What a couple of days and no doubt indicative of those to come in the next few weeks! We spent yesterday morning enjoying the gentle pace of life in Belmont, wandering along the lake shore to the supermarket for the newspaper and fresh rolls for lunch, and reading under the awning at the caravan park. Temperatures were fabulous; bare feet and shorts the order of the day. After lunch we drove a few kilometres north up the Pacific Highway to a motorhome sales yard and there found one to suit our needs and our pockets if there could be a meeting of minds over trade-ins, however we had a rendezvous with John and Elizabeth later in the afternoon, for whom we had altered our route. They duly arrived and seemed to be most taken with the caravan asking all the right questions.
This morning dawned clear and warm and the temperatures have risen as the day has progressed. We received neither email nor telephone call from last night’s visitors, so assumed they had not decided to buy the caravan from us after all. Truth be told, I was greatly relieved because the thought of transferring our possessions into the landcruiser, putting it alone on the market and living out of it at the same time did not appeal! Hence the appeal of trading the rig on a motorhome and simply transferring everything over, as we did about ten years ago when we went away for a holiday in our caravan and came home with our first motorhome. However the lovely people at Australian Motorhomes could not come to an arrangement that suited all parties despite their best efforts. We all shook hands after I assured them that we really did not need to do a deal although it would have been nice, and so we headed off with our rig all intact and having avoided disruption to our lives, or should I say, simply delayed the disruption and inconvenience that must be faced one day or another.
And so we started up the New England Highway, leaving Newcastle and heading west up the Hunter Valley, a busy highway undergoing so much road works. We had travelled this same road in reverse in February 2011, but a road travelled so, is a new road entirely. Today we were amazed to see so many of the mines between Singleton and Muswellbrook, exposed from this direction and the coal fired power stations of Liddell and Bayswater standing out so very prominently. North of Scone, horse capital of Australia, we were delighted to see so many new foals keeping close to their mothers, prize breeding mares of rich and famous horse breeders. The country side north of Muswellbrook was every bit as lovely as we had found it when we last came through although then summer had been well advanced and now summer has only just starting, although today’s heat might suggest otherwise, the temperatures having reached 31 degrees at the hottest part of the day.
Today we have begun the slow climb that will take us to the high altitudes in the middle of New England, an area that experiences winter snows and far too many frosts for our liking. We have climbed from Belmont at sea level, along the shallow Hunter Valley to Singleton at 40 metres ASL, then on up to Muswellbrrok at 165 metres ASL, to Scone at 216 metres ASL and here at Wallabadah at 465 metres. Tamworth lies just fifty five kilometres to the north, and from there I recall the road climbs incredibly steeply, a road that was a bit scary descending and will be tedious to crawl up. I do believe there are passing lanes though so there will be no excuse for moaning.
It was our intention to come as far as Wallabadah to this rest area where we stayed last time through, the amazing memorial to those on the First Fleet. Again today, we marvelled at the fact that this is located here, the only sensible reason being that Wallabadah is in New South Wales. There are well over a dozen caravans here; we are not alone recognising this as an excellent stopover place. Tonight the crickets have started their summer song and I am still in my shorts.
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