Part 4
We left our intrepid travellers in Tamworth, the heart of the Australian country music scene, along with a BIG guitar…
It is estimated that there are up to 250,000 grey nomads travelling around Australia at any one time and by now we were beginning to feel that we had genuinely joined them and become accepted, albeit as Poms. It’s quite a community and it soon became apparent that you are expected to wave to all the other caravans you pass going the other way. If others don’t wave to you, you feel snubbed! It’s also an accepted ritual that wherever you’re camped for the night, if there are others there then at around 5.00pm it’s Happy Hour. Some people don’t even wait for an invitation! We were camped overnight one time and were just starting to prepare our evening meal when this old fella wandered over, brought his own chair and a beer, introduced himself and plonked himself down and proceeded to engage us in conversation. He wanted to know where we were from, where we’d been and where we were going. All very normal apparently!
We left Tamworth in NSW and headed further inland and ended up at Narrabri where we stopped for four nights as it seemed quite a nice little town. Turns out it’s the centre of the cotton growing industry of Australia. I didn’t even know they grew cotton in Australia. Moving on we arrived at Coonabarabran which is very close to the Warrumbungles National Park which has a mountain range with some great walking trails. We stayed a few days and set out to walk the Breadknife trail. It’s a pretty steep climb but well worth it for the stunning views at the top. It’s called the Breadknife because that’s just what it looks like, a very long, thin jagged peak. For us it was notable as the first place where we drank rainwater. On the way back down we had run out of water but came across a small hut which had a rainwater tank. We’d been told that everybody drinks it and it’s quite safe but we couldn’t help feeling that there must be all sorts of dirt and detritus in it, it’s not filtered or treated in anyway, but needs must and we refilled our water bottles and had a good drink, all to no ill effects I’m pleased to say.
To be continued…