Trip to Armidale to see Sam

Sam moved up to Armidale NSW for Uni at the start of this year.  Jenny and I drove up to see her as she has moved into different shared accommodation which Jen had not seen and we thought it would be a nice trip.

It is fourteen hours drive from Ferntree Gully to Armidale so we booked an overnight stop at Dubbo, which is just five hours short of Armiday and would mean a very long drive for us that day.  But doing that would give us more time with Sam.  It was an easy drive and we had a few stops on the way, including this slow down for cattle on the road around Dubbo..


 
Next day we left Dubbo fairly early and headed for Armidale. I have stayed here before, on the way back from Queensland.  We found Sam's new home and met up with one of her housemates, and the dogs - three of them which they were in the process of bathing.  Leaving them to it we left to book  into our motel and then waited for Sam to join us.

Dinner that evening was in the New England Hotel after which we had a walk around the town centre.

Walking back through the town we came across the federal members office - Jenny insisted on taking a photo as she knew how much I admired our polliies - Not!  This one, Barnaby especially can be a it of a twit.

Next morning we met up for breakfast in the shopping centre and then had a trip out to Uralla which we had driven through on the way up - it is only about half an hour out of Armidale.  The town looked interesting to us as we came through and it was. There were some craft shops and other nicky nacky shops.  The town plays on its connections with Captain Thunderbolt, a bush ranger in these parts in the early days.

In the afternoon Sam took us for a tour of the town, taking in the uni, the railway station and the rather nice brick buildings in the town.  It was very prosperous in the late 1800's - due to the good grazing for sheep hereabouts. It still has a lot going for it now, the uni is probably a large employer here.

We were able to go onto the station platform even though the rest of the station was locked. .

The station is pretty nice but there is only one daily train to Sydney.  

Jen and Sam at the view point of the town.  It was pretty windy and cold by now. 

This redbrick convent had a rather attractive garden.  I have never seen lichen in blossom before.

Next day we left for home again.  Our plan was to stop off at Tamworth and then at Siding Spring.
Sam drove Jenny to Tamworth to join us for breakfast at the Golden Guitar.  We had a nice hour or so there before Sam returned home and Jen and I continued on to Siding Spring.

Obligatory photos in front of the guitar

Jenny and I got to Siding Spring just as it was closing - which was funny because as we parked I said we can only spend half an hour here before heading off again - we had a long way to go.

The reason we wanted to come here was to see the beginning of the Solar System Drive. We had picked up most of the planets on our trip out.

The view from the observatory

The smallest planet - Pluto looks a bit yellow against the galaxies.

The largest planet

and Earth.  All base boards are the same size .

After leaving Coonabarabran we headed back onto the highway and Jenny booked accommodation for us via her phone so we knew we were aiming for West Wyalong.  We did have one more stop at Forbes as we wanted to look at the very pretty park we had seen when we stopped for petrol on the way up.

Victoria Park Forbes.

From there we drove the short way to West Wyalong, getting there just on dusk.  The front of the car was black with dead insects, as was the windscreen.  We stopped for petrol to save doing that in the morning and Jenny made a good job of the windscreen. I could see where we were going now!

Next day we drove straight home, stopping for lunch at Narrandera which again, is a nice little country town, really small though.  In the information centre we found yet another big guitar - the biggest playable one apparently.

It had been a very nice long weekend, starting Thursday morning, having Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning with Sam and then driving home Sunday after breakfast, arriving back in Ferntree Gully late Monday.  Jenny had a short break and then moved the stuff that Sam wanted returned to Drouin from my car to her car and headed home.