Cessnock

After a quiet day of relaxing in Pokolbin, we were ready to set off north through inland roads for a series of one-night stays as we made our way to Brisbane.

But then I read a snippet about Kurri Kurri being the pre-eminent mural town in Australia … painted works of public art telling the stories of the people, events, and places that shaped the unique character and heritage of the area. So, we added a 90-mile roundtrip detour to our day on the road.

Arriving in Kurri Kurri, our initial impression was mixed. The small CBD seemed to be under construction … half the shops closed. And yet, there was a vibrancy with the locals going about their daily business. But those same locals didn’t seem all that welcoming to outsiders. Where were the smiles and greetings that we’d experienced in towns and cities thus far in our adventures Down Under?

Mui had already scoped out a café for breakfast. Walking up and down the CBD, we found no sign of it. Nor did the man at the visitor information center recognize the name when we asked him where we might find the Coffee Shot Café. Google insisted the place was open, however, so we persevered. Aha! It was tucked inside a small mall. Not the ambiance of the small town street café we’d been looking for, but the food was good and the service efficient.

Following breakfast, we set off in search of murals. The map we had picked up at the visitor center was helpful in finding most of them. We enjoyed the colorful art, but many of them were situated such that photographing them was impossible. Others had been marred with graffiti.

It was a worthy detour for the most part, but IMHO, Kurri Kurri could take a lesson or two from Sheffield, the mural town of Tasmania.Read more