Heading off...Plan B

 After a pleasant morning with my U3A Birding group at the Casino Wetlands Michael picked me up and we were off. 

Between me leaving at 7.30 and departure time at 10.30 Michael had decided that his old favourite, Kookaburra Camp at Deepwater was our destination tonight. I'm happy with that as there are always plenty of birds to see and he can kick off with a fire.

By the time we arrived in Tenterfield there was a noticeable drop in the temperature from 18 to 13. While we were having lunch another van pulled in beside us...some people sure do like to stand out in the crowd!


Sadly the occupants didn't look anything like their murals!

We had the entire Kookaburra Camp to ourselves so Michael wasted no time getting his fire roaring...with a little help from his latest idea.




Friday 17th
After a pretty ordinary night's sleep due to some wild winds and heavy intermittent rain we were in no hurry to get moving. The morning was thick with fog but the showers were delightfully warm.


We decided to stop at Riverside Park in Bendemeer for lunch only to discover the park was a bit more 'riverside' than normal. A local council worker informed us they had had 80ml of rain overnight and we had some local flooding to look out for. In the picture below there is a low level bridge between us and the big bridge! Fortunately we weren't planning on a bbq lunch.

We soon found out he was correct as progress through Tamworth was slow due to there being only one way across the river
Our first plan to get to Spring Ridge was closed so it was on to Plan B. This access also had a closed road sign but there were vehicles coming the opposite way so after a bit of a chat we continued on. Despite a few causeways with water there were no real dangers so we rolled into Spring Ridge slightly later than planned but without any other problems.
We enjoyed a drink in the sunshine before dinner.


There was a large group in the dining room and one lady explained it was the last night of a week long gathering of 'sulky riders'. They go out each day on horse drawn sulkies exploring the local roads. After a while a chap came in and Michael felt he seemed familiar. I heard him say something about being a butcher and at that Michael turned, pointed and said John the butcher.....John replied with 'Michael Munro!' At that we joined their group and the night was on.

Saturday, 18th
After a walk around Spring Ridge which only took about 10 minutes and a reviving coffee we were on our way. Again we were faced with a Road Closed sign but after a chat with an oncoming car we continued on our way. Taking the detour would have added 3 hours to our trip and we didn't encounter any issues. 
We took a slight detour into Dunedoo to see the silo art. One side has the artists young son in a local scene and the other side depicts the champion racehorse Winx. His jockey Hugh Bowman was born and bred in Dunedoo.


Then it was on to Mudgee. This town has become a trendy go-to place for City folk for weekends in the country so lots of touristy shops, breweries and wineries.
We took a walk along the sculpture trail on the riverbank, visited the information centre which had a series of the Brolga mating dance  and sampled one of the breweries. I particularly liked the kangaroo sculpture called 'Jack Thompson' inspired by his famous Cleo centrepiece.




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