20180308 NSW Ardlethan

20180308  All patched up, tetanus shot done, prescription filled now to find a spot to rest up for a couple of days to recover and hopefully get the TV fixed.  Ardlethan is only about 70ks and there’s an electrician’s so that will do me, there’s even power so I can blog.

Blogging and the odd video to help pass the time, I'm gonna go crazy.

Ardlethan is in the heart of the Riverina with few shops which boomed briefly in the 19^th century when gold was discovered followed by tin in 1912 which in the 1960’s was the largest in New South Wales but is now just a service town for the surrounding wheat and lamb properties.  No one is sure how the name came about but an interpretation is that ‘Ardlethan, is a Gaelic word for ‘hilly’ although I don’t know why because it appears flat to me.

The towns claim to importance is “The Home of the Kelpie” by having a bronze statue on display, but Casterton in Victoria claim they are, due to their annual Australian Kelpie Muster but the first kelpie was born near Casterton and the refinement of the breed occurred near Ardlethan so both towns have legitimate claims.  The article says it is important not to love a kelpie, to watch them in action herding sheep, it is to marvel at their intelligence while laughing at their initiative.

08-03-2018  We parked up, and were lucky enough to have landed a great shady spot. The injured one hops to bed for rest and sleep the day away while Des contacts the local electrician to repair our TV, bugger we need a new Arial, where the hell are we gonna get that.  Des walks the town and finds the pub and some locals to chat to and of cause the highlight is how his misses fell over a fire pit and slashed her leg.

Now that's what I call bloody cheap and all the money from the campers goes to the man shed to make things for the town with no profit to the Shire Council.

09-03-2018 After a long day of blogging and reading while Des makes more friends through the town he surprises me with Dinner from the Bowles Club, yummy crumbed chops, garlic beans, honey carrots and mashed potatoes covered in gravy with a note on top from the ladies saying “Get Well Soon” arr! how sweet.

11-03-2018 With no television, restricted to bed apart from a hop to the loo and if that wasn’t bad enough I was just about to have a shower when everything stopped, and the display panels flashing failure, failure, Oo shit, Des opens the door to the inverter and out poor’s smoke, Jesus what else can go wrong.  We hate phoning on a Sunday but have no choose, we’re so lucky to be in a friendly country towns as Rod the electrician was there in a flash.  The bad news is we need a new inverter and there are not cheap but at least we’re in a town with supplies and friendly people until we can get it sorted.

Des surprised me with Egg Benedict from Jo in the coffee shop across the road, Yummy.
Thanks Des

Inside the burnt out unit, that's not good.

12-03-2018 After phoning many dealers we found the only one in Australia and it’s at Wynnum, the bad news is because our electrician is not one of their dealers we can’t buy it but if we post the unit to them they will try to fix it, so after packing it up Des rushes it to the post office and there’s no express from this town and we missed the pick up today, this just gets better.

13-03-2018  Some good news Marilyn, Desie’s sister phoned and she can have the unit new unit from Wynnum delivered to us within a couple of days though a dealer at Victoria Point, Desi’s stress levels just enhanced not known what to do,  Yep let’s do it so he retrieves the old unit from the post office, now to wait for the delivery.  You know Des he’s always on the go so his daily routine was waiting on the cripple in bed, going for walks to the local drinking hole with the same story about his misses or chatting with new campers and telling the same story, I’m glad you found a great conversation piece Des, you’d have nothing to talk about if it wasn’t for me. 

It's slowly starting to look better, the bruising is coming out and I can now do short walks around the town.

14-03-2018 I need to get out I’m going crazy so I hobbled around the park and up the road and some passers-by said, arr, you’re the lady who fell over the fire pit, yep that would be me or I’d go for a coffer and Jo the owner said I thought you had a fall when I saw you limping across the road but then I was told what happened you poor thing, so I was the talk of the town.

Jo's Coffee Shop 

The best coffee in town & she make a mean burger, check out her delicious.  

This great business is for sale & the ones to chat with are Jo & her Husband. 

Des trying to be funny, that’s me with a sad face, you’ll no sad face when that eggs ends up on ya head, you’d at least think he could spell my name after 26 years.😡

17-03-2018 Des said its raffle night at the club so he’s taken me to dinner, gee another dinner date I am getting spoiled.  Once again the ladies at the club out did themselves but my favourite was there crumbed chops, unfortunately we won no raffles but that’s fine it was more about supporting the town and before going home we had some of the locals hug us and wished us the best and said to call in again. 

Annette, the chop queen who really knows how to cook a mean chops, she even shared her skills with us.

I haven't taken that photo you requested yet Annette but I will soon.

  Rod turned up and in goes the inverter, success she’s running, we decided to stay the night just to make sure there’s no miss haps, I'm sure Rod's hopping their isn't.

If you are ever in need of a caring electrician around Ardlethan well look no further, 

'Rod McDermott Electric" is the man for you, he pulled all strings to fit us into his busy schedule and this man was really busy.

His Mobile:042778255

Phone:0269782033

18-03-2018 We were up early to pack up and head off, we stayed 10 days in Ardlethan and not only did we finally learn to pronounce the name but we were beginning to feel like part of the community. We have stayed in many friendly country towns but we found the Ardlethan people lovely, happy and a caring community, Des and I both agreed we are really going to miss these bubbly people.

Thanks To The Ardlethan Community For Making Our Stay Special