It will be hard to tell you everything we have seen and done since we left Byron last Friday, Sept 10th. We have been traveling almost non-stop and have seen so many incredible places, but bear with us and we will tell you of the highlights.
We started out at Brooms Head, south of Yamba and east of Maclean, part of the Yuraygir National Park. It had a beautiful beach and the Red Cliffs and kangaroos by the bus full. They weren’t tame, but they certainly were afraid of humans either. The next morning we started our class. We learned a few things that are very important. We are never ever going to be serious 4WD off road fans, in fact, we hated it. The stress level was jut too much for us oldies. We did learn what Em could do and that was scale rock piles and sides of mountains, go over ditches, make our way through huge mud puddles that was up to the under-carriage of the car and many other horrible things. After about 4 hours that seemed like 10, we were able to take an out and meet up with the group later. Actually, we wimped out and spent the night on our own instead of meeting them at Pebbly Beach, which meant beach driving and fording the Station Creek at low tide. Instead we said thank you, spent the night at Station Creek Park that was thankfully very quiet.
Off the next morning from Grafton on the Gwyndir Highway through the Gibraltar range towards Glen Innes. What be beautiful drive through the mountains, we stopped at Washpool Creek for a walk, then Raspberry Lookout and Boundary Creek Falls. From Glen Innes, we drove on to Inverell, Moree then south to Narrabri for the night, home of the Australian Cotton Center, and home to the largest pecan orchard in the southern hemisphere. While we were at Narrabri we drove up to Sawn Rocks, a really cool rock formation left over from the ancient volcano. We also drove up Mt Kaputar, the remaining plug of the volcano. The views were excellent, showing vast farmland in grains and cotton.
Then we were off to Coonabarabran, driving down the Newell Highway we ran into Neptune. This is part of the solar system drive, with a virtual drive that is 38 million times smaller than the one in space. This wasn’t part of the plan, but we got hooked, and since it was on the way, why not. All the planets are arranged on billboards in scale to the sun, which is the Sliding Springs Observatory. This is a huge solar observatory run by AUS and GB, and then there are small telescopes run by other organizations. Despite the chance of rain, we decided to stay at the campsite at the Warrumbungles National Park. Our tent faced right out into the pasture, facing the spectacular mountains. We had an excellent sunset, our position was perfect for sunrise, but we woke up to fog, drizzle and howling winds, so we broke camp in a flash, and headed out through Gummin Gummin to the Oxley Highway.
At Nevertire, we turned onto the Mitchell Highway to the Barrier Highway to Cobar, a copper mine with a bit of silver thrown in. Cobar Shire is about the size of Tasmania, with the population of 7,000. Not too many people. Now we are officially in the outback.
Today we continued along the Barrier Highway, through Wilcannia, beautiful old sandstone architecture and believe me, that was it. Got out of there as soon as possible. The outback is bursting with color. The wildflowers are just all over and incredibly vibrant. I’ve been collecting snippets for later ID and finally found a bookstore in Broken Hill. I bought the last wildflower ID book they had, this is the best flower show they have had in decades because of all the rain they have had in the outback this year. We just can’t believe how lucky we are to see these flowers at their peak.
Steve, these shots are amazing! I applaud your eye! Thank you, and you, too, Allie, for taking great care of mom & dad on their visit!!
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