19-Mar-2005
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After spending a couple of nights in Sydney, we headed up the coast to a place called 'The Entrance' just north of Gosford. It was quite warm on the day we arrived but the following day it rained. In fact it rained for the next 4 days and very heavily at times. 'The Entrance' is the inlet from the sea into Tuggerah Lake. There are some nice surf beaches and vast area of lakes to explore but it is also heavily built-up. We stayed a couple of nights before moving northwest across the Great Dividing Range to a place called Nundle. Nundle is a nice little town located about 50km south of Tamworth. We drove to 'Hanging Rock', a lookout over the town and local countryside. View from Hanging Rock near Nundle Can you spot Nundle and the caravan park? |
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The next day we headed north along the New England Highway making for Tenterfield. We got as far as Tamworth and noticed a loud rattling noise coming from the car. The rear silencer, sorry muffler, had parted company from the exhaust pipe. (Probably as a result of Graham and Jane's off road experience the other day!). We called into the tourist office and they put us onto a local exhaust specialist. A few minutes later we found the place and the guy had the car on the ramps, welding it up. (I had uncoupled the van before he put the car on the ramps!) Within 20 minutes, we were hitching up with the muffler fixed and reinforced and were on our way again, all for $15. What a service. Tamworth is the country music centre of Australia and they hold a large festival there each year. Even the tourist centre is shaped like a guitar. |
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Our next stop was 300km further north in the Boonoo Boonoo National Park. There was torrential rain on the way to the campsite and we got soaked setting up the van. The net day was a bit brighter so we drove to the Boonoo Boonoo falls where the water drops over 200mtrs. There was no shortage of water that day. The campsite was very good and the Boonoo River ran right alongside it. If the weather had been better, we could have swum in the pools in the river just behind the caravan. Very large granite outcrops dominate the area. Boonoo Boonoo Falls |
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This is Morgan's Gully, which was once a gold mining area. | |
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This little fella is a Red Necked Wallaby who came to visit us at the campsite. He or she stood about 70cm tall. Red Necked Wallaby |
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| After some lunch, we hit the road again and headed north across the boarder into Queensland and spent the night in Warwick. We went to the RSL for a meal but the lady at the reception said that the restaurant didn't open until 6:00pm. It was 6:30 by Ali's watch but we forgot we had crossed the border and Queensland doesn't have daylight saving. | ||