Tues, 26th Sept, 2023 North Star Road Rest Area, north of Moree to Bohena Creek Rest Area, south of Narrabri, NSW (exploring & Telescope Compact Array, Narrabri)

14 degrees and a bit cloudy. Parked up and headed off.

Flat country - grain. Sign saying ‘Floodway for 27km’ - well that covers it and saves a lot of extra signs.

Across Gwydir River.

Into Moree which sits on the Great Artesian Basin. The main road bypasses it so it is nice and quiet. Great murals at the race course.

Another lovely mural.

Parked beside the Mehi River and walked up the street to look at the buildings and murals. The old Lands Department office is being fixed up to become the Museum. I love the work that went into buildings in the past - now they are just square and boring.

Even the trees get cold around here and need a blanket.

Nice murals too.

Had a cuppa while chatting with a local couple. Town dying they say after they did up the artesian spa pool and made a mess of it so now it’s not the towns main attraction. Headed out and across the Mehi River and back onto the Newell Highway again.

Slow crawl through long sections of road works. The truck in front of us is happy on 95 so we just followed along. Watching the truck bounce along over all the rough road - who wants to go any faster!

Major roadworks through the little town of Bellata with huge grain silos. Good spot for some silo art.

Mt Kaputar Range comes into view behind massive fields of wheat? We reckon farmers should put up signs so we know what they are growing. Also cotton country as there have been bits by the road from the transport trucks.

Into Narrabri. Found where Timothy is working and caught up with him. He said they call the town the “Bri”. Most towns have shortened names. He is looking grown-up and handsome and very happy. Still doing his running. His partner Tarryn works for the CSIRO in the cotton research section.

Across Narrabri Creek and down to a park for lunch.

Continued over Namoi River which has less water than the creek! Headed out past West Lake where Tim and Tarryn have just moved too.

Continued on to the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array Centre. Turned our phones etc onto flight mode as per instructions so as to not upset the radio frequencies.

Lots to look at and read.

We tried out the Whispering Dishes. They are amazing - I talked quietly at one and Steve (all the way over there) could hear me as clear as if I was standing beside him.

Each dish has a diameter of 22m, mass 270 tonnes and travels at 4kph along the track. Very interesting and quite hot in the sun as we wandered around reading the boards etc.

Inside the centre there was more information.

Steve had a bit of fun. Another room was showing lots of short videos about it all.

When we went back out the technicians had tilted a couple of the telescopes.

Headed back out then turned back on the road and along a bit to Yarrie Lake which is thought to be the result of a falling meteor many thousands of years ago. Very nice and lots of good camping spots too.

Back out to the main road and we continued along to Wee Waa - the Cotton Capital of Australia. Nice main street - lovely old pub and homes. Spotted a timeline so jumped out for a photo.

No cotton in the fields but there is a lot alongside the road.

Across Namoi River which we travel alongside of back to Narrabri. Had to stop for some cattle who wanted to hog the road. These two were walking across then turned left as we approached then came back on again and eventually made it to the other side. Even the police car couldn’t move them along. Further along we saw the sign ‘cattle on the road’!

Passed the Cotton Research Station (CSIRO) where Tarryn works.

Back to Narrabi then back up the highway to the turn off to Sawn Rocks (34km) that we passed before. Part of the Mt Kaputar National Park. Onto the Killarney Gap Road. Pretty wild flowers by the roadside.

Had to slow for some sheep that had escaped their paddock.

Just as the road starts to climb we turned off into the car park. Only a 700m walk so had a cuppa first then went wandering. Easy walking in our thongs!

Steve found a friend.

Next section on the boardwalk around to the lookout.

Found the 6 sided column.

Headed down the stairs to the creek. Lots of fallen rocks here. Then back up again.

Nice view back as we headed back to the truck.

Well worth the visit. The other areas of the National Park have lots of long walking trails and not suitable for caravans so will check them out another time when we can drop off the camper somewhere.

Nice view of the mountains on our way back to Narrabri.

Topped up with diesel as the prices seem to be climbing as per the fuel app, $2.249 at the 24hr one. Great mural too.

As we haven’t had a head wind and did a long section at 95kph behind the trucks in the road works we got a great number, 5.26 km/L which Steve is very happy with. Hope that continues.

Continued on the Newell Highway heading south then pulled into the first rest area as it was 5.30pm. There was a bitumen truck one with tracks going off into the bush behind it. We drove down to where another van was parked. Chose a spot and set up.

Wandered over to say hi and I said my name was Sharon and she said, ‘so he will be Steve then’. I asked how she knew that and she said she googled ‘Two Geckos Travelling’ and found the blog though I am a bit behind as I had only got to Bundaberg uploaded so far!! Rod and Chris were from Cooktown but had lived in Cairns for 20 years before that. Had a lovely afternoon chatting till the sun disappeared and we decided we needed to cook dinner.

Quieter here than by the road - can just hear the trucks when they pull into the rest area.