Road Trip to Sydney

Monday 16 March After having the house sprayed for insects, spiders and checked for white ants we headed off to Stanthorpe for the night before continuing on to Armidale, Windella and Sydney.

Stanthorpe is a three hour drive up through the ranges and into the Granite Belt. The sky turned dark and we went through a storm.

The sky was changing all the time and we were hoping it wouldn't be a bad storm or a hail storm. We were lucky to have escaped with heavy rain, which had stopped by the time we arrived. We booked into a motel and walked next door to Anna's Restaurant. It is a very popular Italian Restaurant. Lucky we had made a booking from home. We had stuffed mushrooms followed by cannelloni. It was delicious but I felt guilty eating so much as I'm putting on weight.

Tuesday 17 March

The next day we had a walk around Stanthorpe. We loved the park. Bill has an idea for a movie. Up here in the ranges it is cooler and some of the trees change colour in Autumn but we are still having warm weather and not many trees have turned yet. Old hotel and post office buildings in Stanthorpe. The Stanthorpe area is renowned for its wineries, but as we have visited them quite a few times in the past we didn't bother this time. Then we drove for two and a half hours down the New England Highway to Armidale crossing the border from Queensland into New South Wales on the way.

We stayed in a little cabin in a tourist park.

We walked through the parks and town of Armidale and I was disappointed that the trees have not got their Autumn colours yet. There are many old historic buildings. Armidale is a University town and there are boarding schools for the outlying farmer's and station owner's children.

Wednesday 18 March

At Uralla we left the New England Highway and headed down Thunderbolt's Way to Gloucester. It is supposed to be a picturesque alternative route to Sydney. Captain Thunderbolt, (Frederick Ward) seen here on his horse was a famous bushranger in the 1800's. That's a real magpie on his hat. He was known as the Gentleman Bushranger, as he never killed anyone and was kind to battlers. So we are following his way through the mountains. The countyside was beautiful. Rolling green hills dotted with cattle and sheep at first. Then we climbed through eucalyptus forests over The Great Dividing Range.

We stopped at a lookout, unfortunately it was a bit hazy.

After a about three hours we came to another country town, Gloucester. We had lunch and then drove another hour through the beautiful green countyside of The Hunter Valley region to our friend's house at Windella, where we have been invited to stay for the next two nights.