23 April 2011 - Narrabri Showgrounds, NSW

Our last night at Narrabri, but who would have thought that we would have found it such a great place to stay! Tomorrow we will head north, toward Moree, just 100 kilometres away. Maybe we will be there tomorrow night, maybe beyond; who knows.

The day has been glorious in only the way the most perfect autumn day can be; cloudless, warm out of the wind, and a delight to be out in. Waking on such a day motivated us to get cracking. We gathered the pile of washing that had missed the hand washing two days before and headed for the Information Centre to find whether Narrabri boasted a laundry. Of course it does. It seems that every town has a laundry, unlike most New Zealand’s small towns. Actually it is the first time we have used a commercial coin operated laundry since arriving here in Australia, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the machines were only $1 more than those in camping grounds. We shot off to Coles and did some shopping, then back to the laundry, the wet and washed laundry back to camp and strung up on our network of lines and our collapsible rotary line, then we hung around until the sheets were dry.

Sawn Rocks standing upright

Soon done, we headed off again, this time back to the Mt Kaputar National Park, but this time on a road to the north of the park. Looking at a map of the park, I realised that the boundary is in the shape of one of those Thai warrior gods, shown in profile, with the spikes of their armour pointing out front and back, one leg lifted with knee bent, the other stretched out backwards. And so imagining that (if you can), yesterday’s expedition entered the belly cutting almost right across to his back. Today’s trip was to the neck, so that the “head” to the north lay to our right and the body to our left as we arrived.

Whether this makes sense or not, it was a lovely forty kilometre drive on the road that carries on across to Bingara and so on to Tamworth, where g.g.g. Uncle George’s ghosts still lurk, if one has a ken to travel that more obscure route. The plains stretched both sides and behind us as we drove north west, land cultivated for cotton closer to Narrabri, and farmed for beef as we closed in on the Nadewar Range, finally arriving at the Sawn Rocks car park.

lying down....

and neatly stacked by nature

A short walk along a sagging sealed path meandered through eucalypts, figs and ferns and took us to an observation platform offering stunning views of the intriguing rock formation jutting starkly from the bed of the Bobbiwaa creek. The Sawn Rocks, towering 40 metre high pillars, looking so like organ pipes in a huge church, are the result of slow and even cooling of molten rock, which enables individual crystals within the rock to align perfectly with each other. The erosion of the “organ pipes” is still occurring and there are piles of debris at the foot of the cliff, which tipped on their sides appeared like piles of logs, or in some cases, a staircase. I imagine that it would not be wise to hang about during wet weather.

We found a picnic table, easier said than done, given the crowds of visitors, mainly Easter holidaying families. After lunch, we headed back into Narrabri, stopped at the town, now quiet after the busy-ness of the morning, and walked up one side of the main street and down the other. We happened upon the front of a car, with registration number intact, resting against the street curb. It was as if someone had run in too close when parking, then on leaving, pulled away and not noticed that the whole front of the vehicle had come away. After marvelling at the amusing sight, we went on, but soon witnessed a couple of police cars arrive, whose occupants after much consultation, loaded it into one of the vehicles and drove off. Perhaps some person received a phone call and were asked if they were missing the front of their car?

The rest of the afternoon was spent in a leisurely fashion; Chris washed the land cruiser, and I read the newspaper, just as matters should be.