NSW Country trip continued: August 3-6

On the road again! With the caravan back from the dealer we were eager to get going, so are continuing our NSW outback trip where we left off when we had to cut it short in March. The map below shows our trip so far (we got as far as Dubbo in March when we returned home). We won’t be able to include Victoria yet, as this time even NSW has closed its borders (to Victoria) so we wouldn’t be able to return. We can also not head into Queensland as they have closed up again too. So we will go where we can when we can… which is here and now…!

On Monday we left home, the caravan improved with a few improvements we made over the past few weeks such as an inverter so we can have 240V when off the grid, a UHF radio in the car and mudflaps on the car and the caravan that hopefully keep the mud away. Also a few other minor things that just make life more comfortable.

Monday August 3
Muswellbrook
We spent (for the first time) a night at a Showground campsite. A lot of towns have a showground that is used for festivals and markets of all nature. This one was particularly interesting as we parked the caravan under a big roof that is normally used for markets and parties. But we did not use the place other than for a place to sleep.

The town of Muswellbrook is looking a bit like many other small towns we found – many businesses boarded up. We don’t know if this was prior to the pandemic or caused by it.
Tuesday we moved on to Narrabri, to stay a few days.

Wednesday August 5
Narrabri – Kaputar NP
We went to the Sawn Rocks, in the Kaputar National Park – one of Australia’s best examples of a rock formation called ‘organ-piping’ – for obvious reasons. They are a fascinating reminder of Mount Kaputar’s volcanic past. It is just so impressive but hard to describe, hopefully the images give an idea of how majestic they are.

Trees grow on the steep sides and their roots get inside the cracks until the rock can no longer hang on and crashes down. There are many broken pieces at the bottom of the vertical wall!

From Sawn Rocks we took a 33 km dirt road for a longer bush walk to the Waa Gorge. It was a fun drive there, as the last part was through private properties, all closed off with gates to keep their respective cattle in. We probably had to open and close some 8 gates!

The hike to the Waa Gorge was a little challenging after the first attraction (Mill-Bullah). The track is almost unformed and we had to climb rocky hills, cross the creek using rocks and logs to follow the track to the gorge, but it was worth it.

Gate open & close

Mill-Bullah (aboriginal meaning ‘2 eyes’) twin waterholes was created over time by water erosion. The fall from the top pool is a rusty colour to drop onto the one below, and then to the bottom pool. The still day gave a perfect opportunity to see the sky and higher trees mirrored in the lowest pool.

The Waa Gorge is beautiful.

Thursday August 6
Narrabri – Kaputar NP
And then the cold snap happened…. From Antarctica. Snow in Tasmania and Victoria, and believe it or not…. -2 degrees overnight in Narrabri!
Our van lived up to expectations, and kept us cozy (quite warm actually) at 17.9 degrees, even with the heating thermostat set at 15.

The day was cloudier than yesterday, but was great for a good hike. We headed out to Kaputar NP again to do an 8km – Kaputar Plateau walk. The start of the track was around 45min drive from our campsite. We came across one other car (a worker) and one other couple who did a different track; did not see another person for hours. The track surface was generally (with some swampy patches) pretty solid, looked like a fire trail, quite wide. It was at times very steep, but gave us some beautiful lookouts as well as a variety of fauna and birds. The old volcanoes (ie not active for the past 17 million years) seemed a little hard to distinguish, but the mountain tops were very irregular and made for good views and photos – we were around 1450m high.

A milder night forecast tonight and heading out towards Lightning Ridge tomorrow.

Maps of the walks:

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7 thoughts on “NSW Country trip continued: August 3-6

  1. Ha lieve reizigers!
    Wat een goed begin weer en wat een prachtige natuur. Die rotsformaties als orgelpijpen zijn heel bijzonder maar wij zagen ze ook in Ierland en Armenië : zo zie je dat de natuur zich hrrhaalt bij erupties. Zeer interessant.
    Jullie hebben nog goed weer en s nachts houd je elkaar maar lekker warm.
    Dank voor je update.
    Goede reis verder en we blijven volgen xx Annette

  2. O en ook nog heel erg veel dank voor de kaarten, is erg informatief .
    Mooie foto’s Arno! Jen staat er weer goed op 🖒❣😙

    1. Thanks for D&P!! We are LOVING the river side (4 mile reserve) at Brewarrina- have great shots of our site – next blog… safe travels for Wednesday…wij genieten – en ook van jullie interesse xx

  3. Leuk om jullie weer te kunnen volgen en de reis mee te beleven. Mooie foto’s! Van hieruit is het moeilijk te bevatten dat je op zo een lange rit nauwelijks andere mensen tegen komt, maar dat is natuurlijk wel goed tegen de Corona! Hier is de temperatuur gestegen boven de dertig graden, terwijl bij jullie net boven de nul. Het zou aardig zijn als we konden middelen.
    Fijne reis verder, we kijken uit naar je volgende verslag
    Groetjes Ton

  4. as per usual your reports/travel log/blog are very informative and the photos are great, hope you are enjoying Brewarrina and camping by the river. we are still enjoying spending time with Adam and family in Mt Isa and look like heading off towards home on Wednesday. Forgot to take photos of the golf course, there were lots of very red bare patched on many of the fairways but still had an enjoyable round with Adam, he can certainly hit the ball a long way down the fairway when he connects well. Talk soon.
    Phil and Deb

    1. Thanks for D&P!! We are LOVING the river side (4 mile reserve) at Brewarrina- have great shots of our site – next blog… safe travels for Wednesday…

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