The Tamworth Country Music Festival

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Mike

The Country Music Festival is coming to it’s peak, as more people arrive for the long Australia Day weekend. The riverside campground, where I am camped, is full with the new arrivals having to search high and low for a spot. Those of us who arrived early in the week are not giving up our shady spots though ! I reckon there must be more RVs here than anywhere else in the country at the moment, from small campervans up to mammoth motorhomes. And then there are those of us in caravans and tents, and some just with their swags.
The first few days were stinking hot, then we had a cool spell, now it seems the closing weekend is going to be hot, hot, hot….luckily the beer is cold though !
My favourite act so far ? 8 Ball Aitken, easily…Most people would n’t call it country music, it’s a mix of blues, rockabilly, honky-tonk swamp, but whatever you want to call it he puts on a great show. Last night was his final show at the Courthouse Hotel, and he had the house rocking. At one point he had the bar manager and staff up and dancing on one counter while he climbed up on another bar top and showed off his guitar skills. He has got a couple more shows here at the festival, before going back on the road. He tours Australia and USA, plus elsewhere, so if he comes to a bar near you check him out ..http://www.8ballaitken.com/
I went to see Kasey Chambers do her free concert in the park the other night …good show except for the security people a bit heavy on the no photos rule. The official photographers had only 3 songs to get their shots, and then EVERYBODY at the front with a half decent camera/tele lens was told to put their camera away….never mind that people were recording the whole show on their ipads and iPhones, or taking perfectly good photos with compacts. I just sat down and took a few shots when I could anyway….
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few :

Has the driver of this ute been on a pub crawl ?

Has the driver of this ute been on a pub crawl ?

The symbol of Tamworth, the Golden Guitar

The symbol of Tamworth, the Golden Guitar

Kasey Chambers

Kasey Chambers

Street busker

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Kelly Cork, lead vocals and guitar of "The Rain"

Kelly Cork, lead vocals and guitar of “The Rain”

Tonight I’m off to see Lee Kernaghan do his concert in the park if the weather stays OK, otherwise I’ll be going to see 8-Ball again. Hopefully more pics in a couple of days ?

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One month on the road

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Mike

Well, it’s been just over a month since I left, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by my expenses. I’ve been keeping track of the various costs in a simple spreadsheet, as I expected fuel has been the biggest expense, at $800 or 54%. Of course, driving up and down the mountains in low gear has not done the fuel economy any good but at 10.1lt/100km it is not too bad either.
I’ve averaged just over $50/day, or $1500 a month, which is less than I expected, mainly because I’ve managed to freecamp nearly every night. However I’m going to be at the Tamworth Country Music Festival ( http://www.tcmf.com.au/ ) for the next week or so, so I’m sure that will change the budget figures ! I will not be driving much, but the food, drink and miscellaneous categories will increase considerably ……

I still have n’t got anywhere with the new passport process (https://latitudesandattitudes.net/2012/11/14/good-news-and-bad-news/) as the citizenship people cannot find any reference to my naturalisation. As it was 30+ years ago, long before computers, they have had to look through the old files and indexes but cannot find anything. It’s all so ridiculous, I’ve had 2 australian passports and entered or left the country about 50 times on them, you would think that could simply look up my first passport application and get my details from that ? Oh no, the Passport Office is a different section of the same department so they cannot access the file ! And of course, what is more ridiculous is that in order to get my new passport I have to get a certificate of citizenship , and to prove my ID for the certificate I had to show my current passport !
As I had not heard back from them within the service time they promise in their “Charter of Service” I wrote a complaint on the departmental feedback webpage. I got a message on my phone within 24 hours asking me to ring them, but all they could do was apologise and say they are still looking for the file ! I just hate to think what paperwork will be involved if they cannot find the details ? I hope it does n’t come down to that, it will probably be horrendous !!

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Some more rodeo pics.

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Mike

Apologies for the silence, but I have been out of mobile phone/internet range lately. I was going to camp at one spot in the mountains that did have access to 3G, at 3 Mile Dam, but the place was over run with march flies, and I just had to move on !! I know I’ve got one reader at http://buffaloranchandgift.wordpress.com/2013/01/ who liked my photos from the Jindabyne rodeo, so here are some from the Tumbarumba rodeo held a few days later.
Tumbi rodeo-11

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Tumbi rodeo-9

Tumbi rodeo-8

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One would be cowboy :

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and one air-borne bull watches the cowboy hit the dirt:

Tumbi rodeo-3

Tumbi rodeo-2

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Roadside Mail Boxes

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Mike

Most, in fact nearly all, mailboxes in suburbia tend to be the generic ones bought from the hardware store. Driving around in the country you will see much more originality in peoples’ mail boxes. Here are a few I’ve seen over the last couple of days :

I hope they made sure this gas bottle was COMPLETELY empty before they started cutting into it !

I hope they made sure this gas bottle was COMPLETELY empty before they started cutting into it !

RMB-3

This car was the most apt mailbox, as the house is situated at the bottom of Conrod Straight, on Bathurst’s Mt Panorama motor racing cicuit :

RMB-4

RMB-5

RMB-6

This house had it’s own motocross circuit in it’s front yard, so I guess an old motorbike is appropiate ?

RMB-7

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Paddy’s River Falls

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Mike

Paddy's River Falls

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When I saw this waterfall signposted I thought about driving straight past, thinking it would probably be just a trickle by now, being the middle of summer with no rain for some time now …. I was wrong. They are about 18kms south of Tumbarumba, NSW, if any readers are ever in that area they are worth stopping for.

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Been there, done that ….Australia’s highest town

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Mike
Australia's highest town

Australia’s highest town

Cabramurra was originally built to house the workers on the Snowy Mountains scheme 60 years ago, now just a relative few remain working for the Snowy Hydro as it is now known. At around 1460m it is not particularly high by world wide standards, but it is for Australia.

When I first came through here about 25 years ago one of the residents was building a large yacht behind the service station. It’s gone now, so perhaps he is sailing the high seas somewhere. Perhaps retired to sail amont tropical islands after a living in a town snowbound in winter ?

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