20 - Coolah, N.S.W. to Canberra 24/10 - 5/11/2019

Entry 20           Coolah, N.S.W. to Canberra 24/10 – 5/11/2019

Leaving Coolah Tops N.P. was harder than we anticipated with our instincts wrestling the move. It was a slow departure eventually heading out at around 11.30 am, propping at Coolah for food, reinflating vehicle tyres, attending to copious amounts of electronic stuff including up-loading the previous blog edition while we had that rare access to phone reception. It took best part of 3 hours to complete these chores, leaving us feeling rather exhausted. We do love the positive well-being feelings provided by remote nature settings in our national parks. They do come at a cost, like when returning to today’s modern world with our phones making all sorts of noises notifying of copious messages requiring attention when reception next catches up with us.

Even the wild life seemed to decide not to be as allusive on departure day

And the dirt track looked daunting travelling back down the mountain range

We inspected a free camp location about 35 kilometres down the road from Coolah and decided to give it a miss due to a gut feeling, ‘not feeling right/safe,’ continuing down the road.

Our next targeted camp was at Goulburn River National Park arriving late for us at about 6 pm. Once again, we were the only campers present and set camp utilizing one of many tables provided, a first for us, where we positioned the caravan to utilize our awning as shade over an existing camp table. Probably made possible by the recent fitment of a new awning on our caravan which operated quite differently from our previous one.

Admiring our surrounds with our awning extended, providing shade

When we were getting close to Goulburn River N.P. we ticked off another one of our wish list items, seeing a wombat roaming about in the wild. We may have contributed to ✔ by being out and about late in the day when wombats emerge for their night time food foraging.

We were camped at Spring Gully campground with a nice landscape. We enjoyed breakfast outside without annoying flies admiring our surrounds & watching the birds.

First there was a lone emu wandering nearby

a bit later there was another emu with chicks in the gully below

We had little information about this N.P. only becoming aware of its presence from spotting a green patch on a map. Reading the notice board in the campground, it showed there were two campgrounds set on the banks of the Goulburn River about 1 kilometre apart. The Goulburn River meandered for about 90 kilometres through the N.P. There were no defined walking tracks with a recommended walk along the edge of the river at times of low water between the two campgrounds equating to a distance of about 4 kilometres. To be prepared to get wet feet with a recommendation to allow 2-4 hours to complete this walk.

We walked along the road to the second campground for a look and see. It was also empty with a similar vista, where we spent time just admiring the surrounds.

During the day we had the pleasure of speaking with a young Ranger, Michael. Michael provided descriptions about another couple of national parks unknown to us along our intended route for camp considerations. Suddenly we felt time limited, with a due date of arrival at our sons’ home in 12 days’ time, about 500 kilometres down the road.

We had initially thought an allocation of 3-5 days sounded ok for Goulburn River N.P. After hearing descriptions about the additional national parks from Ranger, Michael we decided to move on after two nights hoping to experience a bit of time, viewing each of the national parks along our planned travelling route. We stopped at Mudgee for the night choosing to stay in the towns showgrounds where we restocked our pantry and fridge with enough food for the trip to Canberra.

Another sign of country town in decline ‘going to the cows.’

We did attend the Mudgee visitor information centre seeking information about the local national parks and other nearby attractions. We were informed we would need to conduct our own enquires via the internet. It appeared the Mudgee Information centre’s primary focus was to promote the commercial activities of many nearby wineries. For us it was sad to see a primary focus on ‘alcohol related,’ activities.

We spent quite some time during the afternoon, into the evening on the internet researching NSW national parks web site finding it not very user friendly. We left Mudgee as soon as we could, feeling frustrated with the national park web site and the lack of tourism assistance provided by Mudgee.

At least the weather and scenery were pleasant for our drive of about 80 kilometres to our first national park stop, helping to calm our frustration.

Ganguddy / Dunn Swamp campground had been our primary goal travelling through this region. We had heard many positive comments about this location from other travellers over the last few years.

It was an interesting drive with the road travelling through farming lands with the last 10 kilometres or so changing to a dirt surface where we felt like we were being herded into a gully with our surrounds closing in on us.

Once we were within the national park grounds, we resumed the smiles position constantly looking left, right and up. We walked around the campground selecting a suitable location for our caravan.

We set camp and spent the next hour or so wandering around the campgrounds outer perimeter delighted with another most magnificent setting.

What a sight – the campground set next to these waters

We found ourselves constantly looking at the scenery all around us

Waking just after sunrise we decided to walk the weir track before breakfast. It was promoted as a 45-minute walk. We were constantly stopping admiring the scenery and loved listening to many varieties of bird chattering’s getting back to our camp a couple of hours later, looking forward to some food and a cuppa.

