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Mini Road Trip Part 1
Jun. 16th, 2020 04:28 pmSo the plan was to get a little mud on the tyres. This much, at least, was achieved
Dropped Bella off at her lodgings, after being very careful all morning to not have the cat carrier anywhere in sight, so she'd guess something was up. Sure enough though, with that uncanny feline 6th sense, she vanished into a high cupboard just after I finally prepared the carrier 2 minutes before we were due to leave. Now, where's the ladder?
2 takeaway coffees from a favoured local & onto the northward roads, battling to get to the Pacific Highway. This always seems to be the part of any road-trip that takes the longest, as even in the middle of the night, we live about 30 minutes away from the highway, so on a weekend morning, well... Rain was forecast to fall on us pretty much everywhere we were planning to go & indeed, it started while we were on the motorway. Not heavy, but enough to make it a pretty grey start to the day & while there was a little mist on the Hawkesbury River, which marks Sydney's northern border, the light wasn't great for a photo, nor was the number of passing trucks. A quick breakfast from a well-known fast-food chain, then time to remember which turnoff to take for the best way to Armidale, on the state's northern tablelands. I chose the New England Highway, which takes you past the Hunter Valley wine region, various small towns devoted to cattle, sheep, or horses, through Tamworth - the country music capital of Australia - then a climb up the New England ranges before reaching the plains/plateau/tableland, whatever the geological term is... & arriving in Armidale as the sun was setting nicely against the flat landscape outside town, but traffic, roadwork & the pressing of time prevented photos of it
Motelled, Pub-fed & to bed
The following morning, the café I'd had breakfast at the last time I was in town, seemed to be gone, so the nearest alternative turned out to be quite reasonable. Then, on to the WaterFall Way - a road we'd tried to do about 10 years ago, in my beloved OBluV8, but the dirt roads were more than I wanted him to handle, so this time, behind the wheel of Laura, nothing was going to stop us... even the news from our Motel lady that most of the waterfall roads had now been bitumenned(?) in the last few years. Dammit...
Even in Winter, with everyone supposed to be back a work, or school, there were people at all the lookouts we stopped at, including one large family unit seemingly under the thrall of 2 hyenas... well, that's what their laughs sounded like, shrieking out in the big, wide, open & quiet bushland. Seeing the amount of food they had covered 2 picnic tables with, we were safe in the comforting knowledge that they wouldn't be on our heels the entire way
Shot of the day, was at the last waterfall - Ebor Falls, where the bushfires (remember those?) had not only burned a lot of the surrounding bushland, but also the viewing platform - meaning there was nothing but some orange hazard tape between us & the bottom of the cascade...
More to come... we're off to dinner with friends at a Mexican restaurant
Dropped Bella off at her lodgings, after being very careful all morning to not have the cat carrier anywhere in sight, so she'd guess something was up. Sure enough though, with that uncanny feline 6th sense, she vanished into a high cupboard just after I finally prepared the carrier 2 minutes before we were due to leave. Now, where's the ladder?
2 takeaway coffees from a favoured local & onto the northward roads, battling to get to the Pacific Highway. This always seems to be the part of any road-trip that takes the longest, as even in the middle of the night, we live about 30 minutes away from the highway, so on a weekend morning, well... Rain was forecast to fall on us pretty much everywhere we were planning to go & indeed, it started while we were on the motorway. Not heavy, but enough to make it a pretty grey start to the day & while there was a little mist on the Hawkesbury River, which marks Sydney's northern border, the light wasn't great for a photo, nor was the number of passing trucks. A quick breakfast from a well-known fast-food chain, then time to remember which turnoff to take for the best way to Armidale, on the state's northern tablelands. I chose the New England Highway, which takes you past the Hunter Valley wine region, various small towns devoted to cattle, sheep, or horses, through Tamworth - the country music capital of Australia - then a climb up the New England ranges before reaching the plains/plateau/tableland, whatever the geological term is... & arriving in Armidale as the sun was setting nicely against the flat landscape outside town, but traffic, roadwork & the pressing of time prevented photos of it
Motelled, Pub-fed & to bed
The following morning, the café I'd had breakfast at the last time I was in town, seemed to be gone, so the nearest alternative turned out to be quite reasonable. Then, on to the WaterFall Way - a road we'd tried to do about 10 years ago, in my beloved OBluV8, but the dirt roads were more than I wanted him to handle, so this time, behind the wheel of Laura, nothing was going to stop us... even the news from our Motel lady that most of the waterfall roads had now been bitumenned(?) in the last few years. Dammit...
Even in Winter, with everyone supposed to be back a work, or school, there were people at all the lookouts we stopped at, including one large family unit seemingly under the thrall of 2 hyenas... well, that's what their laughs sounded like, shrieking out in the big, wide, open & quiet bushland. Seeing the amount of food they had covered 2 picnic tables with, we were safe in the comforting knowledge that they wouldn't be on our heels the entire way
Shot of the day, was at the last waterfall - Ebor Falls, where the bushfires (remember those?) had not only burned a lot of the surrounding bushland, but also the viewing platform - meaning there was nothing but some orange hazard tape between us & the bottom of the cascade...
More to come... we're off to dinner with friends at a Mexican restaurant
