me). From there we are then to Hawks Nest (more bloody sand); we will catch the ferry over for a day at Nelson Bay. On leaving here we will pick up the New England Highway heading for Singleton.

We will post up again in a few weeks time; until then hope you all stay well.

Love & regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig 

Winton - July 09

Well this is the last of the catch up posts and hopefully we can keep this updated more regularly; we did have a great few days at Winton which you will read later on but lets start with the van park and other options available.

The caravan park at Winton is the Matilda Country Tourist Park and comes under the Top Tourist banner (you definitely need to book); site fees were $27 per night and they do have everyone by the nuts as it is the only park in town. They tend to cram as many in as possible with some parking on the roadways within the park and a mass of extension leads running all over the place. One of the mornings was quite cool and the amount of heaters tuned on based on the power load available tripped every power head in the park on 2 occasions.

The amenities consisted of about 3 demountable buildings for male and the same for female; the mens had the standard trough, 4 loo's and 3 showers. The showers were the fibreglass base with a shower curtain and then another shower curtain where you got dried; I personally hate these curtains, as soon as you get in the shower it seems the bloody thing wants to eat your legs and part of your arse and they are an absolute mongrel to keep off your body.

The park had a camp kitchen which had some form of entertainment each night (bush poets, solo singers etc); you could also have a roast meal each evening which was as much as you like for about $12; every night you had a choice of beef or beef (it never changes).

Other option are you can free camp at the rear of the Gregory Hotel in town but you have to be quick and lucky to get a spot in here, no power available but water can be obtained by bucket only, you are not allowed to connect your hose for direct supply. There also is a free camp 4km South of Winton called the Long Waterhole, it does take big rigs and phone service is available and dogs are allowed. The other option is a farm stay about 15km West of Winton but they only have 4 powered sites.

Above is the Winton caravan park; plenty of dust here.

Winton boasts a population of approximately 1000 and is part of the dinosaur trail as it has the most concentrated areas of dinosaur finds. If you are keen enough you can trip out to Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackway where they do have the world’s only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede; the drive is 110km from Winton so you will need to be keen on the subject. 

More to the things I like – PUBS; there is what is known as the “Greatest Outback Queensland Pubs” (30 in total) and Winton has 3 of them. These are North Gregory Hotel, Winton Hotel and Tattersalls Hotel; above is one of many unique parts of the hotel walls, they all are adorned with all types of memorabilia.

Above is the old dining room at the Tattersalls Hotel; this is small and cosy, there is plenty of other eating areas in and outside the pub and the food at all the hotels is very good.

 

Above is what is known as Arno’s Wall; this is an architectural marvel (or disaster) either way it is very unique, it stands 2m tall and runs a total of 10m and it has every sort of object built into the concrete. As you can see it has everything from motor bikes, hub caps, sinks and dunny’s; very interesting to look at but it makes you wonder about the mental capacity of the builder who maybe has the IQ of a Wombat (my apologies to the Wombat's).

Above is another free attraction at Winton; yes it is true and yes you can play a tune on it; one section is tensioned between 2 timber posts and in tune should you be musical inclined. There is a bin close by with various sticks and metal objects that can be used to play the fence. 

With me not being that good on the strings close by was a drum set; I bashed the shit out of these whilst Lin struck up a tune on the fence. It’s a good job this attraction is nowhere near any residential properties. 

We found Banjo Paterson situated outside The Waltzing Matilda Centre; this is the only museum in the world dedicated to a song. This is a great place to visit and you can purchase a ticket for here and it also gives you access to other paid town attractions as a package.

All in all Winton was great for a visit and if you wanted to take in all the sites at a relaxed pace it would be best to allow 4 days to a week.

Will try to be a little more regular once we leave Tweed Heads which will be 12th October; the only firm commitment we have is from the 14^th December 2009 to the end of Jan 2010 we will be at Scarborough in Brisbane for the Christmas period.

As always we wish you all well and hope you stay safe.

Will post again soon

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

 

Ilfracombe - Longreach July 09

We decided to stay at Ilfracombe rather than going on to Longreach; we had been told by several other travellers that if we were heading west stay at the Ilfracombe park based on their experience and we are so glad we did. Longreach is further west by 27km so it is no big deal in getting to the tourist attractions but my recommendation would be to stay at this family owned park, not just for the great rates ($22 per night during our stay) but for the whole atmosphere of the place, friendliness, and great entertainment late afternoon and evening. The park facilities were spotless and a pleasure to use.

Jesse & Cathryn are the owners and involve themselves in every happy hour; fantastic humorous bush poetry and yarns by Jesse makes the place so welcoming and the family hospitality shown by Cath and the kids tops it off. We also met up with Dennis & Shirley at the park (along with many others), they were great long time friends of Jesse & Cathryn and were helping out on there travels as they often do; in all we had a great time and would stay for longer on our next visit.

The town has a population (according to my research) of approximately 300; if I have got it wrong my apologies to the more knowledgeable, apologies also for any names spelled incorrectly.

Above shows part of the park and our location, the grounds are a typical “welcome to the west” environment; this for us was well received as it was the first slab site we had been on since Gayndah.

Happy hour in the shed; this shot was taken late afternoon (based on my normal bedtime) but it kicked on well into the early evening with heaps of fun for all. 

The pub above sits proudly on the main highway through to Longreach and my understanding is the whole area was originally the Wellshot Station property; the beer was cold and the hospitality was great. 

Ilfracombe boasts several points of interest all of which are free but it is appreciated if a gold coin donation is made to assist in the maintenance and upkeep of some of the displays. The above is what is called the “Machinery Mile” which displays along the main highway some of the oldest and most extensive equipment displays. Most have been donated and moved to site at no charge to maintain the history of the region. 

Above is the “Hiltons Bottles” display; the photo does not really do justice as this would be only 5% of the total collection; there is also a lot of other memorabilia to look at and on entering the gate a small steel container is there if you wish to donate to the upkeep and cleaning of the bottles.

There is a lot of other historical places and must do’s in Ilfracombe (Langenbaker House, Romani Hall, Wellshot Centre, Memorial Park etc) and we would certainly go back for another bash, by the way the cafe and store on the highway is well worth the stop for coffee and food (full on espressos,cappuccinos etc).

Summarising this is a great place to stay for a few days or longer (we would have loved a week or so); the park, staff and management are first class and you would need your head read if you bypass this for Longreach, ring ahead to book as you could be disappointed in just rolling up as the park is well patronised.

ON TO LONGREACH

Headed in to Longreach for the day to take in some of the sights; the town is quite substantial in services and has a population of around 4000, plenty of pups along with an IGA and a Crazy Clarks for those that have the “$2 items” withdrawal syndrome.  We only did the one main tourist venture and we (Linda) decided on the “Hall of Fame”; my choice would have been Qantas but thats for the next trip when we roll back in from Townsville. 

You know what they say about a woman being a perfect height (somewhere to place your stubbie etc) well Linda is just at that right height for the “Ringer” which stands just outside the Hall of Fame. Not sure what she found behind his leg but he seemed to have a smile on his dial. 

The sign is just in front of the ringer. 

One of the exhibits inside the hall of fame; it is a great place to visit but it is fairly dark inside and there is a lot of reading involved. In talking to other visitors it seems to be divided opinions on this tourist venue and Qantas in “bang for your buck”. Entry into the hall of fame is $22.50 each and for an extra $5 each includes a 1 hour show with cattle dogs (highly recommended). Not sure what the Qantas venue was charging but I believe it was a similar amount.

Will post again soon. Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.