QI Tour _ Warrumbungle NP (Day 15)

 Day 15 - Tamworth to Warrumbungles

White Gums Lookout

We had a happy early start, with son Sam joining us for a cuppa before he started work, as a farewell gesture. It’s always great to sit and chew the fat but good grief, he has such a hard job.

It would have been impossible to leave without a final coffee at Dinesh Goyal’s Cafe Vivaldi. There is nowhere in town that matches the quality of the coffee there ... and even fewer on the road!

Heading west, we galloped on and then through Gunnedah, stopping at the park at Mullaley for lunch. Having lived in the area, we knew we could count on clean toilets … oops apocalypse, not the case. On the way, there was another reminder of why truck drivers get so annoyed with some van drivers, with one old bloke, driving a Landcruiser with plenty of power and towing a van well within its capability, dawdled up the hills at 70kph and then sped up down the other side at 110. This left the following truck with no chance to pass and constant frustration, as the only explanation for his inconsistency would have been conserving fuel. It’s a pretty selfish approach.

After refueling in Coonabarabran, the familiar narrow and at times rough road out to the Warrumbungles more than compensated for it’s condition with the stunning scenery which unfolds as you approach The Crooked Mountains. Timor Road shadows the Castlereagh River for half of the journey to the national park, until you cross it near the Warrumbungle Mountain Motel. Thereafter, Shawn’s Creek joins you at Timor Rock and provides passageway, until the Castlereagh returns near the Siding Springs Observatory turn off.

The John Renshaw Parkway - the main road which passes roughly east to west through the national park - takes over from Timor Road after the Observatory, providing another narrowing and a 60kph speed limit but with the road winding down into the main plain in the centre of the park in quite steep section, no one would have any argument with slowing down.

Motherumba Wattle

We stopped before the main descent, and took in a favourite spot in the park, The White Gums Lookout. Located high in the eastern section of the park, it’s a few hundred metres walk from the parking area to a splendid lookout which exposes the entire vista of this spectacular place. All of the major physical features of the park lay before your gaze. Enormous mountains tower in the distance, most of them volcanic plugs left behind when their outer cones eroded away. This is dramatic scenery. Being spring, the wildflowers were in full bloom. The Motherumba wattle (acacia cheeli), with their fingers of fluffy looking yellow, were profuse and some of them were tall trees towering above us but closer on the ground, the delicate Noddy Blue Lily was scattered everywhere. An old favourite from when we used to bring the kids here, Eggs and Bacon(eutaxia obovata) was also prolific and in full display.

After taking our time to once again drink it all in, we drove the remaining few kilometres down onto the plain, booking in at the remarkable architecture of the Visitors Centre, built out of the ashes of the original, destroyed in the 2013 bushfires. The next hour was spent setting up camp at Blackman’s Camp, where power, toilets and showers are provided but no drinking water.

Click to see today's photos

As dusk settled, we took a walk across Mopra Creek, which divides the two main sections of the camp. The majority of the very many occasions we have visited the Warrumbungles - in my case going back to the year it was opened in 1968 - the creek has been dry but today, a good supply of water was filling the lower reaches of its narrow, deeply v-shaped course. Much has changed. A pedestrian footbridge now traverses one of the highest sections of bank, making a more direct route for campers to a completely new and ultra modern amenities block.

Light showers passed through as day transitioned into evening, dust not even settled in consequence. The usual
Kookaburra chorus was missing as campfires crackled as a backdrop for the usual casual conversations with new friends and then the quiet took precedence.