Bourke & Beyond - Day 1
Sep. 28th, 2020 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanWednesday 16th of September
Odometer at 13,680kms
Up early, but maybe not as early as the alarm wanted us to be... some time after 6am, anyway. Last minute packing, playing Tetris with Laura’s boot space & on our way a little after 7ish. This meant that we were just about out of Sydney before the 8am school zones kicked in, though we did catch a couple of them around Hornsby & the last suburbs before the Hawkesbury River, which marks the northern border of Sydney
The plan was to have breakfast pies & coffee at Pie In The Sky, a recently discovered favourite stop on the old Pacific Highway, above Brooklyn. Arriving there at 8.30am, we found it didn’t open ‘til 9am, so asked Google for alternatives. The nearest one was in the industrial area outside Gosford & turned out to be more of a front for a catering company, than a place to get a good breakfast, so McDonald’s near Wyong it was, then...
Just outside of Newcastle, we turned onto the Hunter Expressway, which would normally mean we were hitting the wineries & cheese shops, but today, it was just the fastest way north-west to connect with the New England Highway. Past the Liddell coal-fired power station, past a few coal mines, racing a couple of those really looooong coal trains (If it blew its horn, it was called John, if not, it was Robbie. If there was a female driver, that was Alice), then through the old towns of Muswellbrook, Scone & a host of other small ones as we moved away from the coal mines & more towards agriculture, horse & cattle farming areas. After a couple of hours on the road, it was time to stretch the legs out & with no obvious photogenic location available, we found the town of Quirindi, found the local Information Centre, which was also the train station & an Arts & Crafts store, next to a giant grain silo, grabbed phones & cameras & went for an explore...
On the way out of Quirindi, I saw a sign for the ‘Who’d A Thought It’ lookout & we had to see it - just for the name alone! Turned out, it was a hill overlooking the town on one side & the fertile Liverpool Plains on the other. I’m not sure who’d have thought it, but we didn’t really think much of it. Great name for a lookout though - it certainly got our attention, so job done, I suppose
Through the town of (We’re all) Gunnedah & we reached our day’s destination - Narrabri - home to the CSIRO Compact Array Radio Telescope & after that, we consulted Google to see what else... It recommended the Sawn Rocks, about 40kms out of town, in the opposite direction to the telescopes, so we decided to visit those in the morning & headed for the hills. After an argument with Laura’s onboard navigation system, we found the right spot, just as a camera-toting guy was heading to the only other car in the parking area. According to him, the view was worth the 10-15 minute walk & the light was pretty good right now (about 4.30pm by this time). He was right! The pentagonal & hexagonal lava tubes stand about 40 metres above a creek bed & apparently, go another 30 metres below it. The setting sun was in the perfect position for us to go snap-happy with phones, point’n’shoot cameras & DSLRs for about 20 minutes, before the light began to fade & the giant mosquitos came out to feed on whoever was around. Given that was only us, we thought it high time to leave
Dusk is kangaroo time on country roads, so L-SP kept watch on the left side & I scanned the right for any incoming movement... If Laura hit a kangaroo, it would not only be bad news for the ‘roo, it wouldn’t be too good for us either. Fortunately, the only one we saw was a joey which looked to be fresh out of the pouch, standing on the right side of the road & it hopped off into the bush as we approached, instead of trying to cross the road at the last minute, which is what all those kangaroos you see ‘resting’ on the side of Australia’s highways tried to do
The setting sun gave the horizon & evening sky a beautiful red glow, which made everything, even the coal trucks loading up on the outskirts of Narrabri, look kind of pretty. Unfortunately, there wasn't anywhere to pull over to get a good shot of it, which annoyed me, as I can't resist a sunset shot.... Back in town, we found the inevitable country Chinese restaurant, which at least had 2 Chinese staff AND some Asian people dining there, so that’s good enough for us!
Heading to Lightning Ridge tomorrow, after we call into the Compact Array...
