As nothing much happened today I shall post this tomorrow. Today I drove from Armidale to Pokolbin, all along the New England motorway. This morning, in the mountains, it was 10 degrees and chilly. I went over the Great Dividing Range again. Sorry I haven’t got any pictures but it’s impossible to do whilst travelling at 100kph and official viewpoints appeared non existent. The mountains generally surrounded flat tablelands, very green and fertile at this time of year and mainly supporting cows and horses. In Armidale I went past a private school (the New England Girls School, apparently) where you can take your horse! According to their website, they also run agricultural and horticultural programmes. For the landowning classes presumably. There was also Emirates Park, a race horse stable belonging to the ruler of Dubai who also owns the airline.

On the Australian motorways they have rest stops, some of which give out free coffee. I stopped at one of these and saw this car. For the petrolheads amongst you.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Six

After all the horses and greenery, there were two coal fired power stations and the open cast mines to service them! Hmph.

I am now at my very pleasing hotel / vineyard in the Hunter Valley.

As I had spent the day sitting down I decided to walk to the nearest restaurant. This was slightly further than anticipated and it got dark whilst I was walking. Very noisy frogs they have round here. Unfortunately it is the school holidays and the place was heaving. They kindly sat me on a sofa – although lamb chops on a coffee table is difficult without getting grease down your front.

Whilst I was still eating, an elderly couple came and sat with me to have their coffee. Turns out they live up the same road as the hotel on one of the few properties that is not a vineyard. They eat in this restaurant at least three times a week and get a courtesy bus back and forth. They kindly offered me a lift. Worryingly they told me that he has dementia, she had a funny turn and passed out yesterday and they live on 25 acres ……. I will not fret about total strangers.