Australia Road Trip to Sydney

We drove on towards Banana land or Coff’s Harbour. What a dead town. We still can’t work out why it’s there - almost every shop was closed - and this was a Wednesday. We took advantage of their swimming pool though to have a shower then headed off again. So onwards to the rain forest and as we pulled into an information centre (which was closed) we saw wild wallabies taking advantage of the neat green grass around the picnic area. We camped right in the centre of the rain forest over night. Bryan got up early the next morning and made breakfast - what a star - followed by a walk around a forest footpath early in the morning. it took us about 2 1/2 hours and in places it got very hot. Jody was terrified of seeing big spiders but luckily we didn’t see any at all. We got back to the van and started changing out of our walking gear when we found huge leeches on Bryan. uurrgghh!! revolting. we managed to get them off him but then we found more on our boots and on his socks so we were then paranoid about any more getting on us. So it is time to head to the outback, well that is what Australia is famous for, so without a further a do we head west. First major town is Coonabarabran, Astronomy capital of Australia, so it was a must to head for the Sliding Spring Exploratory where the big telescopes are to be found. On route we entered the Warrumbungle National Park and we stopped in the first rest area, which happened to be under a huge rock. It was a magical place to camp over night. The wild life was noisy - especially the cockatoos. An early morning walk for Bryan took him up the hugh rock for some spectacular photographs of the National Park. Sounds from the National Park, click the play button on the photo. We headed further west until we reached the Sliding Springs Exploratory. A short visit to the telescopes was in order, as they have a huge 15.6 meter telescope in a huge observatory dome. With it being built in 1974 it's quite an old telescope but well maintained and still fully operational. We got to follow the worlds largest virtual solar system drive which is 38 million scale and is about a 2 hour drive. Quite a good idea to attract visitors to the Exploratory. rest areas on the roads to sliding spring have giant boards with a planet on them, all in the order they appear in the universe with the sun at the centre being the observatory. It kept us amused on the drive! On our trip through the Warrumbungle National Park we caught sight of Emus in the wild, another tick in the box and photos as proof. Not to forget to mention the video of the boinging kangaroo. More driving - this time to Dubbo which was to be the furthest west in to the outback we were to go. Not much out here except farmers, including the funny couple who stopped while we were taking photos of the National Park and asked if we were lost. OMG you should have seen them, Jody reckoned that the lady, who was in her fifties and quite large, was wearing just her knickers. The driver, who must have been the husband, asked if we were Indians, huh? Indians? huh? Oh English, it must have been his very strong Australia accent. They were both very jovial and benevolent in making sure we knew where we were going. We have been finding that most towns seem to have an Olympic size outdoor swimming pools costing us only £2 to get in, lovely to swim in, and a chance to get a shower, oh the bliss of a hot shower. So all nice and clean we headed on towards the Blue Mountains. We found just the most beautiful spot to camp for the night - high up on a ridge with stunning views of the valley around us. We have declared tomorrow is ‘National Be Nice To Each Other Day!’ not that we are horrible to each other now - we just want to be extra nice. aaah. We shall have to wait and see how long that lasts!!