We’re on the move again after four lovely days with friends in Kootingal and heading for an overnight stop at Glen Innes, the self proclaimed Celtic capital of Australia.

After refuelling our first challenge was to scale the Moonbi’s – a high range of hills and a dual-stage steep climb out of the Tamworth valley. We we’re a little apprehensive after one of the guides at the Dubbo Information Centre said it was quite a tough climb, especially with a caravan in tow, but fortunately it was nowhere near as bad as we had been led to believe and we were soon over the top and descending down into a comparatively lush valley.

An interesting drive compared to those of late with a winding road following up and down hills before levelling out at the town of Urulla, which was a good place to stop for lunch. You will have got the idea by now that we enjoy looking out for good coffee shops and, of course, today was no different with the Pie Mechanic being our choice of the day. And we weren’t disappointed – excellent coffee, toasties, roasted carrot and feta roll and a cherry custard tart. Give it a try, you won’t find better in town.

Our final leg took us through more farmland lined with poplar trees glowing yellow in the afternoon sun. Good roads, small hills, great views and little traffic and we were soon pulling into our overnight stop.

Glen Innes

Depending on how you look at it we were fortunate to have just missed the Glen Innes Celtic Festival, which took place over the weekend. It’s a big event drawing large crowds to see everything Scottish and centred around the Celtic Standing Stones. Having come from a country with genuine, ancient stone circles I have to view this one with a little smile, may be even feeling a little smug. It’s perhaps best that you make your own decision on this one but leaving the bore holes from the drill used to extract the rock still visible is a little questionable.

The town itself has a long, wide main street with many old buildings lining the road but spoilt a little by the bright colours of Mitre 10 and the relatively modern Woolworths supermarket.

It looks as though we’re in for a cold night again with the temperature expected to fall to 4C. At least we now have the gas heater working and we can look forward to warmer nights as we head towards Queensland tomorrow.