Tuesday 10 September —Thursday 3 October
We are on our own again (mostly), still at Kidmans Camp, Bourke, NSW for another 6 days, 6 nights. We are set up beside John & Hazel.
Places we visited and things we did and saw while at Bourke, NSW —
- Ledknapper Nature Reserve—travelled on a very bumpy dirt road to see a bush display of native wild flowers. The grevilleas were yellow gold, beautiful and abundant along with lots of white and yellow bushes and some pink and purple bushes. We had a picnic lunch in the truck, on the road. There were lots of emus, lizards and a few kangaroos
- Port of Bourke Hotel—we enjoyed a steak dinner with John & Hazel at the historic hotel
- Nancy Bird Walton Air Terminal—at the local airport we found lots of information on Nancy
- The Northy—John & Hazel invited us to celebrate with them with dinner at the pub
- 2WEB Outback Radio—we visited John at work where he is assisting with managing the scheduling software and is also on air at times
- Gundabooka National Park—we travelled with Hazel’s Uni students (11) to explore the park. We saw the Mulgowan Aboriginal Heritage Site, Yapa Rock Art, which had cave paintings. On the way out we followed a dad emu with his seven babies along the road and in the bush was another dad with nine babies
- Church—Bourke Christian Church, again
- Byrock, NSW—we had lunch at the historic Mulga Creek Hotel and visited and explored the Byrock Rock Holes/Aboriginal Place
We are on our way again, it’s 1005 hrs on Monday 16 September and we are heading to Lightning Ridge, NSW. We travelled through Brewarrina and Goodooga on the way. We arrived at Lorne Station Caravan Park at 1500 hrs after a long and adventurous trip and are here for 6 days, 7 nights.
Places we visited and things we did and saw while at Lightning Ridge, NSW —
- Unscheduled local mining “suburbs” exploration—we found ourselves following Google maps and travelling round and round the mine fields with the 5R, trying to get to the Caravan Park, very stressful and wrong. We finally made it, the easy way
- Visitor Information Centre (VIC)—collected some brochures and on Sunday we visited the weekly markets
- the Gourmet Gecko—Dean enjoyed coffee amongst the geckos (for Nyssa)
- John Murray Art Gallery—a great display of his and his wife’s art
- Murals/Street Art—the town is covered in art by John Murray mostly and others, fantastic works
- Blue Car Door Explorer Tour (dirt road)—we drove up to Bald Hill (no trees) and along to The Opal Mine Adventure Walk-in-Mine. After exploring the mine we drove through the opal fields ‘the suburbs’ for locals who live simply. We drove past Bevan’s Cactus Nursery and then back into town
- Red Car Door Explorer Tour (dirt road)—we saw the plaque for historical info on the area, then drove past the stone & bottle home, then onto the Ridge Castle and continued up to Sim’s Hill and then on past the local KFC non-drive-thru, on to Amigo’s Castle and then back into town to the Bottle House
- Yellow Car Door Explorer Tour (dirt road)—we began at Three Mile Opal Fields with the Big Opal Mine store, then we drove past various old mining equipment, we saw some stone miners cottages, well built, and then lots of “off grid” miners’ camps. We drove past the Bird of Paradise Art Gallery and the Chambers of the Black Hand Mine and saw the construction site for the Australian Opal Centre (AOC). We drove on to Lunatic Hill and got to view an open cut mining area and then back to town
- Green Car Door Explorer Tour (dirt road)—at 1700 hrs we headed off to Nettleton’s First Shaft Lookout Historical Reserve. We saw the monument, the stone labyrinth and the beer can house. There were at least 100 of us there to enjoy the sunset
- Sunset/Full Moon—we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and just before we left we saw the full moon rising over the horizon behind us, quite amazing
- Stanley the Emu—stands 18 m tall, crafted from old VW beetles and satellite dishes atop steel girders on the Castlereagh Highway, Lightning Ridge
- Bowling Club/Music Bingo—enjoyed dinner at the club and joined in and played the Music Bingo game, fun but no wins
- Sparks—a cinematic celebration of Lightning Ridge run by local volunteers three nights a week, fantastic evening
- The Opal Cave—shop set up like a cave, really interesting. Purchased a pair of earrings
- Lightning Ridge Community Church—we attended a good service on Sunday
- Orange Car Door Explorer Tour—we ventured out through Cumborah to Grawin
Places we visited and things we did and saw while at Grawin, NSW (dirt roads) —
- Lake Beard War Memorial—quite amazing area for where it is and was established by Vietnam veterans
- Sheepyard Inn—had coffee, Coke and a good Sausage Roll
- Black Opal and Stone—a store set up in the middle of the mining area, really interesting
- Glengarry Hilton—found it but didn’t go in
- Sweeney’s Arts and Crafts—very interesting range of items for sale
- Margo’s Carvings—mined, created on spot and some beautiful works
- Grawin Club in the Scrub—had an enjoyable lunch in a great setting
We are on our way to Narrabri, it’s 1025 hrs on Monday 23 September and we are heading to the Showground. We travelled through Wee Waa, Cryon, Burren Junction and Yarrie Lake on the way. We arrived at 1340 hrs and are here for 3 days, 4 nights.
