Uralla Aug 20

We visited the township of Uralla on our way to Armidale from Tamworth... a quaint town which is famous for its association with Captain Thunderbolt.  

A bushranger whose career spanned from 1865 till his death in 1870. There were 2 rules that he lived by and he stayed true to......

1. He only poached high-quality horses

2. No one was killed on his watch!

His career did come to an abrupt end when he was shot dead not far from Uralla and you can see his grave at the local Cemetery.

As you enter the town you can visit the Information centre where you pick up really well-printed booklet that takes you through a heritage walking tour of the town.  Each of the buildings are numbered and correspond with the booklet.  

There is also an app from Soundtrails.com.au, where you can add a bit of a commentary to your walk.

From the info centre, we also picked up a guide for a scenic drive between Uralla and Armidale which was our next stop.  

Scenic Drive 19 takes you along the picturesque backroads. We stopped at the gorgeous little Gostwyck Chapel. 

Adjacent is the avenue of 200 elm trees, that were planted by a man brought out of England specifically for that job.  During drought, these trees were hand-watered with buckets from the nearby Salisbury Waters to ensure their survival.

A little further along we passed Deeargee Station with its famous Octangle woolshed... All this land used to be part of the original Gostwyck Station.

Over this whole drive, there is about 20km of dirt road, which the trusty Mazda coped with fairly well.

This included the detour off to find Dangars Gorge. At first, we thought we not on the right track as we seem to be driving someone's property, but we were right according to the map... but we weren't convinced until we came to the National parks sign. 

The views into the Gorge are spectacular and we also did part of the walk that took us around to where the waterfall tumbles over the rock ledge.

We decided to have lunch here in order to make the most of the view and although cool, it was lovely sitting in the warming sun.  

What marked the end of our dirt road journey was the Dangarsleigh War Memorial, a beautiful privately build tribute to those in the area who died during World War 1.

Back onto the tarred road, and it was smooth cruising straight to Armidale.