To Tamworth

It was only +1 degrees in the van this morning. It took me a while before I could get out of bed.

We hit the road about 9.30 and headed to the Art Gallery. We had 15 minutes before it opened so we decided to have morning tea while we waited. It's great. We just opened the door of the van and had morning tea in the van. There is a restaurant at the Gallery but the owner has shut it for a month and taken a holiday. I don't think the Gallery people were all that impressed.

There is a fantastic photographic exhibition on at the Gallery at the moment. The photographs are just stunning. The photographer, Richard Green, has been travelling the country in a helicopter for the last 20 years to remote places, places inaccessible even to 4WD's. His exhibition is currently travelling to regional art galleries so if you have the opportunity to see it, you won't be disappointed. His website is www.richardgreen.net.au.

We headed to Tamworth but took a detour via Walcha to check out a couple of free camps and arrived at the Austin Caravan Park in Armidale about 2.30. The caravan park is on the Peel River and it is a lovely setting. It is very well maintained with lovely grassy areas. Our site backs on to the river but there is a high escarpment between us and the river. Quite a few people checked in after us, but there is still a lot of spaces available.

There is a small Country Music Festival on in town. We have booked tickets to a concert on Saturday night but most of the other shows on over the next 4 days are free. Luke O'Shea is on tomorrow night and we are going to see him and then a couple on Saturday during the day. Quite a few of the entertainers are the real old time country singers that don't really appeal to us. We will then have a couple of days to travel around the area.

The day turned out to be pretty good and a bit warmer than Armidale. We even sat outside and ate dinner.

Mileage today:  165 km
Total mileage: 1,101 kms