Spring Roadtrip - Duntryleague.

It was a short drive from Carcoar to Orange where we checked into the Duntryleague guesthouse. The heritage listed mansion, built in 1876, rose imposingly as we made our way up the drive. The boys were a little gobsmacked by the sheer size of the house with its grand sweeping staircase and stained glass windows. I loved it’s quirkiness and the boys thought it was something out of a story book with creaking floorboards, little nooks and hidey holes and vast grounds filled with towering conifers. We played several games of hide and seek amongst the giant tree trunks then kicked back in our suite for an hour’s down time before dinner in the restaurant downstairs. After a really good meal, the boys gave Daddy a run down of their day over the phone and we all conked out for the night.

In the morning we could hear the thwack of golfers sending balls down the fairway and the raucous morning chorus of birds in the magnolia tree beneath our window. After breakfasting down in the sun soaked morning room it was time to pack up and head 500kms north to Tamworth. 

Our first stop of the day was in Dubbo where I found my way to Press (another Instagram find) for an excellent coffee hit and some tasty morning eats for the boys. They burnt off some energy on the flying fox at Elston Park before we continued on our way. Lunch was a very quick stop at Coonabarabran, then it was onwards along the long straight stretches of the Oxley highway to Gunnedah and eventually the Husband’s old stomping ground of Tamworth. It was after 4pm by the time we checked into the Best Western Sanctuary Inn. We were all exhausted from the day’s travel, so we went no further than the motel swimming pool for a dip and a quick walk two blocks down the street for some dinner. Its impossible for us to go through Tamworth without spending at least an hour at the Tamworth Regional Playground at Bicentennial Park, so we checked out of the motel very early the next morning and had breakfast at Hopscotch before the boys let loose on the Skywalk and flying fox. By 9am we were back on the road up to Armidale then across to Dorrigo and down the range along Waterfall Way to the coast and Moonee Beach. 

xx Em