Australia Telescope
Our first stop was only a few km from our overnight campsite at Yarrie Lake and it took us till midday ( after a lazy egg and bacon breakfast shared with some very friendly flies) to complete our visit. We were taken by surprise by the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This series of six 22m diameter dishes, which move on a railway line (9.6m wide) is used for Radio astronomy. Each 270 tonne dish collects information, which is then collated to give more accurate data from space.
Once again we chose to take the route less travelled and to take the small, partly dirt, roads across to Pilliga, then Coonamble. Our initial plan is to make it past Dubbo to the Goobang NP ( hopefully before dark) .
It’s hard to believe we are in the same country as SA as we look at the water (lakes) on both sides of the road, drive along the muddy back roads and ford the temporary creeks running over the roads.
Just before the town of Pilliga (one of the junkiest little towns we have seen) we came across a spot where you can camp for $5/night with fence surrounding. Here an artesian bore (initially the town water supply) runs into a pool. We decided to justify packing our swimming gear and took a dip in the warm water (around 37 degrees) before again making tracks.
There is also a wetlands walk here (only when it too wet) which is 2.7km long and they say you can see 70 species of bird, including the rare barking owl that we think we heard last night.
As we headed towards Coonamble we passed through the Pilliga West Conservation Park, where we spotted wild horses and wondered what else might be hidden in the thick bush with so many tracks criss-crossing it.
At Gullargabone we admired the water storage artwork ( their answer to silo art)
There were numerous anti-fracking protest signs on roadsides and in paddocks referring to the Narrabri Gas Project which SANTOS are involved in in this area.
Travelling on we marvelled at the sudden change from wet to dry ( even dry rivers) as we came further south. For once our morning plan for a campsite was achieved! We actually ended up in the Wanda Wandong campsite in Goobang NP. This very dry and open campground (20 sites) was empty except for us. What a luxury to have a toilet each!! We hit the hay early and the moon gave us a couple of hours before it came up, shining so brightly that the shadows showed clearly on the ground.
Luvapuzzle 