Our house and dog sitter arrived to collect keys and to look after Gracie and Abby and then we were off. Off on our second shake down trip heading to Nundle NSW a few hours drive from home.
John had been to Nundle many years ago and I had never ever been, but having read a few reviews I thought it was a going to be a lovely place to spend four days.
We set off around 9.30am a little later than usual, as we only had 232klm to drive. First stop after heading north is always the Branxton West Bound Rest area, where John always checks the exterior and interior of the van to make sure everything is secured.
Travelling through onto Singleton, Muswellbrook our next stop is Aberdeen where we stopped at Croft’s Pies for the ritual Cheese and Bacon Pie. That’s was to be John’s lunch along the way. Continuing through to Scone, well you actually bypass Scone with a wonderful new road that skirts the outskirts of Scone. That’s a bit of a shame for the local businesses where now there are most likely few travellers who would stop off, just taking the bypass road, however, it would certainly make it easier for the residents with less traffic clogging up their main roads.
As we head past the thoroughbred studs outside Scone, we are ever intrigued by the sign to Burning Mountain which is on our to-visit list. However, next stop is that I do have a ritual to stop at the Life of Pie Bakery at Murrurundi. We stopped here a few years ago and John was ‘blessed’ with a HUGE Vanilla Slice…..this time the Vanilla Slice was still tasty but a little bit smaller in portion size– I guess a sign of the times where everything is getting smaller but the price remains the same.
Leaving Murrurundi not far up the road, John said “now make sure we take the turn right and not left”… why you might ask?? Well, he often takes the left turn to head to Coonabarabran to a family friend’s wheat farm, where he and a few mates go shooting and helping with fencing and wheat harvesting.Luckily I wasn’t snoozing in the car and made sure we took the right hand corner to Tamworth and a few kilometres up that road we were to turn right to Nundle.
Nundle only has a population of 289 and is on the southern end of the Fossickers Way. The township of Nundle was established after gold was discovered nearby in 1852 near Swamp Creek and The Hanging Rock. Can you imagine what it would have been like in 1852? It is hard to fathom.
We are not here to prospect, but to enjoy the beauty of this little town, with its quirkiness and gorgeous surroundings. We decided that a stroll to the town was required after setting up, so we ventured on a lovely walk to the few shops in town (NOTE: closed on Mondays and Tuesdays we found out) and of course a few quiet drinks at the local hotel (the Peel Inn) was a welcome refreshment. The menu looked awesome so we decided to head back to the van, shower and toddle back up for dinner. Now, that was where John took a dive off the stool in the beer garden! Sorry, forgot to capture this on camera. We laughed but he did have a sore foot the next day. It was just a balancing issue of the stool not an imbibe issue.
A trip to Tamworth only takes and hour or so, and this was what we did one day to purchase a few extras for the GoPro Hero9 which John gave me for my birthday recently. We took the dirt road to Bowling Alley Point where along this road there were a couple of free camps and we saw many caravans and campers atthe Swamp Creek Camp Area…. no doubt campers of the prospecting kind. On the way back from Tamworth we took a drive down the dirt, windy and quite steep road at times to Crawney Pass driving past Teamster Small Rest Camp, not somewhere we would recommend staying, but some people may like to. An easy afternoon before cooking up a storm in the camp kitchen at the Fossickers Way Caravan Park.
Our second day in Nundle began with coffee at the coffee bar “Machina” which is a shipping container converted into a coffee bar. Steve the owner has been there for 3 years and had a very busy morning serving his locals with coffees and donuts. This coffee spot is within walking distance from the caravan park, in fact everything in Nundle is within walking distance from the caravan park.
We found the Nundle Woollen Mill just around the corner from “Machina” a real gem of Australiana. It is one of Australias last working woollen mills using machinery dating back to 1914. Doing the very affordable tour ($5.00) we were amazed at the up close and personal view of how the wool is processed from raw wool into woollen yarn. The beautiful array of coloured wool was eye catching. They offered some fabulous products for sale as well, mind you I was very tempted, however, because we travel north in winter, their items do not suit caravanning in extreme hot weather conditions, so I was left with just purchasing some woollen socks for John.
We left the woollen mill just on lunch time and headed up the mountain about 7klms to Hanging Rock Lookout. When we arrived, we were awestruck by the panoramic view before us. It was a manageable but tricky walk to the viewing platform and because of the clear day we were afforded a magnificent vista. John had been to the area before, and said that we should continue on the road from the lookout to Sheba Dam. This is a free campground just east from Hanging Rock. It was built by hand in 1888 to store water for sluicing gold. Now it is a pretty picnic spot which is accessible to RV’s, camper trailers and caravans. It has some bush walks and is a popular swimming spot.
We continued on the road east to attempt to discover the trout farm we had heard about. We followed the signposts along a wet and sludgy roadway. We were up very high and drove through about 6klms of cloud cover to finally reach the trout farm. It was a lovely drive, very lush and green to finally arrive at Arc-en-Ciel Trout Farm and Smokehouse. Alas, it was only open for farm gate sales. The fishing and tour activities will not be opening again for possibly another twelve months. A little disappointed, we should have checked their website first. John was happy with his purchase of smoked trout though.
We decided to head back to Nundle, but not before stopping by the Hanging Rock Historical Cemetery, where the tiny cemetery displays plaques of all known burials at the site, however, there are only four original headstones remaining in sight.
Our next day in Nundle was a relatively quiet day, where I meandered the huge antique store here then we had a quick bite for lunch at the Peel Inn.
Friday… the next day we headed back home. Why you ask? Well we do have some family catch ups and birthdays to celebrate in March before we head out on our bit lap of Oz locked in the week after Easter.
Catch you all again soon.