DAY 3
12th December 2020
We decided to go out west and spend some time at the Warrumbungles National Park. Josh booked a campsite so we’re heading that way, but going via Nundle, rather than a more direct route. Of course! So the route we took went from Hillville to Gloucester, then out along Carter’s Road, Pages Creek Road to Sheba Dam. It was really pretty, we went through some amazing areas, including a station.
We got to the campsite around 4pm, set up, then had a dinner of chana masala, which I’d cooked and brought with us, watching the ducks wandering around the campsite.
The weather was FREEZING and drizzly. We had a fire but it wasn't doing much and ashes were blowing everywhere so it wasn't very pleasant to sit by. We had put up the awning but it was too windy to leave up so we took it down before bed. It got down to about -2 overnight! In summer! It was a very cold night in the tent too – we only had a sheet and doona with us, never expecting that we might need more blankets!
DAY 4
13th December 2020
From Sheba Dam, we drove back down through Nundle, then west towards Quirindi. We continued on towards Coonabarabran, stopping at Woolies to buy some food for our three nights in the Warrumbungles NP. We had lunch then continued on.
First stop in the National Park was the information centre. We wanted to buy a country parks pass for the car, but the centre only had a single park pass and a yearly pass for all parks… Useful! The whole reason we had gone there was to get the country pass, otherwise we would have bought it online, and since they didn’t have any, we had to buy it online anyway. But the lady in the info centre reassured us that we could just show a ranger our receipt and it would be ok.
We drove to the campsite that we had chosen. On the map, it looked like it was close to several of the walking trails, but in reality you had to drive to every one of them. It was also a total dust bowl, with no trees, no shade, no level ground. The only plus was the toilets weren’t bad. We’d paid $65 to stay 3 nights in this place and it was horrible.
We drove to get some phone reception and decide what to do. There was a “free” ($6 booking fee – "covid") campsite that was 4wd only called Gunneemooroo, which required a gate code. It was quite far away but we decided to book our 3 nights in that site instead. We drove there and immediately felt better – it was so much nicer. Yes, there was only a Portaloo there, but it was quiet, with trees, in the shade of a mountain. It was really a lovely spot.
