March 9 2016
It is Naomi's birthday and
the day she goes to get her “L' plates for driving. I know leaving
on a grand daughters birthday well it is a school day and we were
there for her party on Saturday so we don't feel quite so bad.
After so long waiting to
clear all our appointments we are ready to leave and I'm sure in a
way some people are glad we are leaving.

We have had a good couple
of months with family and helping out were we can but if we are to
get to Cape York to see it a little wetter than last time we have to
get there at the end of the wet season.



Our first stop is not far
away just in Wodonga to see the oldest grand daughter , as she is so
busy we have only seen her for a couple of hours this stay.

I will miss all of them
but have spent time with all this trip and still could have spent a
lot more time with each, but all have there own busy lives.
Anyway we had dinner with
Steff and Josh at their unit . Oh and of course Jackson dog was there
waiting for his pats.
Josh made what Larry
described as very nice but very big turkey based burgers for the 3 of
them. I as usual had my own vegetable protein – my 'meat 'as
certain people call it. We had very nice vegetables prepared by both
Josh and Steff. The evening was spent eating and talking of their
future plans and a lot of reminiscing of our times with Steff.

We stayed in the caravan
park next to the university and in the morning our morning walk was
taken up walking the 5km to where Steff works as I left my sun
glasses at the unit and she started work this day at 8 am. This walk
even at 8 am was a hot sticky walk with all the traffic and
buildings. More hugs and goodbyes and we were on our way to Wagga
Wagga were the grandson was now at university.
We stay at Wilkes park on
the outskirts of town on the uni side. We cook this time, and Aaron
comes and visits. The night again was spent talking of the past and
future. Hearing his plans for the future.
In the morning we walk
along the river before leaving.



The next couple of nights
are spent walking, taking photos and relaxing at Bethungra Dam &
Reserve. Yes Wilma this is a nice place only half dozen other vans/
campers here. Its wet the first day and good after, we leave because
we are still trying to get north and we have a lot to see and do on
the way.


Onward to Cowra area the
cherry capitol of Australia. We stop at Cootamunda for milk, bread
and pass through the very neat and tidy Young. We pull up in Cowra in
an area for 24 hour stops opposite MacDonald’s and next to the
information office. This is at the junction of two highways and is
busy all night, there is a park to walk around next to the river. We
went to the Japanese Garden but because it was Sunday we could not
park with caravan on and were going to go back but we did not.

Cowra has the 'world piece
bell ' made from melted down coins donated by Nations belonging to
the UN.

Japanese prisoners of war
were kept here and in 1944 a thousand 1,000 broke out and in the
ensuing fight 231 Japanese and 4 Australian soldiers died. Over the
years after a friendship was built between Cowra and Japan hence the
peace bell.
Cowra was first explored
in 1815 and settled soon after.

 

On we go to Conowindra to
the Age of fishes museum. 150 million years before dinosaurs nearly
all backboned animals lived in the water this was the Devonian
period.
In 1955 a road worker dug
up a rock with strange markings on its underside and he new enough to
save it on the side of the road. It was not until 1956 over 100
complete Devonian fossil fish where found in that rock. Not until
1993 and 20years after starting to look was the site of the360
million year old mass fish kill site found. 4000 fish specimens were
found belong to 8 different species. One of the species had only one
fossil to be found it was named Cannowindra grassi , with no other
fossil ever found of it.


After a couple of hours it
was time to go and we ended up at Wellington caves in their camping
area for the night so we could go into the caves the following day.
We decided to go into the Phosphate mine and adjoining bone cave.
Each of the 3 caves cost $ 19 each so as we have seen lots of caves
with stalagmites and stalagmites we would take the tour to see the
fossil bones.

In the first world war
miners dug out the phosphate from this area. Australian phosphate
came and still does from the island of Nauru. During WW1 Nauru was in
German hands so phosphate had to be found else where. The phosphate
found here at wellington was formed from bat droppings and on Nauru
from bird droppings. To make this Wellington phosphate good enough
for fertiliser it has to be treated ,as it is to acid , this adds to
the cost. So the mine did not last too long as the backers lost
money. It is also believed that the miners also found the fossil
bones and added them to the phosphate until they were stopped and not
allowed into the cave area. The mine part was closed up and a shaft
dug into the fossil area for the scientists to study the area. The
mine was opened for tourists to see and part of the fossil area set
up for viewing. Teeth and jaws and bones can be seen in some walls
and a collection of bones that are in excess are displayed for
hands on looking. 
 

Full skeletons of
Thylacoleo a marsupial which was the largest predator and related to
the wombat of now.

Also a skeleton of
Diprotodon which was 3 tonnes of a gentle giant. Both these animals
died out when the Aboriginals arrived. Both these on show skeletons
are full skeletons and were not found here , but parts of both
animals fossil bones were found in these caves.


We also walked around the
Japanese garden that is opposite the caves. It has a fish pond with a
cascading re circled water flow as well as a fountain and fis ull of
all coloured Koi { type of coloured carp.
 


