Narrabri

Saturday 23^rd, Sunday 24^th and Monday 25th April

This morning we said farewell to LIGHTNING RIDGE and drove the 70 odd km back down to WALGETT, where we fuelled up and then headed east towards NARRABRI, pronounced NARRABRY mate, about 190 km away. With about a week to fill in to hopefully give the weather a chance to settle down and the outback roads a chance to dry out, we have decided to have a look at NARRABRI, then head north through MOREE and GOONDIWINDI, before turning back west to ST GEORGE and then on to CUNNAMULLA for one last attempt at getting CAMERON CORNER.  If at that stage the roads are still closed, we will have to admit defeat, and continue on our planned route north to CHARLEVILLE and then on out to LONGREACH.

The road from WALGETT to NARRABRI was a bit rough and fairly boring.  Huge flat paddocks which had recently held cotton crops but were now mostly ploughed up ready for whatever the farmers had to do next. In between there was rough scrubland, with the occasional sheep or cattle beast, emu and kangaroos.  In the middle of one recently ploughed paddock we saw a fox, the first live one after seeing countless killed on the side of the road.

About half way between WALGETT and NARRABRI we came across our first crop of cotton that hadn’t been harvested. 

It was just a sea of white disappearing into the distance. A sight we were to become familiar with.  We decided it would be a good place to stop for lunch. 

We also passed several Cotton Gins, huge storage sheds where they separate the cotton from the seed heads, and then store it prior to shipping it off for further production.

 The sides of the road were littered with cotton waste which had obviously blown off the trucks as it was being carted to the gins.

After setting up camp in NARRABRI we made our usual visit to the Information Centre, bought some groceries, and had a look around town.  It was a lovely town about the size of Stratford, which acts as a service centre for the surrounding cotton industry. It had a reasonably sized river running through it which promised some fishing, and Cameron was keen to give it a go. 

We found out that the main tourist attractions were the nearby MT KAPUTAR NATIONAL PARK and its sawn rocks formation, and also the CSIRO Radio Telescope Site.

Back at camp, Cameron discovered two new playmates, Holly and Caitlyn, two girls aged about 10 and 7, and that was the last we saw of him until tea time.  Meanwhile we had a look through the brochures we had, and decided on tomorrow’s timetable.  

Sunday morning Cameron was out the door before breakfast to play with the girls.  After breakfast we spent the morning trying our luck with the fishing, but came home empty handed. After lunch we drove out to the CSIRO Radio telescope site which was about 25 km west of town. CSIRO stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and its main function is to monitor Radio Waves emitted from Outer Space.  It stands on a site of about 50 acres, and comprises 6 x 22 meter diameter radio telescopes mounted on railway tracks, which can be focussed anywhere in space. 

They have an aiming ability down to about several millionths of a degree, and are picking up radio waves from planets and shit, millions of light years away.  Figures that just go over your head.  They have been able to record stars being born, but whose light won’t reach earth for several million years.

As part of their display to help visitors understand how they function, they had set up two telescope dishes on the ground, facing each other, about 100 meters apart.  Each dish was about 2 meters in diameter.  You had to get one person to stand in front of each dish, facing towards it, and then talk in a normal voice.  Amazingly we could here each other as though we were standing face to face.  The purpose of this was to demonstrate how the dishes pick up our sound waves, which normally just radiate out anywhere, and focus them in to straight lines, which then bounce from one dish to the other.

As we were leaving the centre we saw several kangaroos watching us from the scrub at the side of the road, and then suddenly in front of us there was an Echidna starting to cross the road.  When he became aware of our car, he quickly turned around and headed back into the scrub.  We jumped out and headed him off which made him bury his head under the nearest log he could find.  Got some photos though.  Our first wild echidna.

Back at camp Cameron entertained the girls as only a 9 year old boy could, and we could hear fits of laughter from the girls.  We were reluctant to break up the show but had decided we would try out the Narrabri RSL for tea.  A rather ordinary Buffet Style meal set in what they called ‘The Shack’, with sound effects of a thunderstorm thrown in to add to the atmosphere.  A good idea, but somehow it just didn’t come off. 

Monday morning we headed out to MT KAPUTAR NATIONAL PARK, about 40km west of NARRABRI.  We had been told that you could drive to within about 150m of the summit, and on a clear day you could see about 10% of the state of New South Wales from the summit.  When we got to the top it was a bit cloudy and hazy but well worth the trip. 

We stopped at a camping area on the way back down and were amazed at the number of wild kangaroos hanging about looking for handouts.  Some were quite brave and would come right up to you looking for food.  Cameron was in his element.

In the afternoon we drove out to a different part of the National Park to look at what was termed ‘Sawn Rocks’.  A spectacular rock formation that formed a wall of what looked like huge lengths of 6 sided columns.  Nature never fails to amaze us with what she can do.

Tomorrow we will head north to MOREE and check it out before continuing on up to GOONDIWINDI, and then back out towards CUNNAMULLA.