Leaving Sydney for the Country - Warrumbungle National Park and Bingara

Hey All! Again, I'm sorry folks but I'm actually writing this in Byron on Tuesday 18th, but if I wrote about the last 4 days in one post your eyes would become unfocused! So I'm going to write about the last 2 days as if it was Sunday. Got that? Good.

Saturday morning was an ungodly early start again, we had a coach to catch at 7am so we said our goodbyes and thankyous to a sleepy and not-quite-with-it Stuart and Craig and set off for the Warrumbungles. The bus was about three times as full as it was yesterday and our driver today was called Darren (or Bogan). He had some choice phrases, such as 'Ok Trendsetters...' and 'It's just all too easy!', which was quite funny. We stopped quite frequently on the way, partly for Bogan's fag breaks and partly cos we had a long stint - 560km to cover in one day. The first stop was at Bilpin, which was a road in the middle of some trees with 2 fruit outlets on opposite sides of the road to each other. That was it. I kid you not! Luckily, one of them sold sandwiches, cakes and toasties so we had second breakfast in silence as we'd not yet plucked up the courage to speak to any of the crew on the coach! We stopped a second time in Mudgee for dinner, and since we'd chatted to a girl called Gemma from Cheshire and she was travelling on her own she joined us in the 'Coffee 'n' Cream Cafe' where I had a giant chocolate milkshake and a 'works' hot dog - with bacon, onion, cheese and bbq sauce on it! The heat was immense - pushing 45C and since the town was in the middle of nowhere there was no breeze at all. The next stop was at Poet's Corner Winery and Vineyards for some wine-tasting and a tour of the cellars. We unfortunately didn't get a tour of the vineyards as it was so hot, but I came out feeling slightly tiddly so I was happy!

We finally got to the Warrumbungles around 5pm. We were staying in a bush camp which had proper rooms and everything, but there was a spider in the corner of our room so that was slightly unnerving! After a roast dinner for tea we hung around and chatted to the coach crew for a while, and then a woman called Mel came to give us a slide-show talk about astronomy. She was slightly mouthy as she had a 8 wk old baby and was a bit sleep-deprived, but the stuff she talked about was really interesting - the different planets and galaxies and stars and nebulas and what not. Then she took us outside for a star-gaze, and she pulled out this well-cool light sabre like device. It was a really strong green laser which sent out a ray which was miles long, and she used it to point to the stars and tell us what they were. We saw Orion (upside down to the northern hemisphere), Saturn and loads of other little constellations. For the whole package - the roast dinner, the room, breakfast and the star show we paid about $36 (about 15 quid) so it was pretty good value. After chatting some more we went to bed early as we were so tired.

In the morning we had breakfast (cereal and toast, all carbs - not good) and set out to the Warrumbungle National Park to do another bush walk up to the Breadknife. This is another protruding rock made of ancient lava; the volcanic mountain that was around it had eroded off leaving this rock. The walk was only about 2hrs and not too strenuous, and we saw our first emus and kangaroos! And the roos were in full bounce! I can go home happy now. We planned to see the Observatory but everyone was so hungry after our useless carbohydrate breakfast! that we all decided to skip it and go for lunch in Narrabri.

Narrabri was Australia's Cotton Capital back in the day, but now it's just a main road with a few shops on really. We couldn't resist having a Subway for lunch after seeing the sign, and since I've never had one in Britain it doesn't really count as not sampling native cuisine! It was, needless to say, delicious, and I was so impressed and still hungry that I had two. Yum. On the way to Bingara we stopped in the Glacial Rock Area to have a swim in the river. It was absolutely gorgeous and still, in between two rapids, and it was really nice to cool off in the heat. We took some photos of the type you see in the backpacker brochures of people swimming in rivers so I feel well cool now! We also saw a turtle (which we at first mistook for a sea-snake - pandemonium ensued) and spent a good hour or so chilling out.

We arrived in Bingara around 5pm, and we were staying in the 'Imperial Hotel' (which was, in all honesty, a pub) and our dorm was MASSIVE! All the single girls were staying in it but we could've easily fit the whole bus in twice over. Bingara was another small town in the middle of nowhere with only a main street, but it was apparently the place to come if you wanted to mine some gold or diamonds in the 19th century. We paid around $70 for board, food and a 2.5hr horse ride in the morning. It's hard to self-cater when we're only there one night and there's nothing by way of a kitchen, so sometimes you just have to go with the flow. After a BBQ dinner and a few games of cards we ventured into the bar (where, funnily enough, the locals had flocked after seeing the big green Oz Bus - 'Girls!'). I had a schooner (between a half and a pint) of Tooheys - like Fosters - and drank that all night. It probably wasn't the best idea since we were up early the next day for horse riding! Had a few games of pool with the guys, chatted with Bogan about what sort of stuff we can do up the East Coast (I'm contemplating a sky-dive in Mooloolaba, not sure yet) and turned in about 1am as the poor barmaids wanted to go home!

We're off to Byron Bay tomorrow! Can't wait for that as we've heard so many good things about the place, and although it's gonna be busy Bogan has sorted our accommodation for us so it should be 'All Too Easy!'

Cheerio for now!