Up until recently, I have not been able to plan a road trip just for me, somewhere that I wanted to go and see in our beautiful country. My chosen location was Glen Innes, north/west about 256Ks from where I live in Coffs Harbour.

Thankfully one of my friends also wanted to see Glen Innes and she suggested that it was a good idea to travel there when something of interest was happening.

The weekend we decided to drive there was at the time of their annual gem festival, where exhibitors from all over the country set-up their stalls, some selling precious and non-precious gems, while others selling their finished jewelry wares. And a wine, cheese and chili sauce exhibitor somehow managed to set-up a stall. This exhibitor became my dancing partner on a Saturday night.

After our three and a half hour drive, booking our two nights accommodation at a motel with WIFI, we set off to explore the gem festival. It wasn’t long before we were entrenched in discovering all about rocks, fools gold, and of course gems. Trying not to spend too much by way of seeing and wanting, what I really didn’t need was a challenge.

Many hours of discovery passed and it was time for us to go back to our motel, which actually lacked the WIFI connection, have a shower and frock up to see what the nightlife was all about. The place that stood out what the local Club, where to our delight they had a live two-piece band, called ‘Spanish Fly’. Neither of us had heard of them, but when you are in the country you do what the locals do and enjoy!

It wasn’t long before we got into the groove of the wonderful entertainment, except there was something missing, people. We seemed to be the only two people sitting right in front of the band and enjoying the grooving along, we even asked for our chosen songs, which they happily played. Their repertoire was amazing.

Neither of us could believe that this wonderful music was being played by just two people, us.

It was about an hour or so sitting there by ourselves when all of a sudden three men who just wanted to dance and obviously have some company surrounded us. One of the men was the wine, cheese and chili sauce exhibitor.

Three hours later, tired feet and exhausted by all the laughing that occurred we said our goodbyes and parted for our motel beds.

On arriving at our motel we both agreed that having a sleep in was a good idea before we headed off the next day to explore the surrounding areas, including the heritage buildings, which dated back to 1886, all in pristine condition and such character, something that is missing in Coffs Harbour.

The last few hours of the following day were spent sampling the wine, cheeses and chili sauce and laughing about what a great night we had the previous evening.

Our road trip to Glen Innes was certainly a town of discovery and without a doubt one to remember.