Our last day of our roadtrip/camping adventure started off with an exploration of the old gold mining town of Sofala. It was a lovely old place, though it would have been so interesting to see in the gold rush times. It was very quiet when we were there! After that, we drove back out again, crossed the Turon Rover and drove along the Razorback Road, which was possibly one of the best roads we drove up. Seriously, it was a dirt road that went up these hills that had amazing views all around!
Our next destination was Newnes Plateau. Razorback Road took us all the way to the Castlereagh Highway, which is one of the main roads out the back of the Blue Mountains. We took a bit of a detour at Capertee, since it looked like there was a road to Newnes from there, but had to turn back and keep going. We eventually made it to the turn off to Newnes Plateau and the start of the 4wd dirt roads. Honestly, there were unmarked dirt roads all through the bush there, but the one we went on was a bit spectacular - we went through this big sandstone arch! We parked, then went for a walk to the main attraction - glowworm tunnels!
The bush was so beautiful, dense gum trees in some parts and damp areas with ferns in others. We got to the glowworm tunnel and walked in. This tunnel used to be used for a railway line to an oil shale works, but now disused. It is 400m long, and you can walk through, but it was so dark in there that I didn't want to go too far. Josh tried to get a photo of them with my camera, but there just weren't many worms about. I think maybe we were there at the wrong time, or maybe the people before us had scared them a bit or something. Whatever it was, there were a few patches of glittery blue light, but nothing like what I was hoping to see. Nevermind, when we walked back to the car we had an encounter with a lyrebird and with a male bowerbird; I'd never seen either before! We had lunch, then packed up to head off again.
We started heading home from Newnes Plateau, taking Chifley Road then the Bells Line of Road through the mountains. We stopped off to have a look at Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens, but it wasn't a good time of year for the gardens. Then we drove through Bilpin (where I've always wanted to go to pick apples) and popped out at Windsor. It was getting fairly late at this point, but it wasn't too much further to home, maybe an hour or so. We made it home, and I promptly jumped in the shower.
It was such a great trip around NSW, definitely opening my eyes to the fact that there is so much more to the state (indeed the country) than the cities, which is what I am more used to. Plus, the dirt roads in the countryside were infinitely nicer to go along than the boring city roads - they might be slower, but at least you have a good view. Plus farm people seem to be quite polite in their driving, waving to people as they pass. It was so nice to see my home state as a tourist, and definitely makes me want to go back and do a bit more adventuring!