Walcha to Bingara via Manilla and Barraba

The travelling party was given a tip for a top place to dine in Walcha on Wednesday night - the Apsley Arms Hotel. After studying the menu at great length it looked odds-on that the restaurant in the hotel would be serving us up with one of its specialities, the mixed grill.

The description on the menu for the grill had us watering at the mouth - T-bone steak, lamb loin chop, butcher's beef sausage, bacon, eggs, onion and chips. Priced at $24 a head, we thought we were on a good thing. But, out of the blue came a recommendation from another diner in the restaurant, "Get your laughing gear around the Wednesday night house special - T-bone with salad n chips or veges. You blokes will have trouble finishing it off, the T-bones are gi-normous!"

We could read that bloke like an open book - he was frank and upfront and knew his stuff.

So, having ordered T-bones, the party settled in for refreshers that came in the form of nicely chilled Boags in schooner glasses.

Almost before you could say "Jack Robinson", the T-bones arrived at our table. And, without a word of a lie, the steaks were half the length of my outstretched arm. Mine was medium rare and melted in my mouth. We took the recommendation of staff member Wayne and had a glass of house red ($5) to accompany the meal. And what great value that red wine was! it came from a bottle of Penfolds that sells for over $25 when it's on special.

The evening was rounded off with a lively forum in the hotel's public bar where topics covered included Racism in Oz in 2010 to local rugby, the ups and downs of local businesses and the bloke/sheila on the land .

Speaking about The Land, when I went along to the local newsagency on Thursday morning to purchase a copy of the local paper, the Walcha News, which is published just once a week - on Thursdays - the owner of the newsagency told me the business had the highest sales for The Land of any outlet anywhere in NSW. To prove the point, I was shown the details for last week's sales - 321 copies were sold last week!

After a solid breakfast, had at Cafe Graze (again!), the touring party departed Walcha and headed off to Bingara.

Along the way, the party inspected Bendemeer, Manilla and Barraba. Sadly, solid evidence of towns in serious decline was observed in all three locations, but it has to be said that Manilla has all the appearances of being a cot case - emergency resuscitation could be called for, but the vital signs of life are perilously low that if a second opinion is called for, then it could well be that a decision might need to be taken to euthanise the patient.

Barraba and Bingara are impressive small country towns. They have a real sparkle about them. Local residents who we had short yarns with seem pretty happy with their lot in these places.

A site in Manilla created a bit of curiosity for the party. What's the background to the naming of the bridge shown below? Doesn't it seem odd that the name is still being used? Wouldn't you think the local civic fathers and mothers would be a bit more politically correct and move to have its name changed?