The next day it was onto
Ponto falls for the night. There is a flowing river but we could
not find any falls. We did sit in the water for a while it was
refreshing , but it got overcast again.
We drove to Dubbo in the
morning and found some one to check our solar panels and batteries,
nothing wrong really we just a bit low on power. Could not find
anything wrong its just we have not had a good sunny day its always
overcast more than half the time so the batteries are never fully
charged. So we spend the night in a caravan park with 250volt plugged
in to charge up the 3 batteries. We are near the river so go for a
walk ,after filling the fuel tanks and doing a little shopping. I go
for a dip in the small swimming pool at the park but not for long as
a family is in there with kids that are being allowed to jump in.
The van park has a herb garden we can use so I pick some fresh herbs
to use this week. We wanted to make sure we are running good as we
are going into the Warrumbungle national park for a few days.
We drive through from
Duddo to Gilganda and on to Hicky falls half way to Coonabarabran,
but have to pull over at a rest stop for awhile as the rain is so
heavy we can not see and there is so much water on the road we were
aquaplaning. This is a main highway north with a lot of trucks so it
was safer to wait the storm out.
Hicky falls has no water

at this time of the year but you can see where the falls would fall
down the rocks. We leave early for the national park as it is
overcast again and getting darker and we wanted to not be trying to
get onto the highway in a storm. It does start raining again but not
until we had nearly reached the turn off to the park, but we still
had to pull over for awhile.
Warrumbungle national park
 

This is where 2 large
volcanos were active some 13-17 million years ago. The lava flows lay
on top of 150million year old { Pilliga } inland sea. The most
outstanding part is what is called 'The Breadknife” a 90m high rock
wall which people climb. This area is also where major deposits of
Zeolite have been found, check this mineral out yourself its used for
a lot of things and in a lot of things.
A major bush fire in
January 2013 burnt 90% of the park and the surrounding farms ,
destroying most of the flora and fauna as well as all the park
buildings. Slowly the plants and trees are coming back and some of
the birds but as yet only a small amount of the lizards and mammals
have returned.

A new amenity block has
been built with solar showers but they are still using a temporary
portable buildings for the information/ park office and for ranger
quarters.
Most of the walks are open
as are most camping areas. Our first walk is a 5km circular track
across the central valley with views of the mountains, the remains of
the volcano walls.
The following day we take
the Spirey View track which goes along the valley floor to the peaks
of Breadknife and High tops , 6.25km, crossing Spirey creek several
times then up to the top of Spirey view. The map states this is a
moderate walk so its a good job we did not take the circuit track off
of this one as it is a hard steep track. What we did was hard and
steep enough. There are people in the park undertaking the tracks up
the side of the volcano walls , these take all day and some
overnight, these are not for us.
After getting back and
checking photos it is boring so we take the Nature track in late
afternoon. This one starts in the camp area and travels along the
creek to the Canyon picnic area with its shady walk along volcanic
rock walls and across the creek and up across the rock outcrop. We
found some skinks, eastern bearded dragons , birds, wallabies.
Another 5km and we are back at camp , no wonder we are sleeping until
7am. Plus Larry is walking a couple of kms before breakfast, l am
not, I'm too stuffed.

Sunday we walk from camp
to the old burnt out site of visitor centre, 2km , the track is not
really still there but we find our way. The 1km track around the
area is still there and it has some good views. We then walk back
along the road to where the Nature trail and Canyon picnic area join
the road. We walk /climb the trail over the top and find a couple of
very young Eastern bearded dragons that are no bigger than my
fingers. I was watching a butterfly land and this little lizard
moved, I would not have seen him as he blended well with the rock he
was on. The afternoon is spent with me sitting and Larry just
wandering around looking for the 2 monitor lizards or goannas that
had been seen in camp by the ranger. We did not see them but Larry
found a turquoise parrot. Wild pigs and goats.

Monday we drive to the
other end of the park up some steep hills to Whitegum lookout which
only shows the devastation of the park.

When we get back we hook
up and move camp to Burbie Canyon here we stay hooked up as we are
only staying overnight. There are 2 walks from here and we walk the
so called easier one that climbs up the steep fire trail and along
the creek and up and over the canyon wall. Bloody hard start to a
walk that is a nice walk after the first couple of kms. We see more
dragons and skinks , so things are looking up for the park. We see
kangaroos but find more evidence of wild pigs though

Afternoon brings a storm
with thunder and rain .
We leave Warrumbungle
national park and head for Coonabarabran to see the Crystal kingdom
to see what zeolite looks like and other crystals and minerals found
in the area. The information centre has a display of fossils from the
area especially Diprotodon. The bones found around here [Tambar
Springs] have been radiocarbon dated to have lived 33,500 years ago.
Several of the bones have injury marks from maybe fine hardened
pointed wooden spears, but human artefacts where not found with the
fossil bones so no one knows for sure.
We are on are way to are
first caravan overnight farm stay, this is to be Thornhill between
here and Tamworth. We have spoken by phone but do not know what we
are in for. We get there and are greeted by Ian as his wife Netta is
in Tamworth for the day. He looks like an older looking cowboy sort off and we soon find out the property is used for steer roping events once a month. They
have an event this weekend which is Easter. I was not sure what to
expect as I do not like the whole rodeo scene usually , I soon get an
explanation as to what steer roping is .
 
