Nundle

The last few nights have been very cold, below freezing, but the days have been absolutely beautiful. We have had a few relaxing days and now that the concerts have finished, we decided to go for a drive to Nundle, which is south of Tamworth (on the way to Muswellbrook and Scone).

Before we did anything in Nundle itself, we took a drive about 5km out of town where there was a patchwork shop, only to find it was closed today. It was on a property. I spoke to a lady in one of the shops in town later and she said she thought the owner may have been having a little bit of time off at the moment. It is school holidays here for this week. Never mind.

We arrived there just in time for morning tea, which we had at the Mt Misery Gold Mine Retreat Café. A bit disappointing but we sat on the verandah in the sunshine so it wasn't all bad. There is still a Woollen Mill operating in Nundle and we wanted to have a look at that. Some beautiful woollen clothing on sale, as well as balls of wool. While we were there they operated the machine which ran wool of the big cones into balls of wool. There was a photo inside the Mill of a caravan that a group of Nundle ladies had knitted a cover for, for the Sydney Easter Show earlier this year. There was a great area out the front of the Mill where you could have a picnic if you wanted to.

We left the car at the Mill and had a walk along the main street. There are only a few shops but there was a great store we enjoyed looking through. Odgers and McClelland Exchange Store opened in the early 1890's. It closed in 1979 and was then reopened in 1999 by the current owners, but with the same name. It sells a variety of things - different teas, housewares, candles, a few toys - but they are more the vintage housewares, like enamel bowls. Have a look - www.exchangestores.com.au.  It was an interesting shop to look through and we bought a couple of small trays that will be good to use with the convection oven. The lady we spoke to said she is doing reasonably well and that Nundle itself is doing okay, as they have a bit of variety in the town.

We had bought provisions for our lunch, but we needed to buy some cold meat. Unfortunately, the general store did not have any cold meat and there is no butcher in town. That was alright we thought, we have a tin of salmon in one of the crates in the back of the ute.

About 8kms out of Nundle, in the mountains behind it, is a place called Hanging Rock (not the Hanging Rock from the movie). We drove out to the Lookout there to have our lunch. We were surprised to see areas of frost still on the ground, and this was 2 in the afternoon. It was a beautiful spot. Got out the salmon to put on our lunch, only to realise we needed a can opener, which was back in the van. Luckily we had a jar of peanut butter but the salmon would have been lovely.

Had a couple of visitors while we were at the Lookout. A guy drove up with his wife and his two grandchildren, who were visiting them for the holidays from Narrabri. He said he had been retired for 5 years and had been trying to talk his wife into buying a van, but she didn't want that. He said he will keep trying to talk her into it.

We drove back to Tamworth along a dirt road for part of the way, which followed the Peel River, almost from its source. It was a beautiful drive and we saw a couple of free camps which looked pretty good. There was one at the Chaffey Dam which even had showers.

When we got back to the caravan park, we had a visit from Les, the old guy just down from us. He invited Bruce down for a beer (I don't think he is comfortable around women). I took the opportunity to get up to date with the blog. When Bruce returned he told me about Les. Les is 82, 83 this year. He has been living in his van for the last 3 years and wishes he had done it sooner as he loves it. He is 76 kgs and has lost 30 kgs but he didn't say over what period. He had a check up today and the doctor is very happy with him. He was pleased Bruce had a beer with him. He enjoyed the company.

We don't have a TV in the van, but we have managed to watch the couple of shows we like on iView on the laptop. Last night we started watching Homeland which we have on our hard drive. We enjoyed it. We will watch some more of that tonight.