Thursday, 31 October 2024
I forgot to mention that last night when we went to Nobbies that we first tried to park in the hotel/motel/caravan park section but there was no room. We then attempted to park beside the Bottle-O but we weren’t sure if we were in the way of the drive-through? From there we could see that there was a huge parking area out the back, so we moved there after negotiating our way around three random orange witches’ hats. Then we noticed the southern lapwing (plover) with chicks beside the witches’ hats. Wow, we can’t recall ever actually seeing lapwing chicks before. How lucky are they that the council (or someone) puts out witches’ hats to protect their nest? Since they are silly enough to nest on the ground!!
Today didn’t go quite as planned but … that was a good thing. On the itinerary we planned to drive only 286 kilometres to Gilgandra today so an easy driving day. However, Bernie was Googling last night and came up with a suggestion to head east from Coonamble through Baradine to Coonabarabran so that we could then drive through the Warrumbungle National Park on our way to Gilgandra and fill out our day a bit better. Sounded like a plan!
After a small problem with a road closure that Apple Maps hadn’t picked up on, we found our way back onto the Castlereagh Highway heading south. We passed Stanley the Emu again before Bernie had to straddle the truck over a lizard on the road that he spotted a bit too late. Fortunately, it was sitting still not moving so he tells me he couldn’t see a squashed lizard in the rear-view mirror.
We saw an Emu with a large brood of six or seven chicks and sheep, cattle, a kookaburra and wheat. Fields and fields of wheat! Bernie was also having to overtake quite a lot of slower traffic heading south. Luckily there were plenty of opportunities to get around the road trains. Something different that we saw this morning was a collection of colourful beehives beside the road and, as we neared Walgett, a HUGE wheat collection depot with a line of trucks arriving and a line of trucks departing the depot.
We stopped in Wallget at the water tower mural featuring Australian Aboriginal musician, actor and advocate, Jimmy Little. The water tower was painted by Jenny McCracken and Frank Wright and was completed in November 2020.
The water tower is located adjacent to the PCYC Walgett Club and parked out the front was a fire truck and other emergency vehicles. One of the staff with the vehicles came over to chat and told us they were at the hall this morning to conduct a Girls on Fire school program for local students. The program is designed to encourage girls to consider fire and emergency services careers or volunteering.
As we were chatting, she said to us there’s a place near here called Come By Chance which she thought she needed to check-out before she heads back to the northern beaches. She also mentioned that Come By Chance is on the way to Pilliga State Forest which might also be worth a look. A minibus filled with students pulled up, so our conversation was abandoned for her real job, ha, ha.
We wandered back to the vehicles and noticed on our Great Inland Way guide that the Pilliga State Forest is mentioned. Hmmn, maybe we should head to Pilliga by way of Come By Chance to spend some time on the road less travelled rather than continue on the Castlereagh Highway? We made our way to the Visitor Information Centre to find some loos and, we hoped, some information on the Pilliga State Forest. Loos, tick, information about the state forest, not so successful.
Undeterred, we programmed Pilliga via Come By Chance into the SatNavs and off we went. Ha, we thought the Walgett-Pilliga Road was going to start off sealed, but we were barely out of town before we were on an unsealed road. Not to worry, it may have been a gravel road, but the surface wasn’t much worse (any worse?) than the Castlereagh Highway!! To add to the back-country feel a Willy Willy whipped up a bunch of tumbleweeds and had them whirling around beside the road.
We arrived in Come By Chance and it was lucky that we didn’t blink as we could very easily have missed it. In the touring atlas the ‘town’/rural locality is highlighted as the venue for the Come By Chance Annual Picnic Races, but aside from this event there’s not much to Come By Chance! According to Google the Come By Chance races were last month on September the 28th.
We pulled into Pilliga with a plan that we would drive along the western boundary of the Pillaga West State Forest and then drive through to the eastern side to end up in Baradine. Deciding that our lunch options were going to get slimmer from here we popped into the Pilliga General Store and Post Office and had some sandwiches made up. While we were waiting, we found a map ‘explore the Narrabri region’ and it had some details about the Pilliga East State Forest which included features like the Salt Caves and Sculptures in the Bush.
So, we changed today’s plan AGAIN and headed out Cypress Way towards Gwabegar and, we hoped, the Salt Caves Picnic Area. As we drove along Cypress Way, we spotted a small/juvenile monitor crossing the road. We have seen so many lizards crossing the road on this holiday. Just relieved that we’ve been able to avoid them. South of Gwabegar, we continued south on Kenebri Road before turning left onto Wangmans Road which turned into Pilliga Forest Way.
We drove through The Aloes and Rocky Creek and through patches of forest with swathes of white flowers which was very pretty. We also noted a lot of leaf, twig and branch litter which made us think that a storm has been through the forest recently. The most exciting thing though was seeing a trio of black cockatoos fly over the car. The local black cockatoos are the glossy black cockatoo so I’m happy to have seen another variety of black cockatoo in the wild. They have a similar red patch on their tails to the red-tailed black cockatoos but might be a bit smaller? I should check our bird guide for what differentiates them, ha, ha. We crossed Talluba Creek and turned onto the County Line Road which had a sign confirming that we were headed towards the Salt Caves.
