Tamworth was our target, our first goal for 2016. The Tamworth Country Music Festival, now our third visit and probably not our last.

We meandered our way up through Albury, Gundagai, Cootamundra, Young, Canowindra, Orange, Wellington, Gulgong, Merriwa, Muswellbrook, and Scone,  some ground we’ve covered before but some new as well. Time prevented us from any serious exploration but it became quite apparent that there are quite a few places we will have to go back to in our NSW journeys. We did however make a stopover in historic Carcoar cos the sign said “the town that time forgot”. It is a fabulous little village dating back to 1840’s as is evident from some of these shots…..

We would have liked to have spent more time there and even walked up a few more hills but we still needed to get to Tamworth. We passed through more old NSW towns that we must go back to and explore fully.

We arrived in Tamworth on Monday 19 Jan. We were the first to the farm. Secured our favourite spot, caught up with owner Yvonne Richards, got a text from Suzie and Peter Ibbot and subsequently hit the Festival on Monday night with them. Dale and Cathy Cash along with Sue and Neville (outlaws) arrived Tuesday and Robyn on Wednesday. Dale and Cathy had organised tickets to a range of events so we were pretty well occupied then for the next few days (thanks you two). On Tuesday before the others arrived we saw The Wolverines again. Only two of the originals are still together but even with two new faces they were highly entertaining…..

The next few days were a whirl of activity starting with a poets breakfast on Wednesday – bloody hilarious, then Kasey Chambers that night – bloody loud. Thursday started with Darren Carr for breakfast and another hilarious morning was had by all. Walked Peel Street for the buskers of which there were plenty although none that we thought were stand0uts like last time – entertaining nonetheless….

Friday was for Graham Connors, an old hand and writer of many songs,  for other artists and he was good. Night was a concert in the park for the final of Toyota Starmaker (which somebody won)  followed by Lee Kernighan but we gave up when the rains came and retired for a drink back at camp.

Saturday started with the Cavalcade but the rains dampened most spirits but 100 odd floats still made their way through town….

then the afternoon was devoted to Sara Storer (who was good) followed by The Bushwackers who were also good fun. Saturday night was bbq with the Richards family….

Dale and Cathy and Sue and Neville left on Sunday and we rested until evening when we saw Murphy’s Pigs over dinner – good Irish entertainment but bloody loud.

There are some 1800 events on in Tamworth over the 10 days. A very large percentage are free, but even the paid events aren’t expensive, typically 12 – 30 dollars but still the monies disappeared quickly. The real pity is you can’t see everything so you have to keep going year after year to find what you like best. We’ll see!

We’ve covered about 1200 km to this point. Coming the back way saw a lot of uphill travel so the fuel economy of last year has dropped away a bit to 20.3 l/100km but on the plus side fuel has been cheaper again than last year – many fills at $1.10 /l