Driving off at 7am in the early morning light. Headed back West for a few km to join the road and turn south.
Stopped briefly to take some photos of John Murray’s emu sculpture by the road. Let Ian know we were on our way. A number of eastern grey kangaroos hopped across the road in front of us, fortunately without incident. Roy saw them well ahead, small flocks of native pigeons every few hundred metres enjoying the heat of the road-taking off as we approached. Indian Minah’s by the edge of the road. Black Angus cattle. No sign of Brahmans any more. Paddock of emus right next to the road, 50-100 of them!! Turn onto Route 76 to Colleranabri. Goats, two camels behind a substantial fence, flocks of sheep, Crop duster? Small plane, Water by the road, Complete change in landscape today. Much greener, large crops, Hereford cattle. Pee wees, Galahs, Flocks of dark birds, by the road- chuffs? Cattle over the road. School and school zone on the middle of nowhere! Blue crane by the roadside. Stopped at the roadside for morning tea and found families of little fairy wrens and a yellow thornbill all hopping around in the Casuarina tree. Stopped at Moree for cheap petrol and twisties, yuck. Moree appeared to be a thriving well to do town – not what we expected.
Obviously, they had plenty of rain. Very green around here. More sheep. Ducks. Acres of large deciduous trees and a weird yellow tower. Gravesend was a strange little town. Rather run down but some clear evidence of attempts to tart it up in places. Kookaburra sitting on electric wire. Pit stop Warialda. R2B2 statue and across the road a purple house with garden sculpture everywhere! Roadkill increasing; kangaroos and foxes. Stopped by the road for lunch at a nice leafy spot. Windy but not to the point of blowing lunch away! Swan Valley area huge expanse of wind turbines!
Vegetation looked just like that driving between Wagga and Canberra. Horses, Crimson rosella, 3 flew over the road, Rain at Shannon Vale! First rain since we left home! Then drove into tall trees forest, damp from rain. Beautiful. Then mist and fog! So different. Gibraltar range: Rocky outcrops. Still wet. Washpool national park. Rain and fog and crazy overtakes in front of us. Steep and windy road. Fog Rainbow! Could not get a shot though. Just a nice rural scene next to where it was. Gwydir River? Lots road works/traffic lights. Lush green pastures. Horses grazing on green grass by the winding river. Pitstop by the river and walked along the river banks to take pictures of the river and the cows, some sort of butcher bird. Beautiful trees here, beautiful night after the rain; everything’s very wet and muddy. What a change from where we were this morning. Blue faced honey eater. Jackadgery stop. Donkeys, Grafton- fuel, good price, Ibis Egrets Black swans, Brushgrove to Rhonda’s place. Bubbly and chips for sunset by the Clarence River BBQ fish for dinner.
