Time is flying by! We’ve now been at Casino Village for 6 weeks and will be here until December 22 when we are heading back to Melbourne for Christmas.
We’ve been really busy while we’ve been here. Casino is a great base for exploring the north eastern area of NSW. Also, there is quite a bit to do in the village itself if you want to get involved. Some of the activities include line dancing, craft meets, seminars, walking and aqua aerobics groups, social cards, and dinners. Just about all of these are free, and some attract a very small fee. The best bit is meeting all the other people who are living the same lifestyle as we are, and there are plenty of them. Some have been on the road for 10+ years, others less than that, but all just love the life and have no intention of changing their home on wheels for a brick and mortar home anytime soon. I’ve also been surprised by the number of solo’s on the road – both men and women, travelling on their own. Many travellers spend a lot of time free camping, but occasionally put up for a while at a park similar to Casino Village (ie, inexpensive) and use the time to socialise, do some maintenance work on their vehicle or just stay put for a short time before they hit the road again.
Anyway, here’s a brief update of what we’ve been up to since we’ve been here.
On Melbourne cup day we went to Tenterfield which is about 100kms west of Casino. The drive there is very pretty, through hills and little villages and you also drive through part of the great dividing range. Tenterfield is very different from how we both imagined it – for some reason we thought it would be a dry, dusty town, but it’s fresh and green (mind you, there was a lot of rain around at that time) and the people are very friendly. All the pubs were offering Melbourne Cup special lunch deals, with varying degrees of quality I would imagine. We had lunch at one of the pubs in the main street – interesting, it was the first time I’ve had deep fried pork chops! And hopefully the last. We’ve found this quite a bit in country pubs and I really don’t understand why they have to deep fry schnitzels and chops, most of them already have the grill on for steaks. I must remember to ask for grilled meat when we order in future.
After lunch we walked the town, visited the museum at the railway station, which unfortunately is closed on Tuesdays, and of course we visited the Tenterfield Saddler – made famous by the Peter Allen song. Peter Allen’s grandfather was a saddler for over 50 years in Tenterfield. Apart from maintenance, the old saddler building is still in original condition and is classified by the National Trust. The saddlers is worth a visit and houses historical info about the town and the work of the saddler, and sells nice leather souvenirs.
