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Published: February 19th 2011
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 seems to occur more frequently, so this is something that I am going to have to work on.
The T-Van is very well kitted out, it does have a low headroom and despite having windows they are tinted so does not really let in any outside light from the moon, not that we think the moon is out as it was very cloudy
last night.
I jump out of bed and get a cup of tea on the go, Andy follows and in no time at all we have breakfast cooking, this is just the best.
This morning we want to go for a short drive, go to the visitors centre and we want to do a bit of exploration, however on the way out of Camp Blackman we see a Goanna, so stop to take a picture, before it vanishes up a tree. I did get my picture and I hope that you will be able to see from the photographs how well camouflaged the Goanna is in the tree, he eyes me cautiously, I don’t move any closer. I wonder if he thinks he is very invisible?
Anyway, back in the truck and no more than a few metres down the road, another Goanna and another photograph. On we go but while I am looking at the butterflies dancing on the wild flowers, huge butterflies I hasten to add, Andy shouts, “snake!”
I turn and there is a black snake slithering it’s way across the road, we pull up alongside it when it reaches the verge (windows
The Patrol
With the shade awnings outclosed!) and watch it vanish into the undergrowth. An early reminder of what terrain we are in again, a quick chat with the lady in the visitors centre also reminds us that brown snakes are around, we need to be vigilant.
It is a hot day and neither of us can be bothered to do too much, we have books that need reading and some relaxation to be done, so head back to camp.
In no time at all, the hammock is up and Andy is lazily swinging between two trees, I am stretched out across our two reclining chairs drinking tea and reading under the shade of the awnings on the Patrol.
We have gone from 100mph to stop in no time at all, and suddenly wonder who flicked that lazy switch? But that is what this little trip is about, doing nothing much and enjoying our surroundings.
Talking of our surroundings, the noise here is deafening, the Cicadas are on the go all day, sometimes the sound drops slightly but it goes in waves and suddenly the noise increases, my ears are almost humming with the noise, they don’t go quiet until dusk.
Much later in the day, I wander off for a shower, I don’t have my camera with me (for a change – but it is just inconvenient to have in the shower!) feeling refreshed I get back outside in the heat and start my walk back to camp, but I hear a rustling in the grass, so stop to investigate, at first I see nothing, but then catch a glimpse of a goanna, he does not know I am here and seems to be walking toward me.
I am not perturbed but disappointed as I did not have my camera, my disappointment is enhanced when the goanna realises that I am there and turns in another direction which reveals that there is something in its mouth, a moment later I see a dead rabbit ears poking out one side and legs poking out of the other.
What a rare opportunity to see a goanna with its kill, I am not really certain if the Goanna had captured it while I was watching, however it is clearly hungry and now protecting it’s kill, I wander off and leave it alone. I did not return with my camera, the Goanna
would be long gone before I got back.
Andy cooks up Kangaroo Jacks Chicken Curry for dinner that night, there is so much left over that we will have another two meals out of it!
The following day we head off with plenty of drink for a short hike. We are on the look out for wildlife especially those lazy Koala’s that you might see stretched out on a branch or two. We can hear them, but alas no sign of them.
The rest of the day is spent being lazy hanging around in the shade reading was bliss, but as I was getting our dinner ready Andy made a telephone call to Peter Starr, if you were reading our blog 2 years ago, (Twinkle,Twinkle Little star) you may recognise the name, we spent an evening with Peter Starr, Star gazing and we want to do it again. Peter tells Andy that tonight is a good night to come along, there is a clear sky forecast.
So we get a wriggle on with dinner and by 8.30 we are pulling up on Peter Starr’s driveway. Fortunately there are only the 3 of us tonight having a
viewing so we get a little bit more of a personal service. With all things celestial discussed and watched we hooked up my camera to the telescope and managed to get some good photographs of the M42 Nebulla (Orion), Centaurus Alpha and something which strangley looked like a burger bun.
It was midnight before we got back to camp.
Finally Thursday morning brings with it a change in scenery, and enough of the lazing around, we had decided to move on from the Warrumbungles and have a slowish journey back toward Canberra.
A quick stop at the Visitor Centre in the Warrumbungles to check out the details for our onward route which also revealed another interesting fact, a black snake had holed up behind the air conditioning unit outside the visitors centre. Of course we could not resist a look, so around we went with the lady from the visitors centre, to check on the snake.
I have to say at this point, Black snakes are wooses, but still not to be trifled with as they can deliver a nasty bite and of course are venomous. However we knew we were relatively safe in having a look as the snake would not be too active at this time of day and would not be interested in confronting us, believe me, we would not have chanced it if it were a brown snake!
So with the T’s Van in tow we turn right out of the Warrumbungle National Park and head out towards Barradine, we had decided to travel up to the Pillaga National Park, fortunately I checked the route with the National Parks people as they route I wanted to take was closed due to heavy rain and flooding washing the roads out, so it was the long way round for us.
Out of Barradine we picked up the No. 1 Break Road and hit the dirt, the trip into this National Park comes with all the usual warnings about being prepared with food, water, fuel etc. as once again it is a remote environment and I am assured that with all the different tracks out there you could get lost.
We arrive at a remote camp site and picnic area, there is just us, so we park up, slip slopped, slapped and wrapped and hit the trail toward Dandry Gorge and the sculptures. The view over the Gorge was stunning, as they all usually are, and the sculptures were amazing, something quite special and they did not seem out of place in this environment. Deciding not to do the more adventurous Grade 4 walk in the gorge, we just didn’t feel prepared for it, especially as there were only two us and again it was an exceptionally hot day, so we got back just under an hour later after doing the easy Grade 2 walk.
