Mt Kaputar and Home

Perhaps fortunately, the wind kept the overnight temperature mild(er!) although it didn’t feel like it. With the thermometer staying above freezing it left Gundabooka with the crown for the coldest morning of the trip.

The cold temps didn’t however inspire anyone to early activity and my prospects of a walk faded along with the darkness. We did however share breakfast with the local kangaroo and currawong population, although perhaps not voluntarily. After chasing off one particularly bold individual from taking an unhealthy interest in Pippa’s cereal we were treated to a wrestling match between two others. The currawongs were quick to join in the forage for discarded dregs as well.

With four children having their noses pointed homeward, each time I turned into a layby for a look at a view or perhaps a small walk I received howls of complaint from the back seat. I did manage to get to the top of Mt Kaputar summit for stunning views on the clear morning. That is however only 50m on a boardwalk and stairs from the carpark and so was tolerated, albeit with a commentary!

The Mt Kaputar road is however no broad highway. Its construction was hailed as a major achievement, enabling the opening of the area to more people than the previous only hardy walkers and horsemen. Descending the mountain started our 9 hour journey home. Apart from stops at Belatta, Goondiwindi and Millmerran and an update on the news of the carbon tax released while we were out of circulation it was uneventful. Four children were returned to their mothers safe and sound.

Hot and Cold

Dubbo turned on quite a mild morning for our departure. I spent some time checking the data on Mt Kaputar last night, and after a phone call to my brother I had some thinking to do. Mt Kaputar is 1400m above sea level and typically records temperatures 10 deg below those felt down on the plain. The weather forecast indicated a change moving through and indeed through the morning the cloud disappeared as we travelled North.

The snag though was that in the last couple of days Narrabri had fallen to –2, so by the rough rule of thumb on the website, we could see as low as –12. I don’t believe that for a moment, but in any event we can expect it to be cold.

So after our departure I did a quick poll of the back seat and gave them a choice of cold on a mountain top, or warm in an artesian spring. No surprises in what the returning officer reported. That wasn’t a bad outcome because that gave us an opportunity to travel west of the Newell along the Castlereagh River on our way to lunch at Pilliga.

Pilliga’s claim to fame is that the forest of that name is the largest natural cypress pine forest in the world. It is a reserve exploited commercially to supply cypress for the building industry as it is a tough termite-resistant wood. There is however little to detain us though so after lunch we were off the the artesian bore baths at Burren Junction just up the road.

Coming from over 900m underground, the water emerges at 44degC and is cooled slightly before being poured into a round tank set in the ground. The overflow from this goes into a much smaller paddling pool for little kids before running out into the bore drain. The water flows continuously keeping the main pool around 38-40degC.

While it was pleasant enough, I’ve been in much nicer thermal pools. The big disappointment though was the associated campground where I had planned on spending the night was just a bare dirt carpark with about 100 people already installed. It was unanimous that an aspirational campsite it was not, so we were back on the road.

Kaputar was back on the agenda. So up we went. During the climb the temp went from 15 to 5, so the 10 degree differential was in effect. The afternoon sun though was spectacular and made for a very scenic climb.We still had plenty of time to set up camp before dark and get food underway. On the way a new beeping from the car gave a little amusement – the ice warning on the dash was triggered, warning us of potentially slippery conditions. The thermometer continued to plummet, dropping to 1.8 before the wind rose moderating things somewhat into the high 2s. My mad children though were hoping that tonight would be one of the occasions for snow on Mt Kaputar.

The instruction was to put on every scrap of clothing feasible and for once it was reasonably obeyed. Dinner was attended by a collection of Michelin sumos.

As I write the cloud is thickening, but I doubt the snow is coming.

The Zoo and Birthday

Seems we still can’t go to Dubbo and avoid the zoo, so with an excuse of a birthday lunch, it was off for a BBQ. You can now go there to the front and have a picnic without paying to go in so it is reasonably popular. Despite the cold and overcast weather we still couldn’t get a table.

Even though the locals though it was cold… they still turned up for a picnic.

It seems the fight between the local indigenous population and the overseas invaders has still not been resolved.  Not everybody wanted to get involved though. There’s still chores to be done.

Ever wondered how handy it would be to have an extra limb?

