That's just a quick summary of what we've been up to. Drovers Hut is in SE Queensland of course and the shortest way back to Port MacQuarie involves quite a bit of road-hopping and navigation. Our first day's journey back took us, alas, to Moonie on the Leichhardt Highway (#39) which takes a fairly elevated route parallel to the E. coast and about 300 km inland.
Why "alas" ? you may say. Well, we were sort of benighted at Moonie - because we became lost several times, we eventually ran out of time, daylight and inclination to drive any further and also we ran out of suitable places to camp ! So we made the mistake of stopping for the night at a truck-stopover at Moonie. This was a windswept dusty plain where the big truck rigs invariably changed gears noisily all night long. Add to it that the town is booming because of recent oil strikes so there wasn't even any motel space available so that we had to park directly beside the road. Finally, we elected to eat in the truck eatery, where the food was slow (an hour !) burnt, cold and greasy. But at least we had managed to find highway # 39. Next morning we literally shook the dust of Moonie from our shoes and travelled swiftly down highway #39, now become the Newell Highway - it's the habit of Australian politicians to name highways after themselves when these roads cross State boundaries and this accounts for much of our confusion the day before.
Running Bare was to be the site for the 37th ANF Convention in a couple of weeks. We weren't sure if we would be able to find a camp site there but all was well and we set up Gertie II to rest for a couple of days, much of which we spent keeping cool in the pool. In the background (behind the elegant bronze statue) you'll be able to see Gertie II snoozing away and enjoying that well-earned rest.
Later on, and during the Convention itself, we developed the habit of going for a 5-6 km walk in the early morning cool before sunrise, thereby avoiding the excessive heat of the day. The property is about 760 acres, mainly timbered, with a few dams and creeks. The creeks were dried-up for the most part, except during the very heavy rainfalls, not uncommon at this time of the year. This part of NSW (and most of Queensland) being very flat in places, flooding is frequent and sudden - many times later on we were to ford rivers which can rise within minutes and then become impassable for days on end. Here's one such creek we crossed daily on these walks, a creek which, incidentally, might possibly contain amethysts or even sapphires if you're sufficiently lucky. We only found sand though.
On at least one occasion there was a sudden nocturnal downpour of about 5 cm per hour with accompanying high winds and lightning strikes. Next moring we found one of the gum trees along our walk had obviously been struck. Gum trees are peculiar in that fire or lightning will explode the bark off the tree. This is a safety factor in saving the tree from disastrous fires and is something to remember when you're looking for camp fire fuel - make sure large amounts of bark aren't left on the wood before you cook your dinner, else you may find this dispersed over a large area.
Looking up at the lightning-blasted tree - note the bark blasted off. Around, underneath, are the fresh bits of bark.
In the background is the retaining wall of one of the dams, a favourite hang-out place for kangaroos and wallabies early in the morning. Running Bare was very busy, setting up for the ANF Convention, to take place in a week, toward the end of the Queensland Tourist season. We managed to get a few 'unpeopled' pictures at this time, but it was time to head even futher S. and E. in order to be in Port MacQuarie again for Xmas. We were to return a couple of days after that anyway...
Just getting started on the second bottle. Neither of us is the designated driver !
While scoffing that Xmas lunch, we looked out over the water, while a pelican looked in at us, expecting a hand-out, and the bees were busily worked in the flowering palm trees.
What a curious bird is the pelican. Its beak will hold more than its belly can..........
How doth the busy little bee improve each shining hour.......
Dec 27 we simply reversed our journey of a week ago and went back up to Narrabri and Running Bare, where the temperature gradually rose higher and higher, peaking at 46 C for one day.
What do you do at a Nudist Convention ? The same sorts of things you do at any other get-together - meet old friends, make new friends, play some sports (actually, ANF Conventions are largely sporting events anyway), find out what's going on around this country. Just the same, really, as an FCN Convention, except bigger.There were side trips arranged, notably to Lightning Ridge, an opal mining centre. Shirley-Anne and I took one day off to visit the big Australian Radio Telescope. This is the so-called Compact Array Telescope, not to be confused with the Parkes Radio Telescope, also operated by CSIRO, which was so essential for the Apollo 11 mission. The Narrabri telescope consists of an array of six smaller dishes (22 m. dia.), five of which are accurately steerable along a 3 km. track, the sixth being stationary 3 km orthogonal to the main array, and its function is to act as a giant antenna with a resolving power much greater than the single, but larger (64 m.) dish of the Parkes telescope. When the Narrabri telescope is used in conjunction with other radio telescopes then its resolving power is equivalent to a dish larger than the earth. You can follow these telescopes in real time at www.atnf.csiro.au .
Three of the five dishes in linear array.
It isn't generally known that the Narrabri area of NSW is a major cotton-growing district. This is a Big Business here and so we felt obliged to go visit the Cotton Centre - a very slick public relations exercise heavily supported by, dare I say it ? Monsanto, to reassure the local residents that the pesticide spraying is just as minimal as it can be and that all irrigation waters are recycled (well, of course the water is recovered, but no one would let me know how much is not recovered) so you don't need to worry folks. And just think of the Big Profits.....We tried our hand at cotton-picking in a giant 4-row, air-conditioned behemoth.
