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.

 

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 10

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

Today is departure day for everyone to head home from Stanthorpe except for us.  We still have a week of holidays to enjoy since the boys got our awning fixed.  Yippee!

We had to wait for everyone to leave before we could hitch up.  Everyone's going to Sutton's for Apple Pie, we'll pass as we are not fans of Sutton's and it's the wrong way for us anyway.  For us, we are heading to Tenterfield for the night.  We'll stay in the caravan park overnight because the caravan batteries are now down to 6% after 5 Days without power and the solar panels don't seem to be putting enough back into the battery.  Something to look into when we get home.

Didn't take long to get to Tenterfield, we went straight to the Tenterfield Lodge and Caravan Park, which is across the road from the Railway Museum and the reason we stopped here overnight again.  Booked into a drive through powered site and got set up, air con on again.  Unfortunately the reason for stopping here to look at the Railway Museum again is not going to happen.  Sadly the museum was broken into on Friday night and vandalised, so is closed for repairs for the next week.  Very sad this has happened, what is the world coming to.

Tenterfield Lodge and Caravan Park > $42.00/night for 2 people. Power/Water, lovely camp kitchen, communal campfire, cabins, Pet Friendly.  A nice small park.

Decided we'd try the Tenterfield Tavern for lunch in air conditioning.  Quite a nice pub, yummy food, large portion and friendly staff.  Finished lunch and went for a drive around town and found ourselves following Tourist Route 9, which took us up to Mt Mackenzie Lookout.  Absolutely stunning scenery, with massive boulders and hills.  Saw cows, sheep, goats and donkeys roaming freely.  The lookout was a complete surprise, a marvellous view.

Tourist Route 9

Police Station and Goal

Loo at the Lookout

Mt Mackenzie Lookout

Followed the loop road back into town which took way less time LOL.  Back to camp to do some washing and then go for a walk around the caravan park.  Amenities are old but clean and they have gone to the effort of putting little touches such as scented reeds and beautiful smelling hand soap in there and also the laundry.  Big timber platforms you put down in the shower cubical so you're not standing on the wet floor to get dressed.

Camp Kitchen

Well equipped Camp Kitchen

Communal Fire Pit

Office

Craig decided we'd cook dinner in the camp kitchen tonight and watch the news, so we gathered up our supplies and wandered over.  The camp kitchen has everything you'd need and was clean and tidy, which is how we left it when done.  After our big lunch today we didn't need much dinner, so had hot dogs with onion, bacon, cheese, mustard and homemade butcher hot dog sausages from our local butcher.

Met our neighbours next door that arrived late in the afternoon in a massive Lotus caravan towed by a GMC RAM type vehicle.  Craig just looked at me and said "no" LOL!  We've been an hour behind all day since we crossed the border into NSW, completely forgot about daylight savings!!

The park is a very pleasant place to stay.

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 9

   Day 9:  Sunday 3/3/24 - Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Festival

Final day today for the Festival and we're up early due to not sleeping well and worrying about how to fix this awning this morning.  The minute we surfaced everyone came over to look at the damaged awning and discussions commenced between Craig, Razzle, Tommy and Craig .5 as to what could be done to fix it so we could roll it in securely and continue our holiday......

Well the guys came up with a plan, disassembling the awning on the outside edge, legs, arms and fittings came off and then they started trying to bend it back into shape with pieces of timber and using a pipe next to the water tank to lever it over.  If you go anywhere, you really need to get yourself a Craig .5 to take along, he comes out with an angle grinder and lots of other stuff you just wouldn't normally take camping 😆  and somehow they fixed it, well enough to get it rolled up and locked into place so we could continue our holiday!!  Thank you guys xo  It doesn't look pretty with cuts in the facing panel but hey, it closes and opens!

Okay, now to enjoy today's festivities which are in the park.  You need to buy tickets to get into the park which has wine tasting, entertainment, bands and food trucks.  You can either buy a day ticket for either Saturday or Sunday or a weekend ticket.  We drove down today in case wine was purchased and everyone was over the long walk.  Doreen and the girls went down earlier in Jon's car to secure a place for us to sit for the day and also took a pergola down for shade over the table.

