We set off from Dubbo towards Narrabri not knowing whether or not we would be able to get there because of the flooding in NSW. We had quite a horrendous drive at times driving through very fierce rains, at it's worst we were looking for somewhere to pull in to a rest area and thought we would wait out the rain there before proceeding. Luckily it settled enough for us to drive on and we were thankful when we finally arrived in Narrabri. We planned to stay at the showgrounds and found them easily, we drove in and chose a spot that looked the least flooded and set up. I rolled my jeans up before hopping out of the car, I had my thongs on because my shoes were drenched and I thought if I was wading through water then my thongs would be the best option rather than ruining another pair. We set up and I prepared lunch, after lunch I did another couple of jobs and then we drove into town to the Information Centre to find out what roads were open so that we could plan what we would do tomorrow.. We are a bit limited because all the roads out of town have been closed about 20 kms out because of flooding but we will call in tomorrow to see if there is an update on the roads. We have a bit of a plan for things to do closer to town until we can venture a bit further. By the time we returned to the van the rain had stopped and we could see some blue sky shining through which buoyed our spirits a bit, it was still quite warm so we decided to sit outside for awhile. We stayed outside until dinner time and then moved it, it is still quite warm so we have opened up all the vents hoping we don't have rain overnight.
We researched the information brochure we had and thought we would visit the Old Narrabri Gaol and Museum this morning. We had a few jobs to do before taking off but we were still early for the opening time for the museum so we drove around the town for a few minutes. When we arrived at the gaol the volunteers were in the process of opening up, however, they said it was ok for us to go in. We started a conversation with one of the volunteers who happened to be the research person for the project and she was happy enough to come around with us for a short time explaining some of the rooms and cells, it was very interesting and she had lots of information from times past that we would not have learnt otherwise. We found the gaol very interesting and enjoyed the visit. We left here to drive to the Australian Telescope Centre which was 23 kms out of town and quite an exciting drive because lots of the road was underwater and we had to negotiate these areas carefully. We entered the CSIRO complex and then had to drive another 2.5kms to the centre. There are six large telescopes here and other smaller and different types of equipment that we weren't sure what they were for but seemed to be important to the area. We had a good look around and a bit of a play with the whispering dishes which was fascinating and then entered the video room to watch the short film they had. There was a time lapse video of the dishes set to music and it was similar to a beautiful dance with photos of the sky at different times of day and night, it was quite fascinating. We left the Centre and then drove onto Wee Waa which was only another 24kms on, We didn't see that much here so continued on back to Narrabri. The road we took was much better than the first one we came out on. We arrived back in Narrabri and picked up a few items at the supermarket and then drove back to the van. We were looking forward to a day relaxing at the van. The weather was perfect so I did a bit of washing and hung that out, we had set out bed up to dry out from the soaking it had taken on the trip here and that was all dry so I set that to order and then we had lunch. We had a relaxing day from here and planned tomorrow's activities.
We had decided to spend a third night here to give the roads time to clear so we had a rough plan to visit Mt. Kaputar and Sawn Rocks. Before we left I washed and hung out our bedding, it had been soaked from the rain and although I had dried it out I wanted to freshen it up a bit and it was a perfect day for washing. Our first stop was at the Information Centre to enquire about the roads out of Narrabri, it is still not great news and we were given a couple of options for moving on that we will think about. Mt. Kaputar National Park is open so we decided to take a drive up there, it is a slow drive up the mountain with gravel roads for part of the way and the bitumen roads are quite narrow in parts and a bit of a hairy drive. However, it was well worth the effort by the time we arrive. There is a very good stop close to the summit that we took photos from and the summit gave us spectacular views over the park. We drove back to Narrabri after this and stopped at the RSL for lunch in the Outback Shack which is a very interesting bistro set up to look like the outside of an outback building and where we sat looked like the verandah and every half hour there is a thunderstorm and water falls off the roof into a gully beside the tables, it was very cute and we appreciated the ambience. We both had steak and enjoyed it with a glass of sauvignon blanc each. We left here and drove to the road to take us to Sawn Rocks but we only got about 100m down the road before we were stopped and told the road was closed so we turned around and drove home. We have decided to spend a fourth night here to give the roads a bit more time to clear up.
Today we tried again to access Sawn Rocks and luckily the road was open, it is only 30 minutes out of Narrabri and an easy drive but we did have a couple of areas across the road that were flooded. We arrived and parked and it was a very easy 750mt walk to the rocks and it was well worth it when we arrived. They are quite spectacular as you will see in the photos. From the Sawn rocks we drove back to town and visited the Narrabri lake which wasn't spectacular but quite nice. I think with the lake it is the value to the community of it's uses which encompass skiing, kayaking, swimming and fishing. There is also a children's playground and an undercover area with gym equipment like a lot of towns seem to have now. From here we drove back to the showgrounds. Just because we are on the road doesn't mean that we no longer has chores to take care of, yesterday I stripped out bed, washed the linen and then remade them, today Robb washed the inside of the awning and I washed the fridge out. We are hoping to move on tomorrow so we spent a bit of time plotting our route. We want to get across to Yamba on the east coast eventually but tomorrow night we will stop at Glen Innes, maybe for two nights, to give the floods as much time as possible to recede between Glen Innes and Yamba. Once we are on the east coast we will work our way up north when we can. Our neighbours at the showgrounds are also trying too get up north to various areas so we had a bit of a meeting today to share the information we all had.
Comments