Gular to Lightning Ridge

Our first stop on the day was most important - we had morning tea with Chookyblue and Mr Chooky in their town.  Of course we forgot to take a photo.  Doh!

The further north we travelled, the greener everything was and there was more water lying in the table drains beside the road.  We saw many emus but no kangaroos and very little road kill.

We did see one large mob of cattle grazing along the road.  They must have been trucked up from down south, where it is dry, as they weren’t in top condition and most that live up this way are looking very good.

Lots of crops had been sown and we say quite a few tractors working in the distance.  They are huge! The one in this photo was just a baby, but the others were too far away to photograph.  As you can see, we are in big sky country.

One thing we did notice was the road conditions.  While there were no potholes, the road surface was really undulating, making things very bouncy as we drove along, keeping our speed down.  It is caused by being “black soil country” and having lots of floodways.

We had our lunch in a park at Walgett, which is also a free camp.

It has a lovely pond with fountain and water birds.

There were some very friendly apostle birds there.  Mick had them eating out of his hand.  It was a mother and two chicks, so she was happy to take any extra tit bits.

After lunch, we went and found the painted water tower, featuring the singer Jimmy Little, who came from Walgett.  He first came to fame with his song “Royal Telephone” in the early 1960s and then had a revival in the late 1990s.  We saw him in Sydney at that time and it was an enjoyable performance.

Our next stop was Lightning Ridge.  You know you are getting close to the turn off when you see “Stanley” the emu made out of a VW Beetle and other scrap metal.

You definitely know you are in opal mining country with the old cement truck tumbler.

We got ourselves settle in at the caravan park and had a quiet afternoon, before heading off to see the sunset.

The sunset viewing point is at “First Shaft Lookout”.  Like everywhere in Lightning Ridge, you follow the car door signs.  They are used to signpost the tour routes - Green Door, Yellow Door, Red Door, etc.  They are also used as address markers.  It is quite a quirky place.

Anyway, we were going to the lookout.  

There are a couple of things to see there.  Firstly, the beer can house, built in the late 1970s.  Sadly, it is starting to look a bit dilapidated.  It is a wonderful example of ingenuity.  Build yourself a shelter on the cheap, that does the job, but it won’t matter to leave it when you eventually move on.

The windows are very clever.

Being Lightning Ridge, there are a few old mine shafts.

You don’t want to wander around too much in the dark.

There is also a stone labyrinth, which is a bit of fun.  It looks stunning in the late afternoon light.

Someone has also made a heart.

So, I suppose I’d better show the view we were here to look at.  A flat landscape as far as the eye could see  

I had a bit of a play with my new to me camera tripod.  It is a bit of a bitser.  I bought a little phone tripod from the phone repair shop and then bought a big tripod at a swap meet for $5.  The phone holder bit screws straight onto the big tripod. So I have two options to play with.  I did a time lapse of the sunset, which was a bit of fun.

A bit more fun with the tripod.

After the actual sunset, most people left, but we hung around to get that lingering last light.

As the sky got quite dark, and with the nearly full moon, the landscape started to take on an eerie moonscape appearance.

Time to head back to the van.

As we drove back to town the mullock heaps also took on an eerie appearance.

It was a nice start to our visit to the area.  As you can see we did have a bit of a play.

Off Exploring

After such a busy start to the year (in a good way) we were both ready to hook up the caravan and head off into the wild blue yonder, so that’s exactly what we did on Friday.  We’ve decided to head north and just wander around for a while.

On our first day we enjoyed the autumn colours.

This avenue of trees as you enter Molong is to honour the Fairbridge Farm School children.

By then it was morning tea time and we found a cafe with a lovely mural in the rear courtyard.  Molong, including its main street, suffered severe damage from the devastating floods in November 2022 at the same time that Eugowra had 80% of its homes damaged. This was the first time we have stopped in the small town since that event.  While many businesses are back up and running, with their premises looking nice and fresh, others are still boarded up with For Sale signs out the front.

As we headed further north from Molong the landscape started to look decidedly greener than at home.  We missed all the rain from the cyclone and then general flooding that affected Queensland earlier this year, whereas we were now entering areas that had benefited from that rain.  The countryside was also becoming much flatter.

As we passed Gilgandra, we could see the majestic Warrumbungles in the distance, but we were not heading that way this time.

Our destination for the day was the small village of Gulargambone.  Wherever you look, there is artwork about galahs.  I’ve often wondered if it is just a play on words or if there is some deeper meaning.  I have learnt on this trip that John Oxley, on his 1818 expedition, was the first European to visit this area and there was a large camp of aboriginals alongside what is now known as the Castlereagh River.  To them, Gulargambone means “Plenty Galah Birds”.  So, yes, it is more than just a play on words.

First stop was the water tower with its painted mural.

We settled in at the small caravan park, which has a lovely feel to it and then went for a walk around town.  It is known for lots of fun murals.  We last stayed here in 2018, so didn’t expect to see much change, but there has actually been quite a few new ones added.  We started off at the park beside the river.

There were murals on the toilet block.

Then billboards with artwork.

As well as some sculptures.  I’m not quite sure what I think about the old XP Ford Falcon splattered with paint.

There was a sign for a River Walk, so off we went.

The river is the Castlereagh and it was looking lovely in the late afternoon light.

It was lined with big old river red gums.  Some had wonderful designs in the bark.

This gives you some sense of the scale of them.

Then we checked out some more of the artwork around town.  

As I said, some we had seen before, but quite a bit was new.  There are several more than these.

By then it was time to enjoy happy hour at the caravan park.  

It really is a friendly little place.

We had planned on cooking our tea, but as quite a few from the park were going up to the Bowling Club for Chinese for tea, we decided to go as well.  That was an excellent decision, as the food was fantastic and we had a very enjoyable evening.  We took this photo of the general store on the way back.  It’s amazing how much better some places look in the dark.  It doesn’t look anything in the daytime.

And so ended our brief time in Gulargambone.  These little places are so worth stopping at when you get the chance.