Paid our entrance fee and headed straight to the German Sausage food truck (love me a good german sausage!) for breakfast.  OMG the best ever german sausages we've had, even husband agreed!  Joined everyone else at our little spot for the day - the girls did well securing a picnic table and extra chairs for all 12 of us.  Razzle laid out the plan for the day of wine tasting, we start at one end of the stalls and one variety at a time  eg.  Verdelho and go along the stalls of wineries and taste just that variety, if they don't have a Verdelho then you move onto the next stall and then start again on the next variety.  Then everyone chooses 2 wines to share with food, before going tasting again - sounds straight forward.  Being the designated driver today, I partook in some tastings or had a sip of Craig's instead.

Lunch, WOW is all I can say.  Craig and I went to the Brazilian food truck and had their Brazilian BBQ Platter > Rump Cap, Smokey Chorizo, Marinated Chicken, Pulled Pork, Salad and Chips for $33.00.  Holy Shiet, it was absolutely delicious!!  Sorry no photos due to being hungry and it being so delicious 😆

Our friend Jill gave each couple of little surprise,  a water pistol - what could possibly go wrong now!!    Well the water pistols erupted into a full blown water fight and nobody was safe LOL  We had people running around chasing each other, tackling each other, hiding behind other people, random people walking by getting squirted, running back and forth to the tap, it was just  complete carnage and absolutely hilarious!!

The only photo I took the whole day, can you guess why.....LOL

Eventually it was time to head back to camp and I wanted to have a glass of wine now!  Grabbed some Stanthorpe cheeses to take back and Craig comes back smiling from ear to ear because he's bought 3lts of Barrel Port from Flame Hill Winery 😳😵  Back at camp, nibbles out, campfire going and Craig's got nearly everyone drinking this port tonight LOL  There are going to be some dusty people tomorrow morning I think!

 

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 8 Part B

   Day 8:  Saturday 2/3/24 - Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Festival

Part B

Most of us headed back into town on foot around 6pm to watch the fireworks.  Stopped at the Top Pub for a drink on our way in as you do, then tried a small plate of what Razzle describes as the world's best chips from Shannon's Chips - they were pretty good actually.  There are plenty of food vans to choose from for dinner or you've got the pubs and restaurants around town to enjoy as well.  Down to the park to grab a spot to watch the fireworks that will be set off on the bridge just in front.  

Storm activity in the sky while we await the fireworks to start.  Hopefully they won't come through or be nasty if they do.

It was quite a unique experience to watch the fireworks so close to where we were sitting in the park.

Fireworks were great!  Afterwards we headed to the Brewhouse nearby for drinks and some dinner.  Nice venue with a great outdoor area at the back and pizza was delicious.

While there, a storm rolled in that was quite nasty and we hoped that our mates back at camp would drop the legs on our awning 🤞because we could not make it back in time to do it ourselves.  More on that later.

Once the storm had passed, we headed off to the next pub while the other girls had left earlier to see if the bands were still playing on the outside stages.  Unfortunately due to the severity of the storm all outside activities had been cancelled.  Had another drink at the Central Hotel then Craig and I headed back to camp after luckily grabbing a lift in a cab with someone Craig knew staying at the same caravan park.  Cabs were a little hard to find.

Arriving back at our camp, we were faced with a very broken awning that unfortunately our mates did not get a chance to lower for us when the storm hit.  After the initial shock and devastation wore off and 😞, we decided nothing could be done that night so cleaned up the debris around the place and went to bed. Craig spent time looking up the price of a new Fiamma awning and we pondered the fact that if he can't fix the awning so we can roll it in securely, then we may have to pull it off and head home early 😞

Certainly was not going to be a sound sleep tonight.

