Coonabarabran

April 3, 2024 to April 5, 2024

Wednesday the 3rd of April 2024

A cold is start to the morning which was good because we started climbing as soon as we left town. On the riverside on the northern side of town is a free campsite which looked really nice and made us regret choosing the crummy hotel before we checked it out. Once out of town we had an enjoyable but hilly ride on a quiet road until six kilometers before Coonabarabran which was, unavoidably, on the Newell Highway.

Hills were a bit steeper again today but there was lots of shade.

Warrumbungles NP is pitched as a Dark Sky park that is good for star gazing. In conjunction with it there is the world's largest virtual solar system drive, a series of three dimensional representation of the planets whose distance from the Siding Spring Observatory is relative to the actual planets' distance from the sun. We passed Uranus at the Mollyann turnoff but it was in the pouring rain. This is Saturn between Binnaway and Coonabarabran.

New South Wales has issued a severe weather warning for Thursday and Friday with heavy rain predicted. The bad weather that is forthcoming has thrown a spanner in the works and we will need to delay entering the Warrumbungles NP until Saturday at the earliest. So we needed to find a campground for tonight and affordable inside accommodation for at least Thursday and Friday nights.

We stuck our heads into the first caravan park we encountered a couple of kilometers outside of Coonabarabran. It looked OK but is right on the highway. So we headed into town to check out the caