At the same time as we had the hot water service fixed last week, we also had an Anderson plug attached to the car and caravan. This is probably something we should have had all along, and enables us to maximise the use of the caravan battery. When we picked up the van on Monday and tried to hitch up, we found that the lead they had attached to the caravan was not long enough to reach the plug they had attached to the car. It took them only about 30 minutes of fiddling around before they said it was all attached and we were on the road. Imagine our surprise when we stopped for lunch a few hours later and found that the new Anderson plug was missing and the raw ends of the lead were dragging on the ground. We can only surmise that the lead was still not quite long enough and pulled out the plug when we turned a corner. We now have the van booked in here at Tamworth for tomorrow morning when we leave to get it repaired (and presumably lengthened), we've sent an email to the Gosford repairers saying we expected them to pay us back for the extra repair, but given they have ignored us don't hold out much hope for getting our money back.
About 115 km short of Tamworth we stopped at Burning Mountain, which is an underground coal seam that has been on fire for over 5,000 years. A 4 km walk took us to the current fire front, which is apparently moving at around 1 metre per year - so when it was discovered in the mid-1800s it was about 150 metres further back. The walk trail was directly above the coal seam, so the trees became more and more sparse as you got closer to the fire front, and the vegetation had had less time to recover. Above the actual point of the fire burning underground the ground was completely bare, you could feel the heat rising and it had a sulphurous smell, although we didn't see any wisps of smoke, which reportedly issue regularly. The photo is taken looking towards the fire front, and you can see that the trees and grass have started to disappear ahead of the front as the ground heats up.
When we were in
Tamworth last year the weather prevented us from having a game of golf, so we had rung Tamworth Golf Club from Sydney and booked in to make sure we didn't miss out again. However, when we turned up at the course we found they were in the middle of coring their greens and had 18 temporary greens in play, a little fact they had omitted to mention on the phone. Instead we headed over to the other course in town, Longyard, and found a fantastic Greg Norman designed course, only $20 green fees, and in 18 holes we twice saw another group in the distance on another fairway, so ended up doing very well out of the situation.
On our other day in Tamworth we did the Fossicker's Way scenic
drive down to Nundle, a very pretty town in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. We did the town heritage walk, the highlight being the local woollen mill. This was set up about 10 years ago with vintage machinery sourced from all over Australia, and in some cases overseas, to provide a tourist focus and employment in the town. We saw hanks of wool being dipped into vats of dye, previously dyed hanks being wound onto cones ready to be turned into balls (picture above), and the final balls of wool having bands glued around them for final sale to eager knitters. The mill shop sold not just the final product, but also lovely hand knitted garments - apparently 20 knitters are employed in town. We had lunch at a nearby trout farm - freshly smoked trout and salad, the trout still warm from the smoker, then admired the view from Hanging Rock lookout on the way back.
2 days has probably not been enough in Tamworth, even with our visit here last year, there are still things to be seen and done in the area, maybe next time we'll finally get a game of golf at the Tamworth GC!
About 115 km short of Tamworth we stopped at Burning Mountain, which is an underground coal seam that has been on fire for over 5,000 years. A 4 km walk took us to the current fire front, which is apparently moving at around 1 metre per year - so when it was discovered in the mid-1800s it was about 150 metres further back. The walk trail was directly above the coal seam, so the trees became more and more sparse as you got closer to the fire front, and the vegetation had had less time to recover. Above the actual point of the fire burning underground the ground was completely bare, you could feel the heat rising and it had a sulphurous smell, although we didn't see any wisps of smoke, which reportedly issue regularly. The photo is taken looking towards the fire front, and you can see that the trees and grass have started to disappear ahead of the front as the ground heats up.When we were in Tamworth last year the weather prevented us from having a game of golf, so we had rung Tamworth Golf Club from Sydney and booked in to make sure we didn't miss out again. However, when we turned up at the course we found they were in the middle of coring their greens and had 18 temporary greens in play, a little fact they had omitted to mention on the phone. Instead we headed over to the other course in town, Longyard, and found a fantastic Greg Norman designed course, only $20 green fees, and in 18 holes we twice saw another group in the distance on another fairway, so ended up doing very well out of the situation.
On our other day in Tamworth we did the Fossicker's Way scenic 
drive down to Nundle, a very pretty town in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. We did the town heritage walk, the highlight being the local woollen mill. This was set up about 10 years ago with vintage machinery sourced from all over Australia, and in some cases overseas, to provide a tourist focus and employment in the town. We saw hanks of wool being dipped into vats of dye, previously dyed hanks being wound onto cones ready to be turned into balls (picture above), and the final balls of wool having bands glued around them for final sale to eager knitters. The mill shop sold not just the final product, but also lovely hand knitted garments - apparently 20 knitters are employed in town. We had lunch at a nearby trout farm - freshly smoked trout and salad, the trout still warm from the smoker, then admired the view from Hanging Rock lookout on the way back.2 days has probably not been enough in Tamworth, even with our visit here last year, there are still things to be seen and done in the area, maybe next time we'll finally get a game of golf at the Tamworth GC!
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