Day 18 was our second day in Tamworth after a pretty long drive the previous day where we arived fairly late and didn’t have time to do too much, so today was a day for looking round and finding things to keep the kids occupied. Luckily Jimi and Mazzy are happy in the outdoor environment and especially around animals so we had a couple of things lined up.

First up was Bicentennial Park, which had a load of stuff for the kids to play, as well a pretty good cafe and some water-play stuff. We may have had a lucky escape when we discovered the Water Play was out of action, but the kids let off steam regardless and me and Belinda relaxed with a cuppa. It was another day of perfect weather with clear blue skies and temperatures hovering about twenty. Van life and the roadtrip have so far been fantastic.

Next up was Tamworth Marsupial Park which was set in the fooothills amongst some beautiful scenery. Navigating these old-style windy bendy roads was increasily easy, especially havig surivived Kangaroo Valley a few days earlier, and with the schools being back parking was also a breeze.

Mazzy did her usual ‘Kangaroo-whisperer’routine and it was a good afternoon had by all.

That was most of the afternoon taken up, apart from tracking down a sports shop which sold footballs so Jimi could have a kick around with his Dad. As we found out a few days earlier, New South Wales is big on rugby and to some extent AFL, but not so much on the round-ball variety.

Anyhow, the footy was purchased and it was back to base (well Paradise caravan park to be precise). I had nother chat with my new best mate (there are loads of those at Caravan Parks) who was a bloke from Vic, newly retired, travelling round for a few months, maybe a year with his newly purchased motorhome. One of the things that you discover when traveling round these parks is that so many people, whether it single old-fellas, or newly retired couples, or families with young kds in tow, are looking for a time-out. Plenty of them are intent on spending the rest of their life on the road. Some have no plan, some return because they miss the grandkids.

But its interesting to chat to these people, and for us its been like an undiscovered world full of friendly people happy to tell you their story.

Anyway, onto the remainder of “the Tamworth Experience’ (good name for a dodgy sixties covers band?).

There is an old school friend of mine, Janine Bailey-Cooper, who I had not seen for thirty one years and we had pencilled in a reunion at one of the local pubs later that night, the Tamworth Arms. Small world etc etc, but Janine was a good friend at Moss Park which we attended from 1976 to 1980, and we did also bump into each other at South Trafford College a few years later. And here she is living in Tamworth of all places, and here were are on our roadtrip.

So with thirty one years without contact it was a great catch up indeed. We put the world to rights (can’t beleve were not all in political leadership roles) had a couple of beers and obviously talked about the good old days, as well as one or two friends that had left us or simply gone astray. Thank you Janine and family. In an almost mega Adelaide type moment, we thought our “firey-bloke’might have known Janines”Firey-bloke” but i don’t think the dots fully lined up. Long story short, Janinies huband Tom is the Zone Commander for Fire and Rescue NSW and our bloke is the Adeaide Metropolitan Commander.

And that was our whistle-stop tour of Tamworth. Like so many places, we are doing our best to skim the surface but we have to move on (comfy hotel bed awaits us in Cairns – gotta keep moving!).