Dubbo

An easy day in Dubbo catching up on cousins, dealing with domestics and a few running repairs. Also tuned my second favourite Ronisch piano. Considering it was saved from the tip it is coming together quite well, but still has a way to go.

A frosty NSW reception

So we thought Currawinya was cold. I wondered why I couldn’t get warm overnight in Gundabooka and in the morning the answer was readily apparent. The mercury had dropped to  –3. It was cold enough to freeze the water bottle on the table and the tap at the toilets.

Gundabooka is a new National Park. Like many of the new National Parks its development is based around the traditional owners of the land. It would also appear that there is little money for development and so development seems to be sporadic and based around labour programs not necessarily for, but applied to, the National Park.

The only successful way to deal with the cold mornings is to get up and at it. Our concession to the cold was to warm the milk for the cornflakes. Doesn’t do it for me I’ve gotta say, but each to his own.

We camped at a place called Dry Tank, which doesn’t sound very inviting, but it is a new campground and is all fine. The attraction there was a walk to a place called Little Mountain. In a place where the land is basically flat it doesn’t take much of a rise to get the “Mountain” tag. It does provide a view over to the Gundabooka Range. Again, it isn’t much of a range, comfortably fitting into a single photo frame. Quite picturesque though. The light in the morning was just right.

The walk to the top of the range takes a rather greater investment in time than we had to give so it will have to wait for another time. On the way out though we stopped in at the local aboriginal art site. After having been through Kakadu and the Kimberley it isn’t in that league. There may have been more to it, but having been further off the road than expected, and with the road still to be travelled to Dubbo, it was time to go.

Back o’ Bourke and Beyond

A travelling day today. The coldest morning so far. A clear night hidden early by the warmth of the campfire kept getting colder until –0.2 just before dawn. With sunrise at 7:25 it isn’t that hard to be up for dawn, temperature notwithstanding. Ninety minutes or so was plenty of time to make it to the south end of Ourimperee Waterhole and back.

There were plenty of birds making up the dawn chorus. The galahs and corellas congregate in flowering gums and proceed to defoliate them. That explains the carpet of fresh leaves and flowers underneath these trees. It doesn’t however explain just why the birds like to do this. They seem just as happy congregating in dead trees as well.

The morning squadron of pelicans went overhead again at 7:45 right on time. They also follow the same track and so I was rather south of them and can’t be sure of the numbers. Spoonbills and herons were active on the water and honeyeaters and others up in the trees.

After coming back for breakfast of toast from yesterday’s loaf of bread cremated in the camp oven, we said our goodbyes to our campfire mates a little before 11. Crossing the border at the Hungerford Gate, we were rather too late to make Bourke for lunch. We instead discovered the delights of Ford’s Bridge which seems to be a pub planning a State of Origin party for tonight, and an associated hall, Rural Fire Service shed and little else.

The road to Bourke is flat, gravel and largely good. There were few animals and the mulga broke occasionally to reveal grassy plains. Closer to Bourke came citrus orchards covered in fruit worth too little to be harvested and the start of the cotton.

We made a rather more successful visit to the Bourke wharf to discover that it is largely closed for maintenance, and is only a recreation of one of the originals. The view over the river was rather spectacular though, and gives some idea how impressive it must have been during flood times.

From Bourke it was only another hour into Gundabooka for our night. We’ll see what it has to offer tomorrow.

Pelicans and Parties

  Today started with a magnificent dawn. The aim for the day was the major target for the holiday. The Currawinya lakes actually have names but that probably is not greatly important. The two big ones are only about 4km apart but one is fresh and the other is salt. The freshwater one boasts the larger number of species, but the salt lake in its current form with plenty of water is completely stocked with water birds.

The salt lake dries often, but after such a good season it fills and birds, including black swans and pelicans arrive in numbers to breed. Pelicans are normally thought of as sea birds, but they only breed in a very limited number of inland areas and so are dependent on wetlands for their ongoing survival.

You get some idea of the numbers of birds when you realise that the “scum” which gathers in the quiet inlets of the lake are in fact mats of discarded feathers. Then you look over and see sandbanks in the lake covered with thousands of birds. You then look up and see gathering clouds of pelicans spiralling up in thermals waiting until they have enough altitude to form up into the great V-shaped squadrons and go on their way.

