Road Trippin – Day 3 – Bellingen to Tamworth

I checked the weather forecast for day 3 and no matter where I decided to ride to the weather Gods forecast rain. At the Mountain Lookout Retreat, the evening of day 2, the weather changed from warm to strong winds with clouds forming. My room was a single room with a sliding glass door and a sliding insect door. I slept with the sliding glass door open and this wasn’t the best idea due to the loud winds, needless to say, I didn’t sleep very much. I was also anxious about the rain forecast for the morning and worrying about how I was going to make it to Tamworth in the rain.

The morning of day 3, the winds had calmed down and even though there was a hint of rain I could tell I had about an hour or two before the heavens opened. It was only a matter of time.

I had everything packed and ready to go at 8:00am, I said thank you to reception staff and was on my way….in very windy conditions. Riding a bike this big in conditions like this through two state forests isn’t easy. An hour into the ride and it started to rain. I stopped and changed jackets but my Redwing 8112 boots were soaked and so were my deerskin leather gloves. The speed limit on the road was 100 and here I was averaging 70. I wanted to get to Tamworth safely, but just imagine having a fall in the state forests with no one around to help, so it made sense to ride safely. It is always sensible to ride safely!!

Leaving Dorrigo mountain at 8:10am I rode through Ebor, Armidale where I stopped for breakfast, the Cathedral Rock national park, Uralla which is a very cozy town and one that I wish I stayed a bit longer in, before finally arriving in Tamworth at 2:00pm. I am a sucker for beautiful views so I stopped at every opportunity to take some amazing shots.

Arriving in Tamworth I was excited, looking forward to the bars and making new friends. It was quiet! At first I thought it was probably because it was a Saturday? Maybe it was late in the afternoon? Where were all the country music bars that I was told about?? Anyway, I decided to take it easy when I got there and then decided to head out later in the night.

I found a couple of bars at the end of Peel street not far from where I was starting at CH on Peel which is a nice boutique hotel. The bars both had live bands playing but not the country music I was looking forward to, nothing like the Nashville I was thinking!! Instead there was a band playing 80s music, the name of the band – ‘All Access 80s‘. Cool name and a very cool band!!

For some reason though it just didn’t feel like the Tamworth I had heard so much about 🙁

It was a fun night but it was getting late and so I decided to head back to the hotel.

And that’s it for day 3!! Tomorrow I will get a feel for Tamworth! Until then…

Derek Halstead is a SharePoint consultant as well as the founder and principal of CertifiedSolutionsAustralia.com and CoolWriteups.com. He has 16 years of experience in the IT industry, with over ten years focused on Microsoft SharePoint. He can be reached by using the Contact Me link in the top menu.
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