Blogs from Warrumbungle National Park, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

Today we wanted to see the Siding Spring Observatory just on the edge of the Warrumbungle National Park. As we drove along the road leading there we kept noticing some very unusual and imaginative letter boxes. I managed to get Barry to slow down to let me photograph a few of them. They included a little dunny with a spider on the front; a big yellow bird; a dog standing to attention with his rifle on his shoulder and saluting; a rather rusty Ned Kelly; and a complete very shiny wheel with red rims (not sure where the mail goes); a grinning goat and more. We also found the rest of the planets from “The World’s Largest Virtual Solar System Drive” finishing with the sun which is the dome of the main telescope. There are 13 ... read more

It really comes to something now when I cannot work out if we have used this blog title or not, I need to have a run through and check previous blog titles! We had a good nights sleep in the T’s Van, it was very comfy, I felt slightly wary as for some reason and I don’t know why, I hate waking up in the pitch black, I very rarely sleep with curtains shut, I like to wake up with daylight streaming through the window, if I wake up in the pitch black it seems to spark off a bit of panic, a feeling of claustrophobia, I have no idea where this has come from it has happened a couple times in past years when we have slept in RV’s, but on this trip it ... read more

A trip out to Barrington National Park for our first hike in the rainforest. We saw our first wallabies and water dragons. And then on the road again heading for the Warrumbungle national park, camping on the way at the Mendoorum Rest Area - this really is the middle of nowhere with a few houses and one dodgy pub serving kangaroo burgers. Camping is by the river with loads of mosquitos. Next day off to the Warrumbungles where we arrived in the middle of day and decided to climb the Breadknife, this is a beautiful walk but it really was too hot, temperatures reached 40 degrees and we had to stop regularly. Despite the 5 litres of water that we took we were dehydrated on our return. The national park campsite was spectacular with views of ... read more

DAY 74 20th January 2009 I was up a 6.00am, out the swag, Instantly putting the kettle on. There were around 15 Kangaroos just milling around, as much as I wanted to watch them I needed to get on. The Camelbak, which is a ruck sack with a built in bladder that you put fluid in, had to be packed with first aid kits, camera, knife, survival equipment, and all the other paraphernalia for any eventuality. Caroline got out of the swag just after me, the tea was already done so she got down to making the sandwiches. Today we were going to walk in the national park up to the rock formation they call the Bread Knife. All this area was formed millions of years ago and the bread knife was formed by magma, squeezing ... read more