Day 6 of our trip East...

Florida Rest Area to

Armidale

(624km)

Well today was going to be the last proper day on our trip as after our kilometers today we were going to be in our old stomping ground Armidale, where me and the Minster-for-War use to live just up the road at the Black Mountain roadhouse. But before we get there we have to chat about the road-trip that was happening now, and in the photo above you can see the young blokes queuing for a cuppa at Nyngan. It might be the land of the Bogan but these little bogans do like fancy bloody coffee, but seeing that it's the same price as the roadhouse cuppas I don't really mind.... In fact it was one of the best cuppas on the trip!

This helicopter that is in the main street has actually some ripper history behind it,

On 18th of August 1966 A2-1022 played a major role in the Battle of Long Tan. It and chopper A2-1020 were tasked to drop ammunition to D Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) during the battle which was fought against more than 2 000 North Vietnamese and troops. After fighting in torrential rain for four hours, and almost being overrun, they were supported by accurate artillery fire from the nearby Australian task force base, an ammunition resupply by the two Iroquois helicopters, and the arrival of infantry reinforcements carried by Armoured Personnel Carriers.

Eighteen Australians were killed and twenty-four wounded as a result of this engagement, which became known as the Battle of Long Tan.

'Huey' helicopter A2-1022 sits in the ammunition dump at Vung Tau following a crash caused by engine failure shortly after take-off, which then was returned to Australia.

And the other tourist attraction in Nyngan is the world famous Big Bogan, this ripper aussie statue is of a bloke with a beard wearing a cap, singlet and thongs. He is holding a fishing rod in one hand, and he's giving the aussie sign for 'she's right' with the aussie traditional ‘thumbs-up’ sign. Next to him is hes eski which would be full of coldies and next to his eski is hes trusty dog Rusty, and of cause four bogans in front of him. If your don't know the name Bogan is a person who is uncultured and unsophisticated... So your's truly!

And just as we were leaving Nyngan we were lucky to see yet another new sculpture to the region, this one might of cost the local council a big less cost.

As we were driving through Nevertire we noticed a wheat silo in one of the back streets, so a quick trip down and we noticed this painting. It turned out to be a painting of a shearer named Ed, who was shearing a sheep. So you could say it's Ed Sheeran ha,ha.

Then we drive through the township of Warren and as we are going down the main street we came across the Royal Hotel, isn't it funny how so many aussie bush towns have a Royal hotel when their is so many names to call them. Like for starters why not The Warren hotel or my favorite The Wazza hotel, anything but the plain old Royal...

Our next town was the beautiful little town of Gilgandra and the first pub in town is the Tattersalls Hotel...

Beautiful down town Gilgandra

And what do we see on the main street no other but a bloody Royal Hotel, again why not the Gilgandra Hotel or even The Gil or even better the Galah Hotel as the township is full of them.... The bird kind that is!

After a nice one hundred kilometers drive we reach the ripper old town of Coonabarabran, where to our tired eye's we saw the Coonabarabran Hotel finally a town with a different pub's name.

And of-cause just up the street is the mandatory Royal bloody Hotel, it's a nice old town Coona and I'd recommend it too anybody interested going for a drive into the bush for a nice weekend.

What a ripper name for a chicken shop... COONA CHICKS ha,ha.

Coonabarabran is an Aboriginal word meaning “inquisitive person” so there lucky the town wasn't called bloody Stickybeaks ha,ha.

So here we are driving across the whole of bloody Australia and what do we run into.... A bloody brickworks! The kiddies are like let's have a look, anyway it's a family owned brickworks called 'Namoi Valley Bricks', in the sleepy country town of Gunnedah... We even saw a forklift loading a truck , as they say you can take the boy out of Midland....

Well we just left Macca's for drive down the mainstreet of Gunnedah, and hopefully catch a gander at the three main things that this ripper bush town brings you. And that would be The Park View hotel, Namoi brickworks and of-cause Miranda Kerr... sadly Miranda was nowhere to be seen, so we had to feast our eyes on the Park view which just doesn't have the same feeling..... Well.....

By the way this is Gunnedah lass Miranda Kerr who is a born and bread sheila from Gunna, but like most people who make a lot of moolah these days they can't wait to leave there home for that mansion by the beach.

And of-cause there's a bloody Royal Hotel.

Tamworth known as the gateway to the New England highlands and also known as the Country Music capital of Australia, so what's the first thing people do when traveling to this bush town? well you go and have a gander at the Golden Guitar! And the second thing is get a photo of it or a selfie as the young ones do these days.

But we weren't going to hang around the township for to long as we had a date with something just up the road, and no it wasn't with a bloody big rock!

But it is a very impressive rock if I might say so myself as it was the famous graffiti-ed Thunderbolts Rock, it provided an excellent vantage point for the bushranger Fred Ward to survey the surrounding countryside for monitoring the approach of unwary mail coaches. If you look really hard you can see harry's drone Eddie Jr.

Now even as impressive as this pub is... The Bolt Inn wasn't the reason for us to stop at this ripper little bush town of Uralla, Uralla or Thunderbolt country... land of the bushrangers or as we call them now Politicians! But the main reason was to have a gander at what I reckon is the best sculpture in Australia...

And this is it...

Found casting his steely gaze over Uralla’s main street, this life size statue of Captain Thunderbolt

is a bloody ripper and over the years the kiddies always get there photo with him. He was eventually shot and killed at Kentucky Creek, near Uralla, on 25 May 1870 by Constable Alexander Binning Walker.

Wow... Now doesn't that show how long it's been since I got the kiddies photo in front of old Mr Ward, I find it funny that I just asked them to get in front for the photo and yest there standing in exactly the same place in both photos... Seven years later ha, ha.... spooky

And just like that we are in Armidale and a big hug from my little sister...