A day of rest and dinner - Thursday in Tamworth

Having sneezed and snorted my way through the day yesterday I was determined to have a longer sleep last night than I have managed recently. 

I woke to use the loo at 4am, but, unusually, managed to go back to sleep and not get up until 6am.

This sense of relaxation was helped by the fact that a rain storm had arrived in Tamworth over night. Only the second rain we have seen all holiday, having been at the tail end of the Thunderstorm last Saturday.

When Drew woke up I made a cup of tea, Earl Gray for him, English Breakfast for me and we did our ablutions.

Breakfast

We went to breakfast across the path into the old part of the hotel, which has a restaurant on the ground floor called Deco. We can actually see the entrance from our hotel room, so we didn't have far to go.

The restaurant had a deal for hotel customers that reduced the cost of breakfast by $5 each. I opted for eggs over hard, sourdough toast, bacon, sausage and chorizo, it is worth noting that in Australia chorizo is used for a kind of chorizo sausage meat, rather than the authentic Spanish style chorizo, so it is less spicy and peppery than the original.

Drew opted for Scrambled eggs, sourdough bread, hash browns, bacon and sausage.

The breakfast was tasty, but a lot less than we would eat if it had been a buffet style breakfast. After breakfast we returned to the room.

Daytime

We ended up having seven cups of tea each during the day but otherwise from breakfast until 4.15pm we remained in the room, Drew reading his Kindle and I writing blog posts, indeed I completed four on this, only the second rest day of the holiday. I was hopeful I'd get more done over the days ahead, a hope that wasn't fulfilled!

Visit to the Aussie Blackey's Home

At 4.15pm we leave the hotel and drive to my brother's house in Moore Creek, a suburb of Tamworth. 

David and Elaine's house is impressive - I'd seen pictures of it and even the sales material online, but had no real sense of its immensity. Indeed, there are elements of it which feel like a castle. They have a moat between the road and the drive, the huge entrance door is marked by two Corinthian pillars - they have a bridge, fences and gates inside the garden as well as a large fence around the property. 

Grace, Alice and Dylan were all at home when we called in to pick up their parents - it was great to see them all. All looking so well too - unfortunately, due to my allergy to dog hair the other member of the family, the dog Winston, had to be put outside so I could go in. He didn't like it one bit!

Goonoo Goonoo

We left and drove to Goonoo Goonoo (pronounced Gunna Gunoo), seeing a number of Kangaroos on the way. Drew with his reading glasses on, rather than his distance ones, didn't see the ones alongside the road near the Blackey residence, but when we got to Goonoo Goonoo he was able to see the ones in the fields surrounding the restaurant. 

Goonoo Goonoo is the oldest European building in this area of New South Wales, it was built in 1841 as the base of the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) which had been given a grant of land by the British Government to develop sheep farming in this part of the colony. The base of the company was to move later to Kallala (Calala), more of that on another day of our visit, but the original buildings here have been renovated and are now a high-grand accommodation and restaurant.

The restaurant is set in a greenhouse with an open and high ceilinged design. However, when we first sat down it soon became clear that this might not be a perfect design. The rain, which was lighter tonight than it had been earlier in the day, had found its way into the restaurant ceiling and was dripping on our table and my head!

We were moved to an alternative table, which was out of the drip zone. It was really great to have chance to chat to David and Elaine, though they had surprised us by a visit in Newcastle over a week ago, the setting there was for more sociable get together, whereas here we had a table which allowed for more personal conversations.

While we choose our meal we shared a Focaccia or at least a local version of a Focaccia. 

David choose a Applewood Smoked Salmon Rillette for his starter, this was served on a house pretzel with breakfast radish and chive - an interesting mix of flavours, but the pretzel might be a bit hard for some teeth. 

Elaine opted for a starter called Winter Vegetable Garden, this had grilled, roasted, raw and pickled vegetables with whipped miso and snow pea, it looked delicious.

I opted for the House Made Pastrami, this was served with parsnip puree, shaved cabbage, pickle and rye - the meat was so pastrami in taste it was amazing, though it looked very different from what I was expecting. The rye was little crumbs in the cabbage - I'd have preferred a proper slice of rye bread.

Drew, who earlier had persuaded Elaine that she wouldn't like burrata as it is strange, ended up choosing it for himself. The Burrata was served with slow cooked tomato, aged balsamic and lemon, it might be strange but Drew really enjoyed it. [Co-Pilot's note: I must, dear readers, insist upon correcting the record here. I made no attempt to persuade Elaine not to have the burrata nor did I say she would not like it. It is true however that I said it was strange, that's because it is. It is a lump of cottage cheese wrapped in a shell of mozzarella. Why not keep them seperate??]

David's mains was Slow Cooked Angus Tri Tip with potato fondant, mushroom puree, fried onion and jus. It had a really robust meaty flavour.

I opted for the New England Pork, note this part of New South Wales is called New England, this wasn't exported from Massachusetts!!. The pork slices were roasted loin served with croquette, butternut, green apple and crackle. An amazingly soft and delicious pork, the crackle could have been more crunchy, but overall a real treat.

Elaine choose Tagliatelle with cavolo nero, zucchini, red chilli and fried garlic - Elaine quietly ate this, but I didn't hear a comment on it one way or another - there were no complaints.

Drew had Pressed Lamb Shoulder. A lovely chunk of lamb served on a bed of hummus, minted yoghurt, pomegranate all brought together with a dribble of jus. Very rich lamb with all the ingredients mixing into a wonderful whole.

Our sides were Fried Brussel Sprouts with feta and lime. Crunchy and crisp the goodness of the sprout coming to the fore. 

and Crisp Sebago Potatoes which were local potatoes with sour cream and sweet chilli jam, very tasty and unusual.

Only one of us had desserts, no prizes for guessing who 😄, This was a Banana and Dulce De Leche Mille Feuille. These lady finger banana, dulce de leche and puff pastry trears were served with coconut ice cream, Drew was very pleased indeed with it. 

Drew, Elaine and I finished off with double espressos.

It had been a lovely meal and a great family catch-up. We went back to the hotel dropping David and Elaine home on our way.

Car Park

When we arrived back at the hotel the Car Park only had one space in it and that space had a boat behind it - the parking space was 32 and the boat space 32a. As it was the only place to park I left the car there, with our contact details in case someone needs us to move it. I'll get up in the morning and shift it as tomorrow is likely to be a walking day. 

We went up to the room, had a cup of tea and went to bed at 10.30pm.