After just over an hour of dirt road driving, we pulled into the parking area at the Salt Caves Picnic Area and Camping Ground. We were really impressed with the amenities too. The area sports a couple of excellent picnic shelters, a BBQ and a toilet. Although it was a drop toilet it was OK.
We ate our sandwiches and then wandered over to the caves. Oral legends suggest that early pioneers actually harvested salt from the caves and used it to preserve food. Later investigations/science question whether this was really the case. Anyhow, the caves collapsed in the 60s so it is no longer possible to enter them. From the mouth of the caves we walked up to the (fire) lookout tower. We climbed to the top for amazing views over the forest and towards the Warrambungles in the south-west and the Nandewar Range in the north-east.
After checking out the view we continued on the County Line Road onto Rocky Road before turning onto the Number One Break Road. We had expected to do a short dog leg onto the road to the sculptures but due to a road closure we had to take a more circuitous route via Top Crossing Road. On our way we spotted another emu and many more wildflowers. I also thought I saw another lizard but after comparing notes with Cathy and Steve agree that it was probably a snake. We’ve seen a few of those on this holiday too!
We pulled into the Dandry Gorge section of the park and made our way to the Visitor Area. We cannot speak highly enough of the facilities in this hidden gem of a park, the Timmallallie National Park. Once again, we found immaculately clean picnic and BBC amenities and a toilet. Bernie read the board that advised us that the ‘Sculptures in the Bush’ trail is three kilometres return and to allow a couple of hours to explore it.
Just when we thought Cathy and Steve had decided not to join us at the sculptures, they drove into the car park. They felt the whole trail might be too much but said they would join us for the first few and then decide whether or not to turn back. The trail has a few stairs near the start but after that it’s an easy walk to the sculptures celebrating the Gamilaroi people who are the traditional owners of this area. The sculptures are beautifully set within the stunning landscape of the Dandry Gorge. This unplanned detour that we took today has been outstanding. So many people must pass by on the Newell Highway not knowing that this park exists.
We possibly could have turned left out of Dandry Gorge to drive to Baradine, but our map wasn’t detailed enough to be sure, so we returned along Top Cossing Road to Number One Break Road and then left again onto Indian Lane when we still had ten Ks to Baradine. Arriving in Baradine we were impressed with the huge grevillea robustas in full golden bloom throughout town. Once again we were confused with parking conventions in NSW. We were nose in back in Walgett this morning, but this afternoon in Baradine Bernie had to excecute a rear to curb parking manoeuver. We popped into the IGA in town and purchased some ice-creams. While we were there a load of kids appeared dressed in ghoulish outfits to go trick or treating since it’s the 31st of October today.
With the afternoon running out we were still determined to drive through the Warrumbungle Ranges on our way to Gilgandra. It’s going to be more of a reconnaissance drive because we have run out of time. If (hopefully WHEN) we drive north again we will try to make sure we remember this part of the world and factor in two to three days to do it properly.
Ha, more strange cow breeds/crosses. I spotted a sign saying the cows being raised are Brangus and Braford. I said to Bernie surely that has got to be Brahman x Angus and Brahman x Hereford?? Yup, a quick Google confirms that to be the case.
Without going all the way into Coonabarabran we took the turn off for the Warrumbungle National Park. Almost immediately the majesty of this ancient mountain range was apparent. Just past the turn off for the Siding Spring Observatory we had a close call with a macropod but missed it. Phew!
We arrived at White Gum Lookout to learn that it’s a 500 metre walk to the lookout from the car park. That would not usually be a problem BUT the wind had really whipped up and it was threatening to rain AND it was getting late in the afternoon, and we still had 90 kilometres to go to reach our bed for tonight in Gilgandra. We let common sense prevail and decided to give the lookout a miss. Hopefully we can do it on another trip. Fingers crossed.
As we continued along the John Renshaw Parkway, we spotted a few feral goats in the park and – very exciting – an echidna. The road signs had promised wombats, but we were happy to see the wombat’s spikier cousin. We also saw another three roos when we were still about 11 kilometres from the Newell Highway, but these hopped across the road well out of harm’s way.
We hadn’t stopped for any pics on this side of the range because the wind was whipping so much red dust about that we decided it was too unpleasant to consider getting out of the car. However, when we arrived at the official G K Rohr Warrumbungle Viewing Platform we braved the wind for a quick photo.
We turned right onto the Newell Highway and completed our journey to Gilgandra after driving many more kilometres than were originally planned for today. No regrets as we’ve had quite an adventure and seen some lovely bush scenery in the state forest/national parks we have driven through today.
Arriving in town we refuelled at the BP Servo. Despite being on the Newell Highway, and one would think a bit closer to civilisation, the windscreen cleaning squeegees were THE WORST we’ve encountered. How hard can it be to check them once in a while and make sure there’s water in the bucket and the rubber still has enough flex in it to actually squeegee the water off the windscreen? From the servo to the IGA for some fruit for breakfast and then to the Gilgandra Motel to check in for the night. Bernie has done a great job with all the dirt road driving today! Just as well the truck is made for it.
