The Lord's Day in Tamworth

I woke up this morning at 4.30am and start loading yesterday's photos - which I had no chance to do on the day itself. What with our 12 mile walk and evening out with the extended family. 

Breakfast

We had suggested we might try other breakfast locations in Tamworth, but given how much we enjoyed Gusto yesterday we decided to return for breakfast today. You can see I was happy with this decision.

I had the big breakfast again

while Drew varied his Bacon and Egg roll with the addition of chorizo sausage.

We went back to the hotel after breakfast and I left again at 8.30am to walk to Mass.

Mass

There are four Catholic Churches in Tamworth, St. Nicholas, St. Mary's, St. Edward's and St. Patrick's. The nearest church to us is St. Nicholas, 0.4 of a mile away from the hotel. St. Patrick's is 0.7 of a mile away. However, Mass at St. Patrick's is the earliest at 9am. So I opt for that Mass and it is a very direct route.

The church is a small brick building which was established as a parish in 1928.

The bright airy church had a music group made up of an organist, two electric guitarists, a tambourinist and a drummer. The priest, Fr. Sabu Pulimalayil is an Indian Missionary priest who has been in Australia for six years. The Mass readings in the Armidale Diocese of which Tamworth is part are from the Jerusalem Bible, so the same ones we use in Wales. The focus on Fr's homily were the words from St. Mark: "Anyone who is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:39). He noted that today the church worldwide celebrates Migrant and Refugee Sunday and as almost all Australians are immigrants from somewhere or another, the call to accept the newcomer as one with us, is critical to be true to our heritage and our faith, a very powerful message.

Return from Mass

I left the church at 9.50am and walked back to the hotel the way I had come, over the Peel River, looking lovely in the sun.

I arrived back at the hotel at 10.05am and we had a cup of tea, before heading back out.

The Big Golden Guitar

We leave the hotel at 11.10am and head to the next iconic site on Tamworth's Country Music Tour. The Golden Guitar Awards began in 1973, to celebrate all things Australian Country Music. The awards are the longest running music awards in Australia and will celebrate their 53rd awards in January 2025. The awards, which take place in Tamworth each year, not only spurred Tamworth's association with Country Music but have been personified in an iconic image - The Big Golden Guitar.

The Big Golden Guitar was modelled directly on the original Golden Guitar trophies, which explains why it has no strings. The Big Golden Guitar was officially opened by Slim Dusty on January 25th, 1988. We arrived at 11.25am and after the Big Golden Guitar we headed to the Wax Museum Next Door.

Country Music Wax Museum 

Having got to know many of the characters of Australia's Country Music scene in the historical perspective at the Country Music Hall of Fame it was time to see them represented in wax. Here are some examples of them

As ever there are even more on Flickr - starting here. 

Guitar Museum 

The site also has a fascinating Guitar Museum - though some of them are not country music related, the form an impressive selection and again even more can be seen on Flickr - starting here. [Co-pilot's note: Yes, dear readers, they did have a Keith Urban one!!]

We left the area around the Big Golden Guitar at 12.15pm and called into Woolworth in Tamworth for some bottles of drinks (coke for Drew and sparkling water for me) for the car journey tomorrow. We arrive at David and Elaine's place at 12.50pm.

Lunch

We had been invited to lunch today with David, Elaine and the family. It was a fresh and delicious salad with freshly cooked prawns, chicken and pork.

The table ready for lunch

Delicious Prawns

Salad

Chorizo

New Potatoes

Elaine had also been creative cooking a brownie and victoria sponge.

Drew enjoyed testing both of them and really loved the brownie. He even took some back to the hotel with him.

As you can see we all enjoyed ourselves. 

We left at 4.30pm and got back to the hotel at 4.45pm.

Last Evening in Tamworth

We had eaten enough at lunch not to need an evening meal, so we tidied up the room, began packing ready for tomorrow's journey and went to bed at 9.00pm ready for an early start tomorrow.