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Yesterday we contacted the Information Centre in Glen Innes to ask if the road between Narrabri and Glen Innes was open and he assured us it was so we decided to move on and get closer to where we wanted to be. We had a pretty good run with only a few lower areas covered in water that we needed to negotiate, luckily it wasn't very deep and we just needed to be careful of the road underneath the water. It was a long slow trip but we wanted to take it easy in the circumstances. We arrived in Glen Innes and then went in search of the showgrounds which weren't that hard to find. There was a sign at the entrance to the showgrounds to say it was full but we decided to go to the office and ask anyway and luckily we were able to get a spot. It is an excellent showgrounds and camping area and we soon found a spot we liked and then set up, we have booked for three nights. When we were set up we drove into town to pick up a few items we need and then back to camp to do the few jobs we need to take care of. A quiet night tonight, it became a bit cool as the night went on but we pulled the heater out and we are now quite comfortable.
The next day we were up with a bit of a plan, after doing the couple of jobs we needed to do we drove to the information centre to find out what we needed to see in the area. The person we spoke to was very helpful and we left he centre with a pile of brochures and a bit of an idea of where we wanted to go. Firstly we drove to the Australian Standing Stones which are only a few minutes out from the town centre. These stones are man made and had been carved in the bush in around the 1980's and set up as Celtic stones were to show when the solstices were and when the best time was to plant and harvest their crops, there are 24 stones in the circle, one for each hour of the day. It is impressive and apparently there is an annual Celtic festival held here, that would be well worth a visit. From here we drove to Martin's lookout where you can overlook the entire town, this lookout is just a couple of minutes drive from the stones.
Back in the car heading towards the Super Strawberry, a strawberry farm on the outskirts of town. There is lots of local produce here on display and apparently they make a good coffee. Robb was interested in having strawberries and cream but it looked like service was a bit slow and there were already 10 people waiting for orders. We drove back to town from here to do the historical buildings walk down the main street. We love a good building and there were lots to see here, we were also interested in the fact that the original families still owned some of the businesses in town and had been in the same building for all that time, our particular favourite was the Town Hall which was a very impressive building right in the middle of town. We came to a gelato shop and thought we would see what they had to offer and walked out with a cone each and continued our strolling down the street.
It was still quite early so we thought we would drive to Glencoe to visit the Red Lion Hotel an Historic hotel in the style of the old English roadside hotels that offered accommodation to weary travelers along the road. Unfortunately it was closed down and up for sale. I was looking forward to sitting and having a beer in an old English tavern but not to be. On our way back to town we stopped and looked at the balancing stone and called into a park that had quite a few very large boulders.
Our last day in Glen Innes was to be an easy day. We drove into town to fill our prescriptions and pick up a bit of shopping and then we drove to Emmaville to the Mining Museum. To be honest we have probably seen our fill of museums in our travels but thought we would check this one out because of the mining aspect and we were so glad we did. This has to be one of the best museums we have been to, not only was everything well organised and displayed but there was a variety of information in each area. The display of stones and gems took up two rooms and then there were about another six rooms all with various subjects. I was particularly impressed with the war display which had so many photos and personal items and covered each war from WW1 on, apparently the lady who maintains this display still has a lot of information at home and they are building another room to house all these objects. From here we decided to proceed along the tourist track which led us to Deepwater, we did not stop at the brewery but drove onto the old railway station which is quite picturesque and is being used as a local radio station so was not open for inspection. We drove back to Glen Innes from here because I had a few jobs to do back at the van. Tomorrow we are moving onto Yamba where we have booked ahead because next weekend is Easter and we wanted to make sure we had a site.
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