Garry and Carols Van Trip: Mudgee

The live music has finished!! The festival finished with a great parade on Saturday morning and a free concert in the CBD. We enjoyed the 10 days a lot and will return another year if our travels suit. There is so much good music and entertainment to see and the towns people and visitors like us were all very friendly and welcoming. It was the 40^th Festival and at several concerts the artists asked if anyone had been to all 40 and there was always a few hands up. That’s dedication.

Coppers leading the Parade in their 150th year anniversary year

Richos Camels from Yeppoon

Nice old Charger

Carlton Mid Horses and Dray

Lions Club entry

We decided to wait for the crowd to clear and departed Tamworth on Monday. On Sunday morning we blew a fuse on the water pump and decided to get it looked at as this was the second time the pump had stopped. The earliest we could get an auto-electrician was Thursday so we booked it in and headed for a few days at Nundle about 70 kms away up in the hills. Tamworth turned on 10 days of fine cool weather for the festival but on Sunday night the rain started.

John & Elaine - showground neighbours

Jane, Russ, Julie - friendly showground neighbours and drinking buddies

Nundle is a beaut quiet little town left over from the gold rush days. It has a Tourist Mine which is good to visit and cheap for only $2. The Mine also has a great little Café which we visited for afternoon tea and lunch. They have good home cooked cakes and lunch features the local Trout and local eggs, etc. Very nice and reasonably priced at $15 for main meals. The Nundle Woollen Mill is also worth a visit. It is an operation mill where you can watch the wool from bale to thread and then watch the local knitters produce some good clothing. The shop has lots of good thick woollen gear but who needs that in the middle of summer!! There is an Antique Shop and a Homewares Shop in town which both attracted interest from my travelling companion. The Antique Shop has mostly china and glassware and the few things I found of interest appeared to be priced for the weekend visitors from the rich suburbs of Sydney. A couple of Andy Cap comic books caught my eye but I baulked at $9 each!!! Carol enjoyed the Homewares shop and couldn’t resist a small bargain or two – which we needed of course!!

Tourist Gold Mine Nundle

Woollen Mill

Old church now a Boutique

From the lookout above Nundle

Seeing Nundle was a gold mining area and I had my new metal detector I decided that a little rain wasn’t going to put me off so into the hills I ventured. I had collected a couple of mud-maps from the lady at the Info centre and set off to the most obscure one first. It sounded simple turn in past an old quarry and follow a bush track to an old minesite. What you can’t see on a photocopy of a photocopy of a pencilled diagram is the steepness of the hill the track goes down nor the two dozen new tracks bulldozed in for new exploration drilling. Anyway the short story is I ended up a few kilometres into the bush way down a steep valley and the rocky track had turned into a muddy claypan area in amongst huge gum trees. All was going well until I arrived at a gate, which was on the map but just past where I needed to turn off. Having stopped I attempted to reverse but the car went sideways instead of backwards. I always wanted to try it in 4WD. After a ‘little’ while, I managed to regain the rocky track and escaped the bush without getting the detector out of the car. I returned to town and found some gold at the Tourist Mine (in a bottle).

There are some nice things to see from the hills above Nundle including a great lookout (except it was above the level of the rainclouds), a trout farm, and nice picnic areas including one beside a recreational dam constructed in 1880.

The Nundle Fossickers Tourist Park is a great little van park with large sites, good grassy gardens areas, new amenities, and is on the banks of the Peel River and another creek running through the park from the hills. Both the creek and river are good for gold panning but at a later (dryer) time.

A bonus for us at Nundle was being recognised by companions from the Hardware at Perigian Beach. Russel and Ginny recognised us browsing the Wool Mill and were staying across from us in the van park. It was good to catch up and talk hardware again over a few drinks.

The old pub is a great old timber building still serving good cold beer. It bought back memories from the last drink we had at the Nundle Pub. It was on a weekend away from Wee Waa and was one of two days in the last 12 years that David C decided to join us in an alcoholic drink. I understood then why he doesn’t drink!! So we stopped for a beer in his honour. We spent the last visit in a B&B which was in a 2 storey brick building that was originally the Bank of NSW. Sadly the B&B and restaurant is now closed.

We decided to pack up in a break in the heavy rain and headed back to Tamworth. This time we settled in to the Paradise Van Park (a Big 4) just near the Info Centre and again on the banks of the river. As there was a dam between Nundle and Tamworth the river was not running but as it rained heavily all night, the river was raging several metres deep on Thursday morning and the road to Gunnedah was closed. We had the van looked at by Tow World in Tamworth and there was nothing wrong with the pump!!! Amazing how the faults disappear when a tradesman is looking. We replaced the 10 amp fuse with a 7.5 amp fuse and the pumped worked every time we tried it over an hour in the workshop. Anyway Tow World gave excellent service and asked for a minimal charge which we happily paid. I must give a compliment Kratzmann Caravans in Burpengary also. We bought the van from Kratzmanns’ and even though the manufacturers warranty ran out a month ago , Kratzmann offered to cover the cost of repairs because they repaired it under warranty at the end of October last. Very generous I thought.

Anyway, the van was “fixed” and we set off in the rain from Tamworth to Scone to Merriwa to Mudgee. It was a very pleasant drive and one of contrasts. The bakery in Merriwa sells great pies and pasties for lunch and the rolling grassy hills between Scone and Merriwa were an easy drive. Between Merriwa and Mudgee we drove through bush, a valley full of coal mines, and further in lots of very well presented vineyards. We found our van park and set up – in the rain. Our first call was to Fabian and Emily’s new house. It looks great, large inside, great outdoor areas, and a good sized yard for the kids to play in. The lawns and gardens are in excellent condition and more rain falling was going to keep them that way. Today was Elliot’s first day at ‘big’ school and he was very excited to go – up at 4am to check if it was morning yet his mother tells us!! He enjoyed his day and bought home plenty of notes and a very well cut and coloured in ‘Angry Bear’. I think he also enjoyed being picked up by Mum, Grandma, and Grandad and visiting our van for celebratory cakes and strawberry milk. Violet especially liked the cakes. In the middle of afternoon tea while waiting for Fabs to get home, the sun broke through and the rain stopped. It turned into a lovely evening so Fabs & I are booked in for golf tomorrow, after we watch Elliot play Jnr Cricket.

Setting up in Mudgee in the rain