  After we park the van we get
to walk around and meet some residents , like the koalas in the
tr ees down the drive, 

 the dogs and the horses that are in paddocks
close by. We then get to go in a old ute to tour the property
and meet the steers. These are an american breed ,developed for
roping over the years as their horns grow and are positioned to make
roping easier. I think this is it but can not remember if they have a name. Sorry my photos where no good. The steers we are
looking at have been here for 3 months, moved here from inland
draught striken Queensland. Apparently they were so weak they had to
be carried onto the truck to be brought here. They defiantly look very healthy and well fed now. Looking around this place
it is easy to see things are well cared for and the place is clean
and tidy , no wire in paddocks no things left laying around, I have
to say my opinions are changing. That evening we sit with 
Ian and Netta and a beer and talk and I like these people and we will return to
see one of their weekends and if we can help we will. We are told the old
lady koala is partly blind ,this we could see when we were taking
photos, and one of the other koalas is her daughter. Just as we were
going to bed Ian comes over to say he found the old lady koala
wandering near the house and managed to catch her and would I help
him in the morning see if we could clean here eyes put the medication
he had in them. Yes of course I would , but I did not hold out much
hope for her eyesight as I had seen this before in my time with the
North-East Vic wildlife rescue team. We did not get to do anything in
the morning as she escaped during the night and could not be located
quickly. They will try again when they find her to help her. We
could not stay this time but will on our return to Vic .We have to
be in Moree on Tuesday to see the Toyota dealer as our drivers seat
is falling apart. It could not have done this while we were in
Benalla so we could get it fixed where we bought it in Wangaratta as
it is still under warranty.

Thats the way things
happen these days so on we go.
Stay the night at Lake
Keepit ,a man made lake used for water for the area and water sports
and camping. Its Easter so the place is full of people and it is
only at 11% full of water . I still go for a swim out to the pontoon
in the middle and it is still a long way. You can just see the
pontoon with its line of markers to keep boats out, in the photo.
 
 
The next night is spent on
the Gwydir river at Bingara after driving through Manilla and getting
fuel at Barraba. Not much water in the river here either. Parts of
this camping area have been closed off due to the annual fishing
competition. We do find a little bit of sort of river for us , not
much water only a trickle but it will do. While we are parking I walk
into a small prickly pear plant, I was watching back and side of
the van for overhanging branches not looking where I was going. Any
way Larry had to come over and pull it out of my leg all the spikes
where into my skin, it took days to get all the pieces out
completely.
On one of our walks we
find a native mouse ,

After a couple of nights
it was time to go see Cranky Rock Nature reserve just outside
Warialda. supposed to be lots of birds , rocks and fossils like
petrified wood, Quartz, Agates, jasper, garnets and gold. We stop in
Warialda to walk and see things. One walk is the Koorilgar native
walk. The most impressive of trees is here its the Tumbledown Gum
apgaphoria leiocarpa. It turns a salmon pink in spring when it sheds
its old bark then goes grey so they are still pink now. This tree is
the original one to be named the widow maker, this is because it can
drop its branches at anytime of the year.
Then its on to Cranky rock
where volcanic upheaval of long ago put giant granite boulders
balanced on top of each other. A natural water whole has formed under
the main group of boulders along the just running creek.

The story goes that in
1875 a lady died from wounds inflicted by a chinaman. He was then
chased by the local mob to the top of Cranky rock some say he jumped
to his death others say he was thrown over to drown in the then
flowing creek. This did not stop me from going for a swim in late
afternoon after our walk, it was cold and deep but nice. I had some
friends swimming with me look at photo. 
 
 I then walked around looking
for gem stones as some men had found some 'Turquoise' a blue gem
mineral. All I found was a piece of Jasper.
The next night is spent at
Ezzy's crossing just outside a place called Gravesend. We are back on
the Gwydir river and still not much water flow and definitely not
nice enough looking to get in . Would be nice when river has more
water as this place has a sandy beach and free camping.
Anyhow we have made our
zig zag way to Moree to get car seat looked at so we are booked into
the Gwydir caravanpark and thermal pools. This place has its own
thermal pools so you do not have to keep paying to get into the
thermal pools in Moree.
4 mineral thermal pools
at 34deg 35 deg 38 deg and 39 deg and one larger cold pool that you
can actually swim in.

So our time is spent
shopping, walking and of course sitting in hot mineral water. We will
not get our car fixed here it will take too long and the next place
we will be stopping close to is Cairns QLD so the claim is in and it
will be fixed their.