Show me the way to Armidale ...

Much to our disgust (but with our full support!) Amy and Mitch the SPAREnts have moved to Armidale leaving us to look after our own kids! ;0) Having given them some time to settle in and find a home for everything it was about time we packed up half of our house and paid them a visit! Now Armidale is a country town about five and a half hours away... not too far when you remove the fact that we have two young kids and we're English and therefore consider a yearly trip to Butlins Minehead from Plymouth a road trip. Still I diligently went to Google maps, scribbled something about left and rights on the back of an envelope and jumped in the car.

How hard could it be? Newcastle to Armidale ... its just up and a bit left!

We reached half way, let the kids out for some fresh air and had lunch. After the stop we checked out the Barrington Tops which are beautiful at this time of year. However this was a good two hour inadvertent detour in the wrong direction, on dirt tracks in the rain, no phone reception, no food and half a tank of petrol in an area where New South Wales' serial murderer and most wanted man has sought shelter and is yet to be found!

If you stare at this image long enough you can almost hear the sound of hysterics coming from a black 4x4!

Beth and I were thankful that our relationship is a strong one as we slipped and slided out of the mountains and back to the town we had rested in about two hours earlier! Having seen the error of our ways we eventually arrived in Armidale after nine hours. Yes that's a nine hour .... five hour car journey...

Anyway moving swiftly on we had a great time with Amy, Mitch, parents and friends. We checked out Mitchell's new work place (conveniently a bar/club!), some of the sights and an indoor play center. There we managed to do some bowling and escape from the rain which seemed to fall throughout our visit.

We didn't let the weather dampen our spirits and we had great time, and we came away feeling that Armidale isn't that far away... I mean it's not like its nine hours or anything! See you soon guys.

Check out the Armidale Tourist Information Centre.