Birthday in Uralla

Breakfast was included in our stay...and was huge! The bacon here comes in very long rashers, and in addition we had eggs, a freshly cooked loaf and Anzac biscuits...absolutely stuffed!

As we had two nights in Uralla, we were able to spend my birthday on a more suburban adventure, beginning in the local city of Armidale. It seems almost everything here dates from from the 1880s and certainly all of the buildings look like a cross between victoriana and Red Dead Redemption! The town itself however was much like most towns and largely unexciting. A brief stop at the arboretum on the way out was a pleasant, if wintery, stop.

Taking a 'tourist drive' back to Italia we discovered that just because something is demarcated as a main road does not mean it is sealed. We made slow progress to Uralla where we did some shopping and stopped for birthday cake and beers before heading up to Mount Mutton Lookout - a rather disappointing hilltop aerial surrounded by trees which made looking-out rather superfluous. Instead, we retreated and headed to the "fossicking" site near our cottage. We spent a little time pulling bits of gold out of the river bed but the water was so cold our fortune was cut short.

We spent the evening over a homecooked curry and a bottle of bubbly from the vineyard on the same road that we were staying on. After days of nagging Ben to let me take a kangaroo home, he gave me a really lovely present of a silver kangaroo necklace 😊Read more