Armatree NSW July 8, 2023

 Armatree NSW July 8, 2023

An early start today to do North Parkes Parkrun. A bit of a challenging track, but it wasn’t the hills that were the problem, it was the icy wind blasting straight at you. At least it was only half the time as when you turned around it was on your back and didn’t feel so bad. Funny thing though, as you would expect a few tourists among the 30 strong field, and only as I mad it back to the van that one of the couples was in the van next to us! Talk about small world.

We left Parkes at a reasonable hour, skirted round road works and made it into Gllgandra at about 12.32, two minutes late, I'm told. Actually we were to meet Kathryn, Ben and Andrew at the visitors’ centre and they had just pulled in from Narrabri on their way home. After a quick consultation we went up in to ‘Gil’ to the Royal Hotel and had lunch. Then out along the Castlereagh to the cemetery where, with no help from my brilliant memory, but a bit of interweb sleuthing by Kathryn,  we found the Mortimer clan  in the Presbyterian Section, Row F. They were all still there as it turns out, except Kathryn found another one which wee didn’t see last time.

Family near final resting place of Mortimer patriarch

Having said ‘ooroo, we slid up to Armatree, which is 30 odd kilometres north of ‘Gil’, and down the side of a side road. Armatree is a busy railway siding town where they load the local grain crop out of the silos.

We had been heading to Gulargambone, but after our last visit, we decide to find something else. That something else is the Armatree Hotel, where they prop up their local economy by having vans parked up out the back. The place is a bit of a surprise and one that we will keep on our ‘top spots’ list.

Armatree Hotel

The Sunsets out here are awesome