Road Trip No 1 for 2024
Our trip encompasses the Worimami and Biripi/Birpai people and country of the Eastern side of the Barrington Range and into the Wonaruah and Gaewegal people of the Western Country. For tens of thousands of years they cared for country as a living holistic cultural landscape . Spiritual beliefs and traditional practice encompassing the elements of Land, Law and Language to mother earth and father sky and the ancestral beings.
Coming home after Christmas /New Year break we decided to catch up with a friend in Scone for lunch. This can mean we have three options
1. Going north over the Gwydir Highway into Glen Innes and down the New England Highway to Scone, which is a journey we enjoy as we both lived and worked in Glen Ines and Armidale in our courting days and we love to revisit and remember special places and special times. We have a favourite motel called Abbey Motel near everything especially dinner outlets for staying over night.
2. Crossing via the Waterfall Way which is a journey we enjoy with a stop at a vortex place for its – Ebor Falls . This is tricky in finding a place to stay and timing is out a bit for lunch , well lunch is not possible– the best we can do is 2pm and that was pushing it making it about the destination rather than the journey too rushed.
3. However for a first adventurous road trip of 2024 we decided to make the journey from Gloucester over the Barrington Tops through the Barrington National Park and down the western side through farm land into Gundy and Moonan Flat and into Scone . For this we needed to stay in Scone( nothing reasonable available so took the extra kilometres to Aberdeen for the evening and perfect timing for early leisurely lunch with our friend in Scone and wild chatter that picks up where we we left on last visit. and time to get back to Sydney.
Road Trip
We set off from Coffs Harbour at 8am in the cool of the morning, travelled south for about three hours and tuned off the Pacific Freeway to Gloucester.
A wonderful second-hand book shop along the way on the outskirts of Gloucester near the turn off for the mountain. This was a rest period and stop and we bought a few poetry books and a pictorial book for Michael on the Lakes area.
Then we left civilisation and it was dirt, dirt and more dirt. The clouds were textures white light and promising of good weather. We would not like to be doing this in boggy conditions. We love the the bubbling brooks we pass as we got higher into the hills.
Higher we came to the Eucalypt Forest. We had a break at Thunderbolt Lookout and very fascinating stop at The Firs. The main sounds were like reevng of bikes which actually is the prolific cacophony of Lyre Birds calling . One came out and danced for is in the stream of light striking a clearing and as we left another lyre bird ran across the road . We stopped to watch it but it had quickly blended in with the vegetation.
Another stop at Cobark Lookout . and across the famous Dingo Fence and we wound down the steep western mountain side with glorious vistas of farm land and more mountains and crossed many bridges over the Hunter, Isis, Stewart Brook . and through Gundy, not surprised at the number of groups camped along the river. Stopped at Moonan Flats which has been done up but was closed to our surprise. and to finally into Aberdeen to the motel. This meant a relaxed morning and to have lunch with our friend .