Places we visited and things we did and saw while at Narrabri, NSW —
- Narrabri Region Visitor Information Centre (VIC)—well set up, has an enormous cotton harvester on display
- Narrabri Old Gaol Museum—had all plans to visit but it was closed
- CSIRO Australian Telescope Compact Array—enjoyed the whole area set up and all the info about the centre
- Yarrie Lake, NSW—we visited the lake, quite pretty and saw the camping area, some power available
- Dining—KFC, Watson’s Kitchen Bakery Express−good coffee, sausage rolls and fresh cream cakes, Thai Home Restaurant
- Mount Kaputar National Park/Summit Lookout—beautiful scenery, had picnic lunch at Kaputar Scenic Drive Info Bay and continues toward the summit, past the 914 m sign and a little further on but the truck was having overheating issues so we U-turned and went down. Try again another day.
- Sawn Rock—we ventured along a very rough dirt road on the way but somewhere along the track found ourselves a little lost in the bush, so we U-turned and headed home for the day
- Rain—today (Thursday 26 September) is the first time we have had heavy rain, not just showers, since leaving Granville in July.
We are on our way to Gunnedah, it’s 1000 hrs on Friday 27 September and we are heading to the Tourist Caravan Park at Gunnedah, NSW. Would you believe that half way between towns we had to stop at traffic lights, road works, not long. We arrived at 1300 hrs and are here for 3 days, 4 nights.
Places we visited and things we did and saw while at Gunnedah, NSW —
- Visitor Information Centre (VIC)—this was set up in the town theatre with a section newly renovated with great information and also a lovely local lady to speak to
- Murals/Street Art—there were a few walls , etc around town displaying local art
- Rainbow Serpent—this mosaic was at the front of the VIC on a brick pedestal and it was about 4 metres long and was also a water fountain
- Pensioners Hill/Heritage Sculptures—was up on a high hill, it was a large park area to walk around and there were views of about 270º overlooking the town and farms. We ventured around exploring the sculptures and reading the information supplied. It was a well set up area and quite beautiful on a sunny day.
- Porcupine Lookout—after a windy climb up this mountain were were able to overlook Gunnedah and outer districts, all quite pretty
After visiting this quiet country town we were going to head to Singleton Showground but found out as we rang to make a booking that it was closed for the Rodeo. At 1000 hrs on Tuesday 1 October we headed to Muswellbrook Showground, NSW. We arrived at 1300 hrs and are there for 1 day, 2 nights.
Places we visited and things we did and saw while at Muswellbrook, NSW —
When we arrived at the showground the manager guided us into an undercover, concreted area which was great. We were located across the main road from the local Shopping Centre, walking distance. For dinner we ventured out to Eatons Hotel on the main shopping street. There was no official information centre in town.
- Simpson Park—in the park there was the Scarred Tree from the Dartbrook mine site, the Australian Magpie sculpture and the Reconciliation triptych mural for past, present and future
- Town Murals/Art—there was the Muscle Creek Cultural Heritage artwork, also along the side walls of the train overpass there was more art which worked quite well in tying the town together culturally
- Max Watters, OAM Bronze Statue—created in remembrance of the local artist and his contribution the the area
- The Blue Heeler—along the street there were sculptures the Australian cattle dog
Time to head to Granville, it’s 1000 hrs on Thursday 3 October and we are heading to the Nyssa & Brad’s. We arrived at 1300 hrs and are here for an extended stay.