The plan was to travel to Guyra NSW to shoot some stars. The campsite at Guyra called the Summit Caravan park is the highest in Australia with an elevation of 1320 meters. So it seems a good spot to get the camera out at night and test my star tracker in earnest. Well, the weather gods had other ideas. On Friday as soon as I arrived the clouds started getting in and about the time it was totally dark it was fully overcast. There goes a good plan 🙂
However, that did not stop me from exploring the area and enjoy the trip. This was after all also another test of our caravan before Jen and I go on our long trip.
To get to Guyra is about 500 KM’s from Booker Bay (home) mostly via the New England Highway. You pass nice places like Muswellbrook and Tamworth, the later known for its music festivals and the big guitar in front of the Tourist Centre.
Guyra, an agricultural town, has an old train station that seen its last train in 1989. Now machinery museum on the Main Northern railway line.
There is also a big sheep (although I think it was not that big at all, seeing the guitar in Tamworth before 🙂 )
That is about it in Guyra, beside a few pubs, Chinese restaurant, and IGA and a museum that only opens on Sunday there is not much more todo. I did talk to the new owner of what could be a great car museum. He is only the owner for 18 months and agreed that a lot had to be done to the site but I did like this Ford that he had.
So I decided to drive another 75 KMs to see the Ebor falls. The area around Ebor, like so many in Australia, has been devastated by fires. Here the last fires were put out just before Christmas last year. The fire also destroyed the viewing platform and path to see the lower Ebor falls. Luckily you can still see the upper falls which are now thundering down the mountain again. This waterfall has been a trickle for years.
It is amazing to see how nature recovers, all the way from Guyra to the Ebor falls you can see dark blackened trees covered in new growth. As far as you can see it is green with lush grasses and trees recovering. When I took the picture below I walked through the bush and the ground has a thick layer of soot that sticks to the bottom of your shoe like glue.
Sunday 23-Feb
After another overcast night, the day did not look much better. So looking on Google what else was around Guyra that I could do.
It appears that in eighteen hundred they had a few thugs like the famous Ned Kelly here locally. So I went out to see Thunderbolt’s Cave, named for Captain Thunderbolt – Frederick Wordsworth Ward (1835–1870). Thunderbolt used the cave in 1867 and 1868, the years when he conducted many robberies in the Tamworth and New England districts.
Well after that short hike I drove back to Guyra, the local historical museum (that only opens on Sunday) was my next visit. It is one of those typical museums you find in various small country towns across Australia. They have all kinds of nick nacks and paraphernalia dating back to the first settlers.
Believe it or not but at around 2 PM the clouds seemed to become less and I even had to get my sunglasses! That meant it was time to test the local golf course, I am still very much learning to play golf but it is an excellent opportunity to do some walking and at the same time try to improve my game (that will take a few more years though 🙂 ).
After hitting some balls (and losing two in the water) it was time to get back to the caravan. While it is dry I want to start to get ready for the trip home tomorrow.
So this concludes the trip to Guyra, next time we will be adding to this blog is when we start our first real long trip through NSW and a bit of Victoria.
So stay tuned!…