20 April 2011 - Pilliga No 2 Rest Area, Newell’s Highway, Pilliga Forest, NSW

Tonight we are tucked away up a track not too far from the highway, blinds drawn and hopefully invisible to the passing traffic. Bush camping with the ants, hopefully not too closely!

We left Blackman’s Camp this morning soon after nine, and drove to the eastern exit of the park, parked and did the short walk to the White Gum Lookout., where we passed through a forest of white gums and black cypress to a sandstone outcrop from where we could enjoy the fabulous view back across the caldera through the western pass. It was a sight that made us regret that we were leaving this very beautiful area.

Parklands at Coonabarabran

We drove on down through the foot hills, duly arriving at Coonabarabran, a small rural town nestled on the edge of the range. It boasts a population of about 3,000 and is situated on the Castlereagh River, upstream from Gilgandra.  Coonabarabran is known as the Astronomy Capital of Australia. There are several official observatories near the town, one situated high on the rim of the Warrumbungal Ranges, and we had noticed many more as we drove through the countryside to the town. The many exotic trees, particularly those in the parks, were seasonally golden, and the town was bustling with business. As per normal, we called at the Information Centre to find a small museum exhibiting the fossilized remains of a Diprotodon, the largest known prehistoric marsupial to have lived, found to the east of the town in 1979. It is believed to be 33,500 years old.

We shopped at the Woolworths, bought a newspaper at the Newsagent (as one does here) and filled with water from a tap at one of the parks. By then it was lunch time, then time to head north once more.

We had learned from the woman at the Information Centre of sandstone caves of aboriginal cultural significance on the route north. Unfortunately the elders had decided they did not want obvious signage from the road, and so we had to watch for the modest little sign on the side of the road, deducting mileages from our next destination.

Once found, there was a kilometre of dirt road to rumble and bump along at a very sedate speed, and then an easy walk of 1.7 kilometres which took us to sandstone outcrops, fragile hills eroded by wind and rain over time to form a network of caves used as shelter by the aboriginal people and wild animals. There are interpretative plaques to explain the geological and cultural features. The formations were just gob stopping; man cannot ever hope to exceed the artistic work of nature.

A couple of these caves were fenced with great wire cages because vandals had destroyed some of the natural beauty with graffiti and breakage some twenty years ago. It is such a shame that a few useless criminals should spoil things for the law abiding and respectful masses.

Once back on the road, we watched for free camps advertised in the travelling bible, all rest areas. It was still fairly early and I was keen to come on to this one which was the only one suggested in the CMCA book and only twenty five kilometres from our next destination, Narrabri. We pulled in here, to find (as expected) no toilets or water, but rubbish bins ignored by past travellers, and a maze of little tracks and clearings in the bush here.

As I have typed this, we did hear one vehicle come on down the same track and disappear further into the scrub. Hopefully they will stay down there and not bother us. As we backed into our posse, we had to reverse over an ant nest, over a metre wide. We took the precaution of spraying the tyres with fly spray and have put no other “feet” down. Hopefully this will keep them at bay. Watch this space!