When we first moved to Guyra, I knew the names of a few places around us. Adjusting to life in Guyra brought many new experiences and discoveries.
Armidale. Uralla. Walcha. Glen Innes.
I had heard of them. We had driven through some of them. We’d visited a few places in the New England before we moved here.
But knowing the name of somewhere and actually starting to know a place are two very different things.
Four months into country life, we are slowly starting to build our own little map of the New England.
It isn’t a particularly scientific map.
It is based largely on where we have ended up, where we’ve had a good coffee, where someone has recommended something to us, where we’ve needed something we couldn’t find in Guyra and, occasionally, where we’ve simply thought, let’s go and have a look. I have written about more specific places that I have enjoyed visiting in the areas earlier if you want some great places.
And I am beginning to realise that this is one of the lovely things about living here.
We don’t really have a list of places we need to tick off.
We are just slowly getting to know what is around us.
Armidale
Armidale is our big town.
I realise that saying that as someone who has come from Sydney is slightly ridiculous, but there you have it.
When we need something that Guyra doesn’t have (which is most things), chances are we are heading to Armidale.
It has become the place for grocery shopping, appointments, lunch, picking things up and generally doing all the things you can’t quite do in a small country town.
And, of course, what starts as a quick trip to Armidale rarely seems to be a quick trip to Armidale.
There is always another shop.
Always Bunnings.
A visit to Dad’s house.
Something else we suddenly remember we need.
We are slowly developing our own little routine there, which I suppose means it is becoming ours.
Uralla
Uralla is different.
This is somewhere you go because you actually want to wander around.
It has that lovely old-country-town feeling where you can have a wander, look at the buildings, browse the shops, stop for something to eat and generally feel like you have escaped somewhere without having to go very far.
It is the sort of place where you don’t necessarily need a reason to go.
And I like that.
Sometimes the best reason is simply that it is a nice day and you feel like going somewhere.
Walcha
Walcha feels like a proper little adventure.
Part of the pleasure is getting there.
The landscape changes as you drive and suddenly you are surrounded by that huge New England countryside that still makes me stop and think, we actually live here.
I think this is something I am slowly learning about country life.
Sometimes the drive is part of the destination.
There is no need to rush there, do whatever you went there to do and rush home again.
You can actually look out the window.
Which is probably a good thing considering how much time we now spend driving.
Glen Innes
Glen Innes has become one of those places that is slowly moving from somewhere over there to somewhere we go.
It is a little further from us, so it feels more like a day out, but that is also part of the fun.
You get in the car, head off and suddenly you have turned a few errands or a lunch into an outing.
I am beginning to think I have completely recalibrated my idea of what constitutes a day trip.
Inverell
Then there is Inverell.
Another place that, before moving here, I probably wouldn’t have thought much about.
Now it is on the mental map.
It is somewhere we head when we need something, want to look for something, or simply need to venture a little further afield.
And I have discovered that country towns have a very useful ability to make you feel like you have had a proper day out without requiring a weekend away.
Kentucky
And then there is Kentucky.
Which, I have to say, is one of my favourite names on the map.
Coming from Sydney, I still find it slightly amusing that we can casually say we are heading to Kentucky and actually mean somewhere in the New England.
It is a beautiful little part of the world and another reminder that there are so many places around us that we simply never knew existed.
And that is probably what I am enjoying most.
We haven’t discovered it all.
Not even close.
The New England in between
Because the funny thing is, I don’t think we are really getting to know the New England through the towns.
We are getting to know it through the roads between them.
The paddocks.
The old properties.
The hills.
The enormous skies.
The weather changing as you drive.
The trees.
The cows.
The little places you suddenly notice because you aren’t looking at them through a car window on the way to somewhere else.
When we lived in Sydney, getting somewhere was generally about getting there.
Here, I am starting to realise that the getting there is often half the point.
We are still very much newcomers.
There are towns we haven’t explored properly, roads we haven’t driven and undoubtedly hundreds of places we don’t even know exist yet.
But slowly, without really noticing it, these places are becoming part of our life.
Armidale is our big town.
Uralla is somewhere we like to wander.
Walcha is an adventure.
Glen Innes is becoming a day out.
Inverell is somewhere we now find ourselves heading to.
And Kentucky…
Well, I still just like saying we’re going to Kentucky.
Four months ago, I knew the names of these places.
Now they are slowly becoming part of our life.
We have favourite roads, favourite stops, places we return to and places we still haven’t properly discovered.
We certainly don’t know the New England yet.
But we’re getting there.
One town, one country road and one very long coffee stop at a time.
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