Ah Tamworth.  The Country & Western music capital of Australia.  Scene of the terrifying but true tale of Trevor’s tortured testicle (Entrapment – Bill Kearns).  This Easter’s C&W festival sees the 50th handing out of the Golden Guitars.  The last couple of festivals have been duds (thanks Covid) but there are high hopes for this year.  Tamworth’s population of about 60,000 doubles in a good year.  Our CityLights caravan park has almost 250 sites and they’ve all been booked out for ages.  And where else can you meet Smokey Dawson on Peel St?

At CityLights we had power and water, dated but super clean facilities, no-one parked in front of us and a grassy outlook👍.  Nonetheless, once charged, we chose to unplug as we continue to sort out our power consumption.  Helped by a sunny day, the solar seemed to do its work so we’re making progress.  I still don’t understand how our Lithium batteries can be at 70% but don’t deliver enough volts to run the coffee machine.  A work in progress – should have paid attention in Physics!

It was “deja-vu all over again” when we hiked from Oxley Lookout to Flagstaff Hill (8km, 375m elevation, since you ask).  Some 40 years ago, when we used to drive Sydney to Brisbane regularly, Tamworth was first stop and breakfast (That’s right, 3 girls in the car, 3am start, no stopping to empty out until we stop to fill up – scarred for life, I’m told!). The old 2 burner Companion stove came out for sausages and eggs at the lookout at least once.  Lesley says we had breakfast at the Powerhouse motel once when we were feeling flush, but I don’t remember that feeling. However, we returned to the Powerhouse for dinner on Wednesday night where the wine list was awesome, the service was good and our 8 hour lamb shoulder was just tooo much – you still need to be feeling flush!👍

Saying farewell to Tamworth, we set sail for Glen Innes, forsaking the New England route and taking the Fossicker’s Way through Barraba.  This detour was not in search of gemstones but to seek out our first piece of silo art, and very impressive it was.  The scale is breathtaking and the technical ability is extraordinary.  I particularly liked the thanks given to Simon and Amanda for the use of their silos!  There are dozens of examples around Oz now and while it won’t be our mission to see them all, we love the idea. 

This detour was also remarkable because Lesley had her first real drive with ATGANI in tow.  It all went very well and I’m looking forward to many hours of relaxing sleep in the passenger seat from here on in.  Confidence was high after our weekend of 4WD training in mid March.  The Toyota LandCruiser Club (open to all and any 4WD vehicles, despite the name) run a course at their property outside Goulburn which we’d been trying to attend for almost a year.  Completely amazing.👍👍 Husbands and wives do their driving separately (ladies first), there’s only you in your car, there’s plenty of guidance given but where they tell you to take the car is terrifying.  Where it can actually go is even more incredible and the reassurance gained is priceless.  They also offer a towing course but only once or twice a year, so we’re learning that as we go – be afraid, be very afraid!

Fabulous stop at Three Waters High Country camp 10km of dirt road outside Glen Innes for the next two nights.  We’re trying out a couple of 2 night stops to see how the set-up, pack-up equation works.  Already pretty sure we’ll be stopping for 3 night minimums – what a faff!  Three Waters is a paid camp with some facilities (unused by us) ideally situated above a fast flowing creek and with occasional wallaby visits – just great.👍👍  It’s mostly based around horses but fortunately, we don’t have a horse and we were the only inhabitants.  All in all, very successful with cloudy weather but no power or water problems and ever improving firepit work. 

The Glen Innes ”i” lady was on top of her game and enthusiastically directed us to visit and hike in Washpool and Gibraltar Range National Parks even though they’re about 80km east.  That meant 80km closer to the coast and all its rain, so everywhere was sodden.  Boundary Falls were in full flow and spectacular (no, not Iguacu), Raspberry Lookout would have been spectacular but mist cut visibility to about 30m, and the loop walk from beautiful Coombadjha campground turned out to be a closed loop due to water over the bridge.  Still, Lesley spotted our first lyre bird in the wild and we returned leech and tick free.  Result!

So, we left Glen Innes (and what a dull, lifeless country town it is, tourist information excepted) heading to our first ever HipCamp.  JJ’s Bald Rock Station is described as 300 idyllic hectares set on the edge of the NP, about 12km north-east of Tenterfield with the main identification being that the letter box is a microwave oven!  What could possibly go wrong?