Day 55

Day 55 Tamworth

He stays here

Mexican Hairless

Basenji in a bassenet

Well we started in the highest town in NSW at Armidale and after going down all those steep hills I would not be surprised if we were in the lowest town in NSW. But I get ahead of myself. At the caravan park I might have mentioned yesterday, but there are hundreds of dogs there for a three day event. The show attracts 600 dogs of all breeds and sizes. Our initial plan was to get up and go on to Tamworth this morning, but the allure of all these dogs was too much.

 

Pampered

Balls of fluff

The dog people are just so friendly, we just wandered around and they all said hello and were happy to have their dogs petted but got a little upset when I started to put some in my basket to take home. We sat in the shade to watch events and they lent Maureen their chairs to sit on, you could not have asked for a warmer welcome. We originally said an hour to watch them and nearly 2 hours later we made our way back to the van. Fortunately we had packed up and all we had to do was back up, so we did.

 

Work in progress

Finished

People are funny, when we drove in last night the people at the park said that we might want to go to the other park in town and even rang them to see if there was an ensuite free and warned us that there were lots of dogs because of the show they are hosting and we said no probs, a few dogs were a nice change. The people next to us great and friendly and all the dogs were quiet by 9:30, it was just the people playing doof doof music that we could hear late into the night. I woke up

Puppies being judged

My new friend the ridgeback

in the middle of the night and could hear nothing, not a sound, then some woman yells out ‘shut the f@#$ up’ now I could not hear a sound apart from her yelling, so I really concentrated and all I could hear was a faint dog whine, not bark, but she was yelling and swearing, might have been her dog. Got up in the morning and the guy across the way from us cranks up the old Jimmy

St Peters Cathedral

St Marys Cathedral

Barnes, why I have no idea then says hello to me and asks how we slept with all the dogs barking last night? I said no problems, did not hear one bark. The lady next to us asked him to turn it down and he did grumbling then 5 minutes later cranked it up again. No idea what he was on about, but we went off to the judging arenas and left him to it.

Going down hill for a change

The Golden Guitar

After the dogs, we hit the road. After yesterday’s trial by sharp and steep corners, we set off down the highway to Tamworth. There are some really steep hills going down like in perth, but there were emergency lanes everywhere, unlike in perth. We made our way into town and found a big4 right in town that set us up with a nice ensuite site and as of right now, I am sitting in the van writing up the blog whilst Maureen has put on some washing. It is only the middle of the day so we intend to rest a short while whilst the washing is on and then go into town for a looksee.

Chad Morgan

Smokey Dawson

Well surprise, surprise, we did follow our plan and went into town and had a look see. First we went out to the Golden Guitar Information Centre. Maureen went in and had a look through the museum area and wax works and then had a chat to the very nice ladies who just did not know a lot. We did get directions to the look out and off we went to the far other side of town and up the hill. The view is spectacular. Tamworth is a town situated on a flat plane between mountain ridges and you could imagine the

John Williamson

Me and Barnaby Joyce

early explorers seeing it and saying ideal farm land. Unfortunately there are a few too many trees blocking some of the views, you would have thought someone would have chopped them down, how inconsiderate.

From the look out, we had a quick look at the map and found the central business area and headed off there. After being in the big cities who are open 7 day a week, it was very quiet on the streets here on a Sunday as

View of Tamworth

View of Tamworth

just about all the shops are shut except the big chains. We walked up and down the street almost by ourselves and when we had had enough, we found a pub who had roast lamb and vegies for $12 – sold, give me two. We sat and had a couple of drinks and watched the sun go down and had dinner. There was this old couple who drove and old yellow Austin van with Father Christmas in the back and playing songs on speakers and they drove around town. It is obviously something they do every year and enjoy it or pay their penance.

Maureen looking Slim, Slim Dusty

Maureen looking smoking with Smoky

We managed to get a couple of pictures of Maureen with Slim Dusty and Smoky Dawson on the road. On the way into town we passed an area where Captain Thunderbolt used to bushrange until they shot him. Family stories on my mothers side goes that when he used to steal cattle he would take them to Adelaide and sell them there and our ancestors bought a bull from him and headed off west with it when they drove their way to WA. I am not too sure what the statute of limitations is on receiving stolen goods is, so keep it under your hat.

Tomorrow our plan is to get to Dubbo and do the Western Plains Zoo and I am about to look up maps, never too late to plan I say.