Kilometres travelled: 700
Odometer at 13,680kms
Up early, but maybe not as early as the alarm wanted us to be... some time after 6am, anyway. Last minute packing, playing Tetris with Laura’s boot space & on our way a little after 7ish. This meant that we were just about out of Sydney before the 8am school zones kicked in, though we did catch a couple of them around Hornsby & the last suburbs before the Hawkesbury River, which marks the northern border of Sydney
The plan was to have breakfast pies & coffee at Pie In The Sky, a recently discovered favourite stop on the old Pacific Highway, above Brooklyn. Arriving there at 8.30am, we found it didn’t open ‘til 9am, so asked Google for alternatives. The nearest one was in the industrial area outside Gosford & turned out to be more of a front for a catering company, than a place to get a good breakfast, so McDonald’s near Wyong it was, then...
Just outside of Newcastle, we turned onto the Hunter Expressway, which would normally mean we were hitting the wineries & cheese shops, but today, it was just the fastest way north-west to connect with the New England Highway. Past the Liddell coal-fired power station, past a few coal mines, racing a couple of those really looooong coal trains (If it blew its horn, it was called John, if not, it was Robbie. If there was a female driver, that was Alice), then through the old towns of Muswellbrook, Scone & a host of other small ones as we moved away from the coal mines & more towards agriculture, horse & cattle farming areas. After a couple of hours on the road, it was time to stretch the legs out & with no obvious photogenic location available, we found the town of Quirindi, found the local Information Centre, which was also the train station & an Arts & Crafts store, next to a giant grain silo, grabbed phones & cameras & went for an explore...
On the way out of Quirindi, I saw a sign for the ‘Who’d A Thought It’ lookout & we had to see it - just for the name alone! Turned out, it was a hill overlooking the town on one side & the fertile Liverpool Plains on the other. I’m not sure who’d have thought it, but we didn’t really think much of it. Great name for a lookout though - it certainly got our attention, so job done, I suppose
Through the town of (We’re all) Gunnedah & we reached our day’s destination - Narrabri - home to the CSIRO Compact Array Radio Telescope & after that, we consulted Google to see what else... It recommended the Sawn Rocks, about 40kms out of town, in the opposite direction to the telescopes, so we decided to visit those in the morning & headed for the hills. After an argument with Laura’s onboard navigation system, we found the right spot, just as a camera-toting guy was heading to the only other car in the parking area. According to him, the view was worth the 10-15 minute walk & the light was pretty good right now (about 4.30pm by this time). He was right! The pentagonal & hexagonal lava tubes stand about 40 metres above a creek bed & apparently, go another 30 metres below it. The setting sun was in the perfect position for us to go snap-happy with phones, point’n’shoot cameras & DSLRs for about 20 minutes, before the light began to fade & the giant mosquitos came out to feed on whoever was around. Given that was only us, we thought it high time to leave
Dusk is kangaroo time on country roads, so L-SP kept watch on the left side & I scanned the right for any incoming movement... If Laura hit a kangaroo, it would not only be bad news for the ‘roo, it wouldn’t be too good for us either. Fortunately, the only one we saw was a joey which looked to be fresh out of the pouch, standing on the right side of the road & it hopped off into the bush as we approached, instead of trying to cross the road at the last minute, which is what all those kangaroos you see ‘resting’ on the side of Australia’s highways tried to do
The setting sun gave the horizon & evening sky a beautiful red glow, which made everything, even the coal trucks loading up on the outskirts of Narrabri, look kind of pretty. Unfortunately, there wasn't anywhere to pull over to get a good shot of it, which annoyed me, as I can't resist a sunset shot.... Back in town, we found the inevitable country Chinese restaurant, which at least had 2 Chinese staff AND some Asian people dining there, so that’s good enough for us!
Heading to Lightning Ridge tomorrow, after we call into the Compact Array...
Kilometres travelled: 700
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Date: 2020-09-28 02:26 pm (UTC)