BLACKHEATH

27 November 2010

                           THE MEGALONG VALLEY FROM HARGREAVES LOOKOUT

THE MEGALONG VALLEY FROM MT BLACKHEATH LOOKOUT

Today we drove to Hargreaves and Mt Blackheath Lookouts they both overlook the Megalong Valley but from different aspects.

Then back into town to the Rhododenron Gardens and they were beautiful, it was well set out with pathways going everywhere and it was alive with colour, what a delightful garden.

                                                             A red Rhododenron

                                                 The pond at the Rhododenron Gardens

We left town and drove through Bathurst to the Vittoria State Forest to a free camp at Macquarie Woods.

28th November 2010

It was beautiful when we arrived at Macquarie Woods and was one of the best free camps we have been in.

Unfortunately on Saturday night it started to rain and it rained and rained and rained until midday Wednesday.  During the afternoon we decided to try to move the motor home closer to the road and discovered that we were bogged.  A fellow traveller came over and tried to tow us out but to no avail.  On Thursday morning the ranger arrived, he assessed the situation and called in a firetruck to tow us out.  They pulled us out without any problem but we kept going into Orange.

2 December 2010

We arrived in Orange, raining again, went food shopping did all the routine motor home jobs and booked in at Canobolis Caravan Park for 4 nights of continual rain.

6 December 2910

Drove to Parks, had my bloodtest and went to the police station at Parks to ask about the condition of the roads.  We were informed that all roads were closed except for the road to Dubbo, so off we went to Dubbo.

On the way we had a look at the Parks Radio Telescope (The Dish if you remember the movie).

We arrived at Dubbo about 7.00pm and we were astounded by the damaged caused by the flood.  One caravan park was completely underwater so we drove around and past the showground where we noticed vans parked there.  We stayed in the showground for 5 nights as we could not drive on due to road closures.

                                            Main Street in Dubbo under the rail bridge.

9 December 2010

                                                                  Zebra

                                                                    Giraffe

African Elephant

We spent the whole day at the Tarongo Park Western Plains Zoo and it was fantastic.  Barry drove the motorhome around the 5 km walk and I got in and out taking lots of photos.  There were a few spots where Barry walked in to see the animals, at the end of the day I felt I had walked 100km but enjoyed every footstep.

11 December 2010

Today we drove into town to see the old Dubbo Jail which was very interesting, we did some shopping while we were there.

Finally we were told that the road was open to Gilgandra, when we arrived we asked about the road to Coonabarabran and was told it was open but to be careful as there was still water on the road.  We arrive at Coonabarabran without a problem and came out to the Warrumbungle National Park where we are now.