  

Apple and Grape Festival Holiday - Feb/March 2024 - Day 8 Part A

  Day 8:  Saturday 2/3/24 - Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Festival

Part A

Up early, shower first up so we're nice fresh for our first big day of the festival.  Cheese Kransky and tin spaghetti for breakfast, no toast due to the bread going mouldy because it's been as hot as the surface of the sun for days!  Our tour leader Doreen - side note on Doreen: our mate Doreen was born and bred in Stanthorpe, her family owned an Apple farm, she even won Miss Lovely Legs back in 1976 or something like that.  She was also the Apple and Grape Queen one year many moons ago when she was young  😆), right back to the story.  Tour Leader Doreen said we were departing at 9.30am for wine tastings at Symphony Wines, followed by Ballendean Wines and finishing with Jester Hill Wines.

Off set the convey arriving perfectly at 10am to be the first  for tastings at Symphony Hill Wines.  We all filed into the tasting room and basically filled it up with 12 of us - we have a couple of Doreen's "other" mates who are staying in town tagging along.

I did pity the poor fellow doing the wine tastings, it was challenging to say the least but also very entertaining for all involved and I think he was having as much fun as we all were.  At the end of all the tastings and purchases, he actually thanked us for making the start of his day really great.  Interestingly, out the back in the factory they have these awesome terracotta urns with wine fermenting in them.  With no barrel to influence the taste of the wine, it is apparently the purest form of wine and not to everyone's liking. 

A lovely mural looms behind the urns, specially painted for them of Sophia Lorenz, Penelope Lopez and Gina Lollobrigida - very unique.

Now, these urns are handmade in Tuscany, Italy by a 91 year old man who is legally blind and makes them totally by feel.  The Winery commissions him to make the urns for them and then ship them over to Australia.  They also have a ceramic egg as they call it, made in France and shipped over.

Overall we found their reserve wines were quite nice and we joined the wine club to receive 6 whites and 6 reds twice a year.  We also bought 6 mixed bottles of the ones we like to take on holidays with us.

Load 'em up and move 'em out, onwards to Ballendean Estate Wines now.  Wouldn't believe it hey, bumped into my cousins husband at Ballendean Winery, he's also from Stanthorpe and he also was there with a mate for the Festival, while my cousin is attending a Wedding Expo as she's a Celebrant.  Been ages since I've seen Laurel-Lea and Stuart, well didn't get to see Laurel-Lea 😋

Having a fun day wine tasting and it's like rent a crowd when we all arrive somewhere, we're quite loud and there's a lot of us - it's quite funny.  Not sure what the Lady doing our wine tastings at Ballendean Estate  made of us all, but she was kept busy back and forth along the bar making sure everyone was tasting what they wanted.  They had some wonderful locally made small goods/condiments to browse through as well.  I managed to find a tomato relish, black garlic paste, black truffle mustard, smoked garlic salt and black truffle and garlic salt.  Also pick up a mustard for our neighbour Michelle for keeping an eye on our place while we're gone.  Grabbed a couple of bottles of wine we enjoyed and a Mead as well.

Craig's big purchase (except it was free), was the pink pencil (he likes pink) we were using to make tasting notes - it's like having a child sometimes I tell you. 😆

Right, we took so long to get through these two wineries, some needed to head back to town so we could make the Grand Parade.  Dropped our car back at camp and jumped in with Craig .5 and Kylie for the trip downtown.  Grabbed some lunch from a food truck - Karaage  Chicken and Japanese Curry, was really bloody yummy.  Made our way up to the main street to find a spot in the shade to watch the Grand Parade.

The parade went for quite some time with comical figures walking around to entertain the crowds, Bagpipe bands a plenty, Festival floats, old cars and tractors, Fire Brigade Trucks, finishing of course with the Police car and all the time you had commentating going on to let you know what was what.  You don't get to experience an old fashion Grand Parade that much these days.  The temperature today was insanely hot, I felt sorry for the participants.

Comical figures entertaining everyone

Who remembers good ole Bill and Ben the Flower pot men!

Once the parade was done, we headed back to the camp site for a swim.