Jan 31: Wootoomba to Warrumbungle
A 325 mile drive down the two lane Newell Highway, which is
the faster and more direct route from Brisbane to Melbourne, led us through
fields and forests. The fields were
either grazing land for cattle, or were huge fields of several hundred acres under
cultivation. We stopped about halfway in
Moree at the Natural Aquatic Hot Springs City facility, which were very clean
and had 4 pools ranging from 24 C to 38 C (I am gonna force you all to look
those up…remember multiply the Celsius temp by 1.8 and add 32 J).
From Moree we drove down to Coonabarabran, and then west
towards Warrumbungle NP. The road out to
the campground was sketchy: narrow, sealed but rough, and twisty. We were tired and Linda had a touch of a
stomach bug, and when we got to the campground, it was quite beautiful. A wild
fire had gone thru 2 years ago, and they had rebuilt it all, and while some of
the ecalypts’ trunks were burned their foliage was beautiful. It was very
peaceful.
The orginal plan was to drive to the Observatory for a 9 pm
viewing, but that would mean 20 miles back and then up a hill to the ridge…each
way, late and well after dark. The rule
with the ‘roos is just like deer: avoiding driving if possible at dawn, dusk,
or after dark.
Discretion IS the better part of valor, and we decided to sray
put, enjoy the campground and its cockatoos, lorikeets, gallas (beautiful pink
birds pronounced Gal-LAHs), and ‘roos. The
skies were clear that night but the moon was almost full, the light from which
would have blocked some of the universe’s radiance anyway….or so we told
ourselves.
But we did see Orion and Sirius and the Southern Cross…I did
not know Orion could be seen from Down Under, and it was weird looking north to
see the moon!
Excellent first full day driving on two lanes roads at 110
km/hr .
Twolanersinoz!
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