On The Road Again - Home to Bingara

We had been waiting patiently for the Queensland border to reopen so that we could travel north and meet our Queensland friends half way.  We had to have a plan as our friends don't have a caravan and needed to book accommodation.

The plan was to leave home after lunch on the first Wednesday in  December, travel to a free camp near Coolah, then travel on to Tamworth the next day via Quirindi and Werris Creek before heading north to meet up with our friends on Friday.

You know what they say about "The best laid plans of mice and men...." ..........

I went home sick from work on the Monday morning with a tummy bug!  It got worse on Tuesday.  I slept all day on Wednesday.  

I was finally well enough to head off by late morning on Thursday.  Obviously, our plans had to be curtailed.

Another saying is "Every cloud has a silver lining".

I have wanted to visit the little patchwork shop in Coolah for ever.  However, it only opens on Monday and Thursday.  We would now be travelling through Coolah on Thursday.

I was on a bit of a mission to add some extra fabrics to the mix for Block Heads 3, as I was getting pretty low on some colours.  No luck, but I did add a neutral fabric to the stash.

Harvest was in full swing and we had to follow this headed and tractor towing the comb for quite a while.  We expected to see more on the road, but these were the only ones on the entire trip.

We would now be taking the direct route, so our destination for the night was Gunnedah, somewhere we hadn't planned on visiting this trip.  We chose a caravan park with a pool, as it was stinking hot. However, our swim did not eventuate, as we ended up experiencing quite a spectacular electrical storm.

We got up fairly early the next morning, as we had noticed something as we drove into town.

There is a new bypass with a bridge over the railway line that had only opened a fortnight before we were there.

What had caught our eye was the painted silos.  When we got closer, we could see that it was still a work in progress.  The artist is Heesco, who also painted the silos at Grenfell and Weethalle.  It is now nearly finished and you can read an article about it here.  It features Dorothea Mackellar and her poem "My Country", as she haled from Gunnedah. We'll have to go back to see it finished.

From there we decided to head up to the Pensioners Hill Lookout.  Fortunately, it was very accessible with the van in tow.

After the previous night's rain it was a lovely peaceful place to be.

There were some great sculptures.

The story goes that this hill was the place where swaggies and their families camped during the great depression in the 1930s, as it had a railway reservoir close by to provide them with water.  The park started to be developed in the 1990s, with the sculptures being added in 2012.

The view is rather grand.

You look straight down the main street.

Our next stop was over by the swimming pool where there is a nice statue of Dorothea Mackellar.

The main reason we visited here was to see some more artwork on the former water tower, now the museum.  It features Vietnam War images. The artist was Jenny McCracken, an award winning artist. She also painted the water tower at Gulargambone.

The scene on the back of the water tank is an interpretation of a photo of dedication of the Battle of Long Tan memorial that was erected in 1969. The artwork was officially opened on Anzac Day 2019.

We had visited all these sites before nine o'clock, so we decided to have a wander up and down the main street.

The shopping strip of Gunnedah was really vibrant.  

Nearly every shop window was decorated for Christmas. There are also some lovely old buildings. 

We also found some more murals in an alleyway through to a car park.  The whole town was well worth visiting.  There is a rural museum and I think there is something to do with koalas, as it is a place they inhabit, but we didn't have time for that.

Oh, and I found some fabric is suitable colours in a nice little shop. Score.

Gunnedah was another silver lining to the cloud of leaving home a day late.

From Gunnedah we started to head north and the first little town we came to was Manilla.  Mick and I have stayed in the Royal Hotel here on several occasions.  The area is renowned for paragliding, gliding and ultralight flying.

When we have stayed here it has been impossible to get a coffee or breakfast on a Sunday, other than the pub help yourself breakfast.  Things have changed in the last few years and apparently there are three cafes open on a Sunday morning.

We had morning tea at a nice cafe, which also sold vintage wares, beautiful teas and gourmet preserves etc, and then found another with a substantial antique shop attached.  There were also an op shop, with interesting bits and bobs. Quite a change from when we have previously visited. The town's proximity to Tamworth would have to help.  

On an aside, when my Mum was a dressmaking teacher at Tamworth  in the late 1950s, once a week she would catch the train to Manilla to teach a class in a room at one of the local pubs.  

The next little town, as we travelled north, was Barraba.  Another town we have previously stayed at, in the pub.  

As you drive into town the first sight is another silo that has been painted up.

They were painted in 2019 and the artist was Fintan Magee.  The subject is a water diviner, a practice which was frequently used in the area.

Seeing the ute parked in front, you get a bit of an idea of the scale.  I don't know how the artists do such detailed work on such a large scale.

We had a wander up and down the street, visiting the op shop on our never ending quest for the elusive orange mug.  

Mick found some Christmas biscuit cutters. So now we will have to learn to make gingerbread.

I found this cute little vintage nativity scene to add to my tiny collection.

There were some nice old buildings.

A courtyard had an interesting mural of the hills and river made from various old sheets of tin.

Our destination for the day was the next small town of Bingara.

It was here that we met up with our friends from Queensland and we stayed in the caravan park by the river.

Once again we had a spectacular electrical storm, but apparently nothing compared to the previous night.  It did give us a colourful sunset.

We had two nights in Bingara, so I will share more soon.