Monday 18th September

After 10 days we had to leave Pomona and start the journey south to Bonny Hills, near Port Macquarie.   We’ve had a great time in Pomona and look forward too coming back soon.   Even the Bush Turkey came to say cheerio!

Our next stop is Gatton, between Ipswich and Toowoomba, where our friend Daphne lives, she has CLL (Chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia) and we’re not sure how well she is.   In fact,having had lunch with her, she is doing well and is very busy with baby sitting, church  and other activities.    Over a long lunch we catch up with all her news and we say good bye knowing that she is giving that insidious disease a run for it’s money!   

When we leave the next day our route takes us up through the Cunningham Gap and through the pass over the Great Dividing Range, the scenery is spectacular but Roger has to spend most of his time trying to negotiate the 10% descents/hill climbs and tight bends whilst maintaining enough revs to keep in third gear because once we have to drop down to second it would be very difficult to get up the momentum to get back into third.

      

We have two days to get to Armidale and decide to stop at a bush camp just south Tenterfield at a place called Bolivia!    It is about two ks from the road on a property, it is just a hillside paddock really, the grass being kept short by the horse, roos and sometimes sheep.   There is no power or tap water but there are very nice flush toilets and showers.   The owner, a guy called Duncan, is really nice, and happy to chat and discuss the local area.  

    

He is very proud of his ‘dump point’ (for emptying toilet cassettes), only recently completed and as we are the only people there he asks us to use it and report back.   These dump points have to have a separate tank because we use chemicals in the toilet cassette.

   

We do as he asks the following morning, the design is unique but it works well and we make a few suggestions with regard to aesthetics!

We stop for lunch in Glen Innes but at first having walked the main street, we can’t find a suitable watering hole.   After a bit of exploring we find somewhere, though it doesn’t look too promising from the outside, the menu looks reasonable.   Turns out to be a lovely lunch, healthy,  well presented and all hand made.

It takes us about another hour to get to the outskirts of Armidale where our friends Simon and Jane have their property.   We park the caravan, say hallo and get a quick run-down of the programme!   It is practice night at the Cathedral and Simon has asked us to help with his learners.   By the time we have cleaned up and sorted the van out Simon is ready to take us into town for a 5.30pm start.   Roger had some significant input into the bell installation here with great support from the instigator and manager of the project John Goldsmith.   Simon puts Roger on the spot by asking him to do an impromptu workshop, however, it is no problem when you have people who want to learn and listen to what you are saying.   Afterwards we meet Jane at the pub for tea together with some of the local ringers.

The following day we borrow Simon’s car to  take a ride into Armidale to meet John Goldsmith’s wife Merle. Simon had been in touch with her and told her we would like to see her again whilst we were passing and she was only too happy  to see us.  Since John died she has lost another son as well so she has now moved into a village complex where she has her own house but loves having a gardener and meals on wheels. At 94 she deserves a few perks!. We had morning tea with her and she is so bright that it was easy to find things to chat about.  After leaving Merle we went to visit the Information Centre to ask about bush camps in the area.   The lady there is quite knowledgeable and we narrow the options down to two possible camping spots.   Dangars Falls and Native Dog Creek, both free camps managed by NSW Parks and Wild Life.   We went to  have a look at the first one and decided that it would suit us very well, especially as we have to pass a Peterson’s winery en route!   Returning to Simon’s place we have time to change before it’s drinks and nibbles at their place.   We took them out for tea and had a great time.  

Saturday 23rd September

We say goodbye to Simon and Jane and head out to Dangar’s Fall, stopping at the winery to pick up half a case to keep our stocks up.   We turn off the tar onto 7 ks of dirt, a bit corrugated in places but we arrive to find we are the only people at the campsite so we get the pick of the five sites and we get settled in.  It’s well laid out, the parking areas are a good size, there is a clean drop toilet well stocked with toilet rolls and it is very peaceful. The first night we lit a campfire, all wood supplied by Parks and Wild Life, but overnight we had strong winds and could hear thunder around. When the Ranger came next morning he told us that there had been dry lightening south near Walcha and that he had come to change the signs to “no campfires”.  It has been a feature of this trip from Pomona to here that everyone is telling us there has been no significant rains for the last 3 months and that everywhere is parched and people on tank water  or with dams are running out of water.

      This campground is at the top of Dangar’s Gorge which is pretty spectacular but with only a trickle of water falling about half way down. We have been on three walks and have really enjoyed the exercise and added a couple more birds to the bird book.    Here are some photos of the scenery.

               

….and a couple of the locals………….