Us standing above the cliff face from the previous photo looking back down the water way

 

The previous 3 photo’s shows us scampering around the base of the cliff face to the right of this picture

It was a great location for canoeing

The Cudgegong was another enjoyable walk skirting around the water’s edge in the opposite direction from the weir. There was the delightful constant background noise of various birds singing.

Our camp was in those trees

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Dunn-Swamp and could have easily stayed a week. It would have been extra special if we had canoes for a different perspective view, looking at the sandstone cliffs from the water. We did like all of the available walking trails starting from the campground.

Dunn Swamp campground would definitely be a worthwhile return destination.

Our final sunset at Dunn Swamp campground

Our next planned stop as recommended by Ranger Michael was Capertee National Park about 70 kilometres down the road. It was an easy drive along quiet back roads with few other vehicles encountered even though we were not far from the outskirts of Sydney at about 200 kilometres.

Capertee National Park came into existence in 2010 when it was acquired from the farm owner to protect the diminishing habitat, needed to help preserve the critically endangered Regent Honey Eater birds. Thought to be less than 400 in existence.

Basically, we set camp in one of the farm paddocks where national parks had installed an environmental loo. The old farm house and a nearby cottage were also available as accommodation for park visitors. There was still scattered shedding, stock yards, shearing shed and implements lying about. A typical farm.

An interesting wooden trough, not made of steel or cement!

It was mid spring with the country side looking dry and dusty plus day time temperatures already in the low 30’S. It seemed the winter rains had failed to arrive in this region with the Capertee River bed looking dry.

In the afternoons we walked along the mostly dry Capertee River (a few small water pools all containing stagnant water) with many kangaroos poking about on the dry river bed, grazing on grassed sections. The river banks were littered with wombat holes and we saw a few wombats sunning near their house entrances just prior the arrival of night.

Look at the long arms

A different colouring with short arms

More different colouring

Strong looking claws

 

Jumping high

There was a delightful, constant background noise of bird chatter walking nearby the river.

Red-rumped parrot,

One day Steve spoke with the ranger who said he had just closed the section of national park at Coorongooba campground due to a nearby bush fire. This was our next planned camp location about 40 kilometres away. Steve’s brain cogs started ticking over where he fired off many questions at the ranger, clarifying our safety and the condition of the fire. The park had been closed as a precautionary measure, if the fire (located on the other side of this N.P.) suddenly changed direction towards us, we would have a couple of days before it got near us. He did say we could stay at Capertee for as long as we liked.

We tuned our radio to the local station which we monitored for a couple of days and there was no mention of any hazardous nearby fires other than some smoke haze drifting across from the Blue Mountains which was close by. And we did get enveloped by a smoke haze later in the day. We had checked the national parks web site for ‘alerts,’ prior to leaving Mudgee (5 days prior) whilst we had internet access and there were no potential hazards of concern for us at the time. A timely reminder, the consideration for checking ahead for any hazards we could encounter along our route, especially when travelling to remote bush locations.

Capertee N.P. was another enjoyable location and it would be interesting to view it when not in drought conditions.

Another tree lying down with Mary doing her best to help

There was still a reasonable amount of infrastructure left over from the bygone colonial days

What's an Aussie bush setting without the occasional red bellied snake

We had spent three nights at Capertee N.P. and the smoke haze wasn’t dissipating, so we decided to head down the road about 150 kilometres to the township of Oberon, nearby the tourist town of Jenolan Caves. We were hoping to camp at the town’s lake for a couple of nights utilizing it as a base while we drove out to view the Kanangra Wall near Jenolan due to the road marked as unsuitable for caravans.

We drove past the national park that had been closed due to the nearby bushfires. It did look like an interesting location to explore for future reference.

As it transpired that was the one weekend (it was a Saturday) in the year when there is a fishing competition at Oberon's lake and it was very busy with people camped in most available spots. There was a caravan park in town which ended being unsatisfactory also.

With those thoughts not coming to fruition we continued south about 20 kilometres camping at a roadside rest stop. It was another long day with a change of drivers three times with about 170-kilometre drive for the day.

The weather forecast was for up to 35 mm of rain the following day which annulled several options we were considering, in national park camp grounds along our planned route. We didn’t wish to risk getting stuck on muddy tracks.

Option three had us deviating about 60 kilometres west to the town of Crookwell staying in the caravan park for a couple of nights while the rains subsided.

The forecast rains came and we were glad with our decision not to risk travelling along the dirt roads of our favourite locale in National Parks.

It was cold, windy and wet with Crookwell providing a relaxed small-town atmosphere for a couple of days. We completed the 120-kilometre drive to our destination at Canberra setting up our base in our son’s front yard.