Blogs from Moree, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

Following our hikes in the Warrumbungles, our muscles were aching and we looked forward to the hot artesian springs of Moree to recuperate. Gwydir Caravan Park did not disappoint, with five thermal pools ranging from 28 degrees through to 39 degrees celsius, all with reputed healing qualities. The bore feeding the pools taps into the Great Artesian Basin, and reaches down some 953 metres. The water contains many key minerals good for the body, including sodium carbonate, magnesium, sulphate, calcium, iron, alumina, silica ammonias and nitrates. Although it was raining a good deal of the time we stayed in Moree, it did not affect us as we were happy just to relax and soak in the thermal pools. Moree is surrounded by endless flat plains of rich back soils, which grows cotton, pecans and olives in ... read more

Last night was cold. We didn't know how cold until we got up this morning and discovered we had no water because the pipes (hose) were frozen. I thought it was prudent to bypass the shower to get dressed and into the warmth of the car as soon as possible. Frank checked the fridge (because we are obsessive about the fridge - see previous entries) when he got up and commented that it wasn't very cold. That might have been because it was 3 degrees in the fridge and -3.9 degree on the outside. We felt sorry for the people camping next to us in their tent. I hope they survived. The caravan park we stayed at was small and clean. We were both impressed with it until Frank came back from the toilets and asked ... read more

It was a cold night for me without the heater but the morning was sunny so we started warming up. After breakfast, we set off, through Collarenabri towards Moree. Again everything was very flat but as we got closer to Moree we started to see much more green in the bush and beside the road. Some of the fields had been planted with crops and some were obviously recently harvested cotton crops, with the white stubble still in visible. There was also water in some of the creeks. Just a few hundred kilometres can make a huge difference to the climate. A wallaby jumped out of the bush and hopped along beside us for a few metres. We were lucky he didn’t try to cross the road, as he’d intended. I think our large size changed ... read more

For the last two months, I've been working in the outback. I've enjoyed it a lot. I was picked up from the bus station in Moree, which really isnt a bus station. It was more of a bus stop. I was picked up by the owner's wife named Roz, who was probably about 55 years of age. She took me to the store as I would only get to go to the store about every 10 days or so. We started driving to our destination and there was a GPS in the vehicle we were driving. After about half an hour, there were no roads on the GPS. I was like where are we going? She said it was a dot on the map. We were going there on dirt roads all the way. They ... read more

Hi all Thanks for the emails received this week, we love getting news. We ended up having 2 more days at Lightening Ridge - one day it rained, and the next we drove out west to the Grawn and Glengarry opal mining area, and did some fossicking there. There are two huge piles of rocks (tailings) that individual claim holders use as a dumping area, when they sink their bores. We saw several old trucks come in and dump rocks there. The public can fossick these areas, and we found some more rocks with small amounts of opal. We left Lorne Station, up the "dry weather road" (after the rain it was still a bit sticky), and headed south east. We arrived at the freepark at Burren Junction Artesian Baths to find at least 25 other ... read more