Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 11

   Day 10:  Monday 4/3/24 - Tenterfield - Inverell

Heading to Deepwater today, plan currently is to camp at the Top Pub but of course have a beer at the Longhorn Bar and Grill also.  See how the day pans out.

Firstly though Craig wants to go have a look at Thunderbolts Hideout and the Anti Tank post and wall.  Unfortunately the walk to Thunderbolts Hideout is very over grown and it has started to rain.  We moved onto the Anti Tank wall and Craig just got out to read the information board about it, while I found  a place for us to turn around with the caravan attached.  Still getting used to the fact we are a lot bigger now with the caravan compared to the camper on the back of Craig's ute.  Seems we are not the only people needing to turn around on this road on the Great Dividing Range, a well used turn around area utilising an entrance to a property was found about a 100m up the road.

Stopped at Deepwater Bakery for breakfast, bloody good pies and apple turnover was good too apparently.  Well worth a stop if you are passing through.  Too early to stop so onwards to Glen Innes and see what we find.  Scenery is very pretty along the way with rolling green hills.  First stop in Glen Innes is the Information Centre and picked up some info on the sights to see and the Heritage Walking Tour pamphlet.  Asked where was the best place to park the car and van to do the walking tour and we were told to park out the back of the information centre.  That done, Heritage Walking Tour map in hand and off we went. The buildings are quite old, elaborate and beautiful with such history.

So husband wasn't happy with my telling of the buildings history and what was what, so I thought perhaps stopping for a beer at the end of the main street in the Heritage Pub might be a good idea and give him an attitude adjustment 😋  Some features of the old pub were lovely, but disappointingly old mate behind the bar when asked about the history of the pub knew absolutely nothing and shrugged his shoulders ......  really!  We didn't really get a good feeling about Glen Innes or the caravan park, so we decided to move onto a mates home town for the night.

Before leaving Glen Innes there is one more sight to go see, the Celtic Stones.  What a pleasant parklands surround the stones and the stone cottage.  There is a new arbour area currently being constructed which will look lovely when completed.

Moving onto Inverell for the night, where our mate Andy hails from.  The drive from Glen Innes to Inverell produced some very pretty scenery and wind farms.

Wind Farm in the distance

Such a pretty drive

What's to see in Inverell I hear you ask, which is what we asked also.  Well there's a National Transport Museum, Pioneer Village, a lovely River Walk into town.  I found a love small Caravan Park on the McIntyre River to stay at > Inverell Caravan Park.  We need power again tonight, batteries still aren't charging off the solar.

First impressions of Inverell :  very pretty little town with a good friendly feel to it.  Booked into the Inverell Caravan Park > small park, 4.5 star amenities with under floor heating, heated towel racks - they are just WOW!! Swimming Pool, Camp Kitchen, Bird Aviaries, Dump Point, lovely friendly Managers and very well kept park.  Cabins and Pet Friendly.  $38.00/night power and water.

Fabulous Amenities

We were given a corner site opposite the amenities, so got set up, unhitched and went for a drive around Inverell to have a look and grab some lunch. 

 Tried the Tatts Hotel but unfortunately we were 15mins late because we are still running on Queensland time!  Arrhhhh daylight savings!  So we had a drink at the Tatts Hotel, then went for a walk around town looking for something that was open for lunch.  We must have looked like lost puppies or something, an Inverell native  who hopped out of his car nearby stopped and asked if we needed help.  He was very helpful rattling off a few places that should still be open for lunch, then being a NSW's man couldn't help but have a dig at us Queenslanders LOL  After seeing if The Union Bar and Grill or Welders Dog were open, which they were not, we opted for the little cafe we passed on the corner proudly displaying they were open until 4pm.

Somebody reliving their youth having a spider to drink

Back to camp for afternoon drinks and nibbles and to discuss where to for dinner.  Our mate suggested the RSM was always a good feed (which is equivalent to the Qld RSL's), but we had the Bowlo or Sporties Club right across the road, so we could just walk there.  To be fair we did look at both the menus online and Sporties for us was the clear winner.  With that sorted shower and off to dinner.  It's a bizarre concept this daylight savings and twilight (twilight we don't get in Qld).  We headed over to the Bowlo about 6.30pm, it's still warm and the sun is blazing away in the sky and it actually feels like it's about 3.30 or 4.30pm.  It just seems wrong to be eating dinner while the sun's still up LOL  but the kitchen at the Bowlo closes at 8pm and we want to have a drink before dinner.

Sporties/Bowlo > very nice venue.  Again a round of drinks (schooner of craft beer Stone and Wood or 150 Lashes and large glass of NZ Sav Blanc) is under $20, which has been the case since leaving the Sunshine Coast and we get the same drinks every time.  We ordered dinner because it was quite busy and people were still streaming in.  Not bad numbers for a Tuesday we were thinking.  Craig ordered the Smokey BBQ Pork Chop with chilli bacon jam, paprika wedges and slaw - WOW, WOW, WOW according to Craig.  I had the Hawaiian Chicken Snitty with Chips and Salad which was also very yummy.  We both said we'd eat here again, it was that enjoyable.

As we headed home after 8pm, the sun was just disappearing for the day.  We talked about whether we would head off tomorrow after seeing the National Transport Museum, but decided we'll stay another night because there is the Pioneer Village to see also and we should go have lunch at The Union Bar and Grill because it's a cool building and also have a drive at the Welder's Dog for our mate.  We can always go back to the Sporties club for dinner again 😋

We'll see what tomorrow brings after we see if we can stay another night at the caravan park.  First job in the morning.  For this evening, time to watch the Formula One.