Warrumbungles Failure

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New South Wales

Road trip sights.

We’ve been monitoring the various park webpages for two months prior to the trip and were aware of the various warnings and cliff closures in the Blue Mountains. We were therefore surprised to find out that the Warrumbungles National Park had closed on the day that we were driving there; a precautionary measure as there were no fires nearby. There we were – stuck with a prearranged Airbnb place and nothing to climb; at least not within a day’s driving distance. We checked out an appealing formation on the edges of the park, Timor Rock with no closure signs, and tried making our way to the backside where the handful of routes were reportedly located. The horrendous bushwhack turned us around (apparently Australia has some venomous snakes?). We bummed around the sleepy town of Coonabarabran frequenting their bottle shops and did some road trips including a long run to Newcastle and its ocean beach. We were also looking at our next planned destination, The Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, and the progressively worsening fire conditions. A day prior to departure we got an email from our prearranged place asking us to reconsider coming and offering a full refund. And so we changed plans and after three days of relative boredom headed south for Horsham in Victoria some 12.5 hours away.

Photos

Coonabarabran

Welcome to Coonabarabran, NSW; the jumping off point for the Warrumbungles National Park (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

Closed, closed, closed (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

Warrumbungles National Park – views from an overlook which happened to still be open. Belougery Spire (right) and Crater Bluff – both home to some longish routes (up to 10 pitches). Next time (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

The very appealing looking Belougery Spire (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

Warrumbungles National Park (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

White Cockatoos in Warrumbungles National Park (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

An emu on a farm outside of Warrumbungles National Park (Dec. 2019).

Warrumbungles National Park

And his cousins (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Getting lost somewhere in New South Wales during one of our slow days in Coonabarabran (Dec. 2019).

Australia

Town meeting (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Roo watching from the side of a road (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

In flight (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

“What?!  Where??” (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Random road-side sights (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

A sunset jog (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Though we could not climb in the closed down Warrumbungles National Park, our rented cabin in Coonabarabran kind of kicked ass (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Downtown Coonabarabran, NSW (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Timor Rock on the outskirts of the Warrumbungles National Park (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

On the short drive from Coonabarabran to Pilliga Pottery settlement (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

The hippie settlement of Pilliga Pottery outside of Coonabarabran; reportedly established by German immigrants sometime back (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Some of the wildlife (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

There were some easy hikes starting from Pilliga Pottery; some pretty barren terrain and a few overlooks (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

A wood-stone interface (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

More sights from the short sunset hike (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

The flora around Coonabarabran (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Renting something with a kitchen in Australia seems like a good deal as take-out and/or eating out is pretty expensive (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Looking for something to do (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

New South Wales (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

A black wallaroo (Dec. 2019).

Coonabarabran

Some town along our drive from Coonabarabran to Newcastle (Dec. 2019).

Newcastle

Newcastle – burgers and beach time (Dec. 2019).

Newcastle

Newcastle, NSW. After the burgers, we hit the beach for like an hour or two. Then 4.5 hours back to Coonabarabran (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Roos (left hand valley) coming out at sunset (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

More roos (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

The elusive, two-headed, Siamese deer with underdeveloped front hooves (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Hard to resist stopping and taking photos (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Some town in New South Wales along our drive. Note the yellowish haze (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

I think parrot is called a galah (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

The smaller sized, black kangaroo (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Starting the long (~12+ hour) drive from Coonabarabran, NSW to Horsham, VIC (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Some random rest area in NSW where we noticed the highest temperature on the car’s thermometer (Dec. 2019).

Australia

Sending temps (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

West Wyalong, NSW (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

A dust bowl (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Very arid – hard to imagine farming or ranching in this climate (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Farmland randomness (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

More randomness from the long drive (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

New South Wales (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Hay, New South Wales (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Small town Australia in Hay, NSW (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

Aussie & Thai – pretty decent (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

The long drive took us over long stretches on unpaved back roads (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

“Hey ladies. Y’all here alone?”

New South Wales

Long but reasonably interesting drive (Dec. 2019).

New South Wales

A glowing sunset (Dec. 2019).

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