Abba-solutely F-abba-ulous Weekend - Part 1

There is a little town in the middle of New South Wales which has a really wide street..... actually, the widest street in New South Wales.  It makes the perfect place to have a bit of a party.

It is just about an hour up the road from Parkes, which has an Elvis Festival each January.  We've never been to that because it is always extremely hot and I reckon that people wearing lycra in temperatures over 40 degrees C would be just a tad stinky.  Hopefully, one year it will be a bit cooler and then we will make the trek up the road.

The town we are talking about here is Trundle.

We like Trundle.  I've been there for work a couple of time in my previous job and many years ago we have been to the "Bush Tucker Day" that they host in August.  We've also camped out the back of the pub one time on a bike rally.  The pub has the longest verandah of any pub in New South Wales.  We've also travelled through on numerous other occasions.

Trundle has decided to have a festival of its own .....The Abba Festival....on the first weekend in May, so not going to be stinky!!  This year was the sixth one it has run and it is growing heaps each year.  We actually got our act together and booked a camp site at the Racecourse.  The Showground was already booked out.  There were 700 camp sites booked for the weekend!

I took the Friday off work and we travelled up with some friends who brought their caravan as well.

The autumn colours were glorious.

It was a pleasure to be out and about, and the weather was just about perfect.

Our own little convoy.  We were stopped in Manildra for coffee and cake.  Most important.

When we arrived we hunted out our camp site.  It was so well organised.  The sites were large, there were portaloos at the end of each row and a block of showers for those that weren't self contained.

Most importantly, there was a coffee van and the Pony Club did egg and bacon rolls for breakfast.  It was also in easy walking distance to the main street and on the Saturday there were shuttle buses running continuously.

It was great going up on the Friday.  We were able to have a wander up and down the street, checking out how all the shops had decorated their windows, getting our Abba Festival tee shirts and visiting the op shop.  They had all really got into the spirit of things.  We even bought an Abba CD, as we had absolutely no Abba music at home.

Another reason I wanted to go up on Friday, was that there was to be a quilt show.  "Not another quilt show" was Mick's response.

It turns out that there is a quilting group that meets weekly in the CWA Hall.

The exhibition included a small selection of antique quilts.

There was also a small display of vintage handicrafts.  The amazing thing was that they were nearly all made in the 1920s by the one lady, covering all facets of handiwork, as well as some lovely wood carving.  I noticed that her name was "Miss Bessie Taylor".  She probably would not have had the time to be so prolific if she had been married with children.

We noticed references to quilt challenges on various items and this little notice explained much.  What a great idea.

This very effective quilt was an entry in the "Australiana" challenge for this year.  Notice all the aboriginal themed fabrics.

Last year the theme was "Geometric".

The year before was Batik.  This one was very effective.

A selection of Christmas quilts for a previous challenge.  Notice that the sign says "Please Touch".  There were various signs around the hall advising whether you could touch or not.  It was great that some quilts were able to be handled.

This one was made by the Tent Makers of Cairo.  So much intricate workmanship.

Here are a few more photos from the exhibition.

After all that a nice cup of tea and little cakes was just what was needed.  So nice to once again have our tea served in pretty cups.

By the way, Mick enjoyed the exhibition too.....especially the cakes.   (Mind you, I think three in two weekends may have reached about saturation point for him.)  It was great to see a small group put on such a wonderful exhibition.

After that we wandered back to our caravan and hopped on our push bikes.  It was a great way to have a look around the streets of the town......there aren't all that many.  

The best thing, though, is that Trundle is flat!   It was so nice to be able to ride fast without having to save yourself for future hills.  Great fun.

The day finished off with a stunning sunset.  It looked like Saturday would be fine and we would have a lot of fun.