We found a nice spot in the shade to sit down and have our picnic lunch, before heading off again and this time picking up the No. 1 Break Road toward the Narrabri Coonabarabran road and on to the Sandstone Caves.
These are not signposted from the road at the request of the aboriginal elders so you have to get directions from the National Parks or Tourist information. We found it with no trouble at all and back of the bitumen for a short drive up the track.
The sandstone caves were great to see, worth a good walk around them, years of wind and rain have sculpted some amazing shapes/holes, however there are areas that had been fenced off as vandalism was occurring, so this is in a bid to protect existing drawings and grinding marks from years ago.
A quick fuel stop in Coonabarabran and we find a road out toward Mendooran a town of murals, which sits on the edge of the Castlereagh River. There is a free camp there as listed in the favourite travellers bible – Camps 5 (which has been a faithful piece of our equipment on our travels).
We soon had the chairs out in the shade, a good book each and a light beer to crown off the day, but while we were relaxing we see a man drive round toward us. He spoke to us and we found that every night this guy drives around the campers asking if they want to buy eggs, sadly for him we still had plenty but we chatted a while anyway, he commented that it was quiet for the time of year, there were only 4 campers and normally there would be 20 or so. His general opinion is that due to the abnormal weather and significant flooding that has occurred this summer has kept the tourists away. I am sure this is only temporary and that people will return to their travels.
A family arrive to walk the dog and an aboriginal woman wandered over to say hello, she shook my hand and introduced herself as Diamantina, and asked where we were from, we told her Canberra and then she looked puzzled “not with an accent like that your not!” Ok so I told her that we were from England and she asked how long we were staying, so I explained and then she asked if we were from Essex, I explained not and spoke about where we were from and then after a while she went on her way.
We didn’t open the T Van fully as we wanted to sleep in it with just the mosquito net fixed over the open door. It was just perfect, and a beautiful cool breeze flowed through the open door. One thing that we have both noticed is that during our week off, we have slept exceptionally well, and that means sleeping until about 8.00am, it must be the fresh air, natures anaesthetic.
As we headed out of town in the morning we took some pictures of the murals, a very quiet and small town and not as many murals as the small town of Sheffield in Tasmania that is also famous for its murals.
We were sat waiting at a set of traffic lights for some roadworks, and Andy remarked that a pilot vehicle had come in behind us, way back in the rearview mirror we could see a wide load heading up.
We heard something over the UHF and could see one of the pilot vehicles flashing their headlights, and before we knew it our line of traffic, well the car in front of us started to move, we suddenly saw everyone in the roadworks spring into action and clear the cones, move their heavy equipment off the road in order to allow this wide load to come through, believe me there was no room to manoeuvre on this giant of a load!
A few miles later, we found our turning and as we soon took our turning we stopped to watch the wide load pass through, with it’s four pilot vehicles and a police escort, they all waved at us as they went past, even the police escort!
Arriving in Gulgong which would seem to be one of the most traditional Australian towns that we have come across, our short trip around the town did not show anything remotely modern, so we made a mental note to ourselves to go back one day and spend some time there.
Eventually around lunchtime we arrive in Bathurst and stop for a couple of hours to see Lee and Marilyn, we first met them nearly 2 years ago when we were on Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. They did offer for us to stay the night, but we wanted to get some more miles under the tyres, a little bit closer to Canberra, another night in the T Van and a night at Abercrombie Caves.
Our journey to Abercrombie Caves takes us down part dirt and part bitumen roads and way down the track we are in Wombat country, so the signs tell us, but alas we see no wombats, but find an amazing little campsite, again using our favourite travellers bible, Camps 5.
We went for a wander to see if the Abercrombie region was going to reveal any of its wildlife wonders, but no, we only see rabbits, kangaroo’s and butterflies, no wombats!
Back at camp we stoke up the fire, and get dinner on the go, but late evening brought rain with it so we retreated inside the T Van for shelter, we read for a while and then it was lights out as the fire outside gradually sizzled to nothing.
The following morning it was time to head home, that feels really weird heading home to Canberra, packing up was easy, we paid our camp fees, of $12.00 each and then continued our journey south along roads that were winding up and down some fairly steep hills and of course only some stretches were bitumen.
The scenery as usual was stunning, it was a pleasure to be driving through these small towns, but the road seemed to be busy with plenty of people travelling north, we even see a two wheel drive towing a caravan parked up halfway up a hill, we stopped to ask if they were ok as the driver looked somewhat stressed. He said they were fine, however asked how much further to go before hitting the bitumen.
We both remarked that we would not like to have been towing a caravan up that steep stretch of rough road, but we later learn that there is a sign somewhere much further south saying “No caravans”
Our journey finished back in Canberra on Saturday afternoon and normal life seemed to resume quite quickly, we had a lot to do as Andy was flying out again on Monday morning and in the blink of an eye we were back in the office and it was business as usual!
Until the next time.
KJ
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Cameron
non-member comment
Great blog
I like your blog posts, informative and interesting. Looks like fun in DownUnder. I have a travel blog that I am writing as well if you are interested in checking it out. www.feelfreetobefree.com Making our way around the world. Currently writing this from a nice little hut in the tropical jungle on the island of Koh Chang, Thailand. Dont know where we are going to next, but we'll write about it. Check it out if you get the chance!