Whether this is a daily ritual with the birds going off to feed and then returning home, or whether they are flying back to the coast after breeding I can’t be sure. Since I don’t see anything like the same numbers returning home in the evenings I suspect we may be witnessing the departure from the lake as it dries up after the wet. A rare privilege if indeed that is what is happening.

I had assumed with 40km each way of 4WD track that this would take all day but we were back at camp by mid-afternoon for some more local exploration. The bird count for the holiday is I think now up over 70. The major attraction for the afternoon was corellas which appear to be in breeding pairs. I spent a good deal of time watching one pair fussing over a prime location hole in an old tree and while the corellas are in great flocks, Louis has noted that they seem to generally perch and fly in pairs, so I suspect he is right that they are breeding as well.

The evening again found us around the campfire, attracted by the company and a guitar and harmonica-playing almost-grey-nomad. We have discovered that most of our company is from Newcastle, apart from their guests from France.

The surprise for the evening was that one of our French women was having a birthday today so we became part of the festivities. The French champagne was flowing, followed up by some good Hunter reds. I decided you couldn’t have a birthday party without a cake so after dinner I tried my hand at a honey orange cake cooked in the fire in a camp oven. It all disappeared so it must have been ok.

Isabel, not backward in inviting herself onto any instrument, picked up the guitar and with a chord chart, picked out happy birthday, then continued on to Danny Boy. A delightful way to spend the evening.

Culgoa to Currawinya

You can be lulled fairly easily into the assumption that 24/7 trading is universal now. However, I have realised now that this is not necessarily the case in the more remote rural parts. While I had hoped to do some shopping in Cunnamulla I was not hugely optimistic. What I wasn’t prepared for was Sunday trading early morning and late evening, and closed through the middle of the day.

Unfortunately, Eulo was the same. The Eulo store is an experience in itself, and with a honey lover onboard, I was looking forward to buying a stock from the Eulo Store. It was however, not to be.

Eulo did however cough up another surprise. An immaculately conserved FJ Ute was parked outside the pub. I think I know someone who might be just a little envious.

The road out from Culgoa goes past one of those outback surprises – a sports complex in the middle of nowhere. The “locals” probably gather once or twice a year – the rest of the time it lies idle in all its magnificence and that is how we found it.

Currawinya is very pleasant indeed. On the banks of the Paroo it is more densely wooded than Culgoa and with the soil tending to sandy red, and tussocky grass and saltbush, the colours are striking. This was even more true as we arrived with a low sun and a heavy cloudbank in the south.

Currawinya Introduction

Being a long way west now, sunrise doesn’t get you out of bed until around 7:25. That makes for a morning very compatible with the girls.

Camped on the banks of Ourimperee waterhole our local delights started early. While there were many birds in the dawn chorus, the pelicans provided the most spectacular sight. A little after dawn, several squadrons of pelicans flew overhead. The largest of these came over first and probably had over 100 birds flying high towards the east. Later in the day perhaps a dozen pelicans gave us another display. A flotilla was paddling up and down the waterhole and almost on cue, all would simultaneously duck dive to feed, and then again just as simultaneously would arise again and continue on their way.

Today we saw more wildlife than you could reasonably expect. We saw emus, complete with chicks. We saw many varieties of kangaroos and wallabies. The bird count is now up over 30. However, we also saw the ferals in great numbers as well. Goats are predominant out here, but we have also seen pigs, foxes, cats and rabbits.

The big surprise later in the afternoon was an echidna coming down to a waterhole to drink. After being initially shy and curling up in a ball, it eventually decided life had to go on and gave Pippa a thrill by walking right up to her. Later, it decided Louis crouching down looked enough like a place to hide and crawled in between his legs.

Currawinya was until relatively recently a working sheep station. The campsite here is not far from the shearing shed. With 12 stands and made on steel posts on three split levels, it gives a good indication of the scale of the industry. The yards and dip outside are extensive and the shearers quarters well preserved. Currawinya being a new national park bought from the previous pastoralists I imagine it was in use right up to the end.

Tonight we find ourselves around a campfire with a bunch of at least empty-nesters, if not exactly grey nomads. The surprise packet though is a French woman here with a teenage daughter. Apparently they landed in Sydney yesterday afternoon and were whisked to an overnight stop somewhere on the road. Today they drove through to Currawinya. I suspect the jetlag and culture shock are in equal measure.