On another occasion we visited Sawn Rocks. This is a granite outcrop of hexagonal columns, similar to, but smaller than, the famous Giant's Causeway. Actually, all around the hills here are the remnants of long-ago volcanic events, notably the 'pipes' remaining from volcanic cores.
Click left image to see Sawn Rocks in more detail (1.04 MB)
On yet another occasion, trying to escape the heat of the plains, we went up, up, up a spectacular mountain route to the very summit of Mount Kaputar. The single-lane gravel road took us through a succesion of hair-raising switchbacks.to a few feet short of the summit at 1510 m. where we brewed a cup of tea, courtesy of Gertie's kitchen arrangements. The view would have been remarkable had it not been for the heat haze all around.
We weren't away from Running Bare every day - just when it became outrageously hot - can you imagine days and days of 40-45 C weather. There were ice creams on the site and, especially useful, a bush-camping outfit had set up not only an array of tents as extra accomodation if needed but best of all, their mobile kitchen and catered meals if one so desired.
It was only 20 km to Narrabri to pick up supplies, mainly beer. Here's a warning about a hazard you may encounter in Australian Bottle Shops. These are pravtically always drive-through units by the way but this isn't the hazard in question. Look very carefully at the size of the bottles in the case of beer you're picking up. You can usually find quart bottles (which we prefer as being more economical when we have a big enough refrigerator available) but most people prefer the 370 ml 'stubby'. Be aware that you can by accident pick up a case of 'throwdowns' which are only 200 ml. i.e. only a mouthful on a hot day in Queensland.
On the right - the noble Stubby. On the left - the detestable Throwdown.
In the background is the didgeridoo for working up a thirst..........
All good things come to an end, and the ANF Convention finished with a talent concert and a sports' awards ceremony. Over the next few days most of the participants left, returning to their homes, some as far away as Perth in WA. Thanks to Glennis and Laurie for all their hard work over the past two years to make this Convention a success. Oh, and the 38th Convention will be held at ACT, just outside Canberra. Don't think we can make it though..
We thought it would be interesting to take the 'Old Grafton Road' from Narrabri to the E. Coast, rather than travel by the same old route we had been on three times before. To start with, we took the road heading E. toward the coast again, intending to stop for the night at Copeton State Park, where there's a very large dam (i.e. a lake) and also a State Park campground. We had been starved for a month or so for a sight of large amounts of water. Oh, the thirst (see comments about the tiny throwaway beer bottles ! So we set out upon the up-and-down gravel road from Narrabri, via Bingara and Bundara, finally going down and down and down into the Copeton valley. The lake is dammed by an enormous pile of huge rocks and we really wondered what kept the water from seeping out - the water was only about 50% capacity with many warnings of submerged rocks but the lake was a sizeable one even so.
Top side of the dam......................................................Bottom side of the dam
We actually went for a swim in the lake. It was supposed to be cold water but was actually luke-warm and there was a major difficulty in getting to it - across a barrier of thistly grass with argumentative-looking kangaroos and a few cattle also. We stayed at Copeton Water State Park which is a very large camping site, obviously very popular at peak periods and supplied with an elaborate water slide. Unffortunately, we were in a hurry to leave next morning (didn't want to be trapped by flooded roads on the next stage) so didn't have the time to try it out. The next morning, early, we set out across the mountains via the Old Grafton Road. This is another of those hair-raising single-lane tracks with frequent river fords and little chance of succour if you should make a driving error - you would likely be rolling over and over down a steep slope if you ever got off the roadway ! The road was about 160 km and it followed a succession of steep passes through the hills. The National Trail (a footpath N-S) follows the road here and we passed very many attractive-looking stopping places but, again, no time. The scale of the map below doesn't give justice to the twists and the turns we encountered as the track went through homestead after homestead, each separated by a cattle grid from its neighbour. About halfway along we discovered a disaster, in that a ginger beer bottle had burst and covered everything with sticky. Stopped to clean up, washing off the stickier items and of course, just when things were hanging up to dry, it started to rain a little so that we were forced to press on regardless.
What we were doing was to avoid Highway #38 which we had taken a few weeks before and this road was more scenic although by no means a high-speed highway, as you can see from the picture below. There's water within that tunnel and the reason for the stop was to see just how deep it was !
At Grafton we encountered heavier rain but this soon petered out and we arrived at Glenreagh Naturist Getaway at about 5 pm, conveniently just in time for the daily Happy Hour beside the swimming pool. It appeared that they had just had a bad storm come through (10 cm in an hour) which we, fortunately, had missed. We stayed here a couple of days, enjoying the extended brunches - these started at about ten am and continued until 7 pm. Played numerous games of petanque upon the hilly, muddy grass and even had a square dance or two......
Here is Gertie, parked beside the swimming pool, waiting for a game of croquet, too.
Next day, we headed for Highway #1, the Pacific Highway, and headed S. En route, we stopped off at Coff's Harbour again and used vk2irl (or was it vk2evb ?) to call people back in Ottawa. Highway 1 is a high-speed route so we were back at Port Macquarie in good time to confirm the reservation for Gertie to get her servicing, infusion of precious bodily fluids and so on. Turns out she needs a new muffler dammit.
From here, we will be leaving soon (tomorrow ?) to amble our way southwards, probably stopping off at Rosco www.roscoclub.org , Kiata www.kiatacc..com and maybe ACT www.actnc.net depending upon how the days go. We have to be in Melbourne on or around 3 Feb. is the only requirement.