20180603 NSW Kentucky, Armidale to Ebor

20180603 We were told to visit Kentucky a lovely little town with a great coffee shop so after leaving Walcha we thought, why not its only 35ks so off we go in search of this so called lovely little town.  Well if only you could have seen our face when we turned up, we were both dumb founded.

Yep! this is it, a convenient store and yes I'll admit it had a charming little coffee shop and the owner was a lovely guy who offered to opened up the hall for us to check out the old photos but why would anyone send you there.

Kentucky was a former soldier settlement with many orchards such as apples, pear, prunes, plums and cherries but in the 1960's to 1970's many orchardists were finding it difficult to make a living so the government introduced the ‘tree pull’ scheme enabling struggling orchardists to get the fruit trees removed and receive some compensation.  The orchardists diversified into sheep and cattle grazing, however due to the size of the small blocks it was impossible to make a living, and that was the end of an era for the town of Kentucky, sad but true.

Arriving in Armidale NSW when we spotted a market so why not check it out.
This was the most interesting thing at the market, don't ask me what it's called but its a sort of a lemon but has no juice and if you squeeze it you can see oil and it smells stronger than a lemon.  One person said it look like something from the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest.
The 1859 Court House opened on Saturday morning, the judge travelled during most of the night from Inverell anxious to get through all his business, he would work until a quarter of an hour before midnight, he only stopped then, because the next day was Sunday.  The court house was so cold that the Judge, reporters and all the officials would be wrapped in blankets and shivering.





As usual we arrived on a Sunday when everything's closed so we walked the streets did a bit of shopping and left heading towards Uralla.


Driving past Thunderbolt’s Rock (originally known as Split Rock or Big Rock) is significant to the bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt who attempted to hold up the mail at this site in 1863 but was shoot in the knee, he was one of NSW best known bushrangers.

The Monument of is significant to the bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt who went down in history as the bushranger who bailed up many innocent travellers, including the mail coach ‘stick up’ at Split Rock near Uralla.  The reward of £100 for his capture was later raised to £200 by 1867 & £400 in 1869, he was shoot dead in 1870 after a long chase on horseback, he was involved in more than 80 major hold-ups which netted him almost £20,000.

Our plan was to camp at Wollomombi for a couple of days but we missed the turnoff so we stopped at Dingo Fence Rest area instead.
Who would have thought anyone could be fascinated over the size of cow’s dung. I recon it’s the most excited I’ve seen Des this whole trip, he even stepped it out to see how big it was.









04-06-2018 We're woken to cattle being loaded into trucks or it could be rustler’s steeling cattle what would we know. After breaky we head to Ebor to hopefully camp up for a couple of day and take in the sites.

Time for a walk so off we go to to check out the Ebor Falls and to our surprise the water is plunging over the cliffs. There are two water falls at the gorge and we were told that the temperature can get to -14 where the falls have frozen over.





We had drinks with some fellow campers while sitting around the fire and I must say it was bloody freezing but we had a good laugh with one of the guys putting shit on me and Des loving it.

05-06-2018 Good by to the bloody freezing Ebor Falls as we get closer to the warmer climate, chugging over the Great Dividing Range at 20km an hour in some spots while looking for a place to camp. 

We finally stopped at Coutts Hotel where you can camp at the back for free if you buy a meal, yep that's us, get your money out Des I'm starving.










06-06-2018 State of Origin night so what do we do, find a pub and make dick heads of ourselves, opps, I mean my self or go straight home, why don't we see if Dave's home and stay there the night, bugger Dave's busy. 

The road works upgrade from Woolgoolga to Ballina, so it's following us for some miles.
The site of the Tuggen Tunnels, we are getting closer to home.
Home Sweet Home
Location: Kentucky NSW 2354, Australia

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