Well, we didn't hear anything from the jobs we applied for so we decided to move on from Dubbo, complete with our new travel buddy - Sharlene the Emu!! Sharlene has become our travel mascot and she has pride of place on the dashboard of the car. We have decided to have some fun by making Sharlene appear in random photos with us as we stop to sight see.
We made the decision to head for Coonabarabran and see what happened from there, and finally we made it to a planned destination!! Popped into the local information centre to suss out what there was to see in the town and local area, and after that made tracks to the local playground for a lunch stop. E and C thought it was pretty awesome that a gaggle of geese were wandering up the street and stopped for a snack of bread crusts.
After lunch we took ourselves off to Crystal Kingdom. For those who know it, Crystal Kingdom is very much like "Woodsies" in Mildura, and after that aimed the car towards Pilliga Pottery, about 25kms out of Coonabarabran. The drive into the property was just gorgeous. Beautiful country. Loads of big gum trees, some smaller shrubbery, emus, kangaroos and wallabies, and when we stopped the car all that could be heard was the birds. Awesome! Pilliga Pottery is a private property and business. They had some lovely pottery pieces for sale but nothing I would dare buy and try to transport around the country in Cara. The kids enjoyed the pottery as they were all given a fairly large piece of clay to make whatever they liked. They were occupied for at least an hour or so. There was also some demonstrations of pottery making and we watched a fellow make a couple of urns very quickly. I couldn't help but smile to myself thinking about a potters wheel and a scene from one of my favourite movies!! LOL.
When we had finished at Pilliga Pottery we decided to make our way, slowly, to the Pilliga Forest's newest attraction, Sculptures in the Scrub. We had been told by the information centre in Coonabarabran that there was free bush camping there and that we would be able to get the caravan in there. Well yes, we did get poor Cara in there, very slowly and very bumpily over 30 kms of dirt corrugations!!! It was definitely worth it though. The Dandry Gorge, where sculptures in the scrub is located, was spectacular. I know, I know, I keep saying that about so many places, but there really are so many beautiful places outside of the usual places we went to, and I'm sure I will keep saying it about so many more before we are done.
As seems to be a very usual occurrence for us, we again set up in the dark, so we cooked dinner in the van and went to bed, of course after venturing outside to admire the stars, millions of stars. After all, we were in the astronomy capital of Australia. We got up fairly early in the morning so we could go and do the 3km hike to see the sculptures. Wow! The sculptures are a series of 5 different pieces of artwork that have been placed around the 3 km hike through the Dandry Gorge. All are aboriginal art works as the gorge is a significant Aboriginal site. I loved them. They were all so well thought, planned and placed, and as described were very much in keeping with the landscape. The hike went along the top of the gorge firstly and then made it's way down along the bottom of the gorge. It was fascinating to see the change in the scrub from the top of the gorge to the bottom. The top was very scrubby and thick with trees, bushes and grasses, while the bottom was much more open and clear with lots of large gum trees and soft grass. It was just beautiful. R and I both commented how we could both very happily plonk ourselves in a swag with a campfire and just stay there in the gorge. It was so peaceful and tranquil with only the birds for noise.
After our hike, we packed up the van and made our slow and bumpy way back out to the tar. We made it to Narrabri for lunch and the kids (and Mum) had a play on a huge cotton harvesting tractor in the information centre. I was very excited as I have always wanted to drive a tractor!! Next stop, Moree..........
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