I think tours for “oldies” are more strenuous than any trip
I have organized for my family! I am “bushed” and I have done none of the
driving! Where do I start to tell you of today’s adventures? Hmm! I will leave
out the preliminaries (great breakfast!) and the drive to Maitland and tell you
about our experiences in Maitland Gaol!
The grey skies and cold wind set the right mood for a visit
to a disused gaol.
We were all given headphones and an ipod each and shown how
to operate the self guided tour – there are numbered markers that correspond
with the text on the ipod and by touching the right text we are given audio
information and inmates’ stories of that part of the gaol. I thought it was
such a clever idea and it gave the freedom to follow the map and do the tour
sequentially or go in any direction and start the audio when you encountered a
numbered marker.
As well as learning about the miserable side of jail life we
had a few laughs too – one of our group is full of fun and he manages to make
all of us laugh and he wanted his wife to take a photo of him as a prisoner but
of course I was ready for him too!
The guide who accompanied through the gaol (the place is
called a gaol, not jail but is pronounced the same way.) changed his outfit to
black top hat and cloak and rode with us to Morpeth where he explained the
former use of many of the old houses and stores in that fascinating town. What
a fascinating place is Morpeth! There are so many old places that look amazing
in a photograph and there are so many fascinating little shops filled with the
most unusual items.
I loved looking over fences and discovering very special
scenes – like this one!
From Morpeth we hopped back on the bus and went to a town
called “Kurri Kurri”. I had never heard of this place before but it was a real
surprise – it was quite a large town that had at one time been a very busy
larger town. It was a coal mining town once upon a time but the coal mines had
closed and huge numbers of unemployed drained the town of its energy. Ten years
ago townspeople started a venture to draw tourists to their town – they started
to decorate the large blank walls with murals.
A local guide joined us on our bus and guided us around the
town to show us several of the murals. My photos had to be taken through the
windows of the bus which pulled up but only stayed stationary for a few short
minutes. It would have taken far too long if we had stopped completely and
climbed out to take our pictures.
Kurri Kurri loves and reveres the kookaburra and has adopted
it as a symbol of the town. A gigantic kookaburra made from recycled materials
stands in the park in the centre of the town and when we finished our tour I
persuaded everyone to go over to it so I could take their photograph with it.
By the time our group returned to the hotel we were all
ready to sit down and relax for a while! The last stretch in the bus back to
Soldiers Point made the eyelids feel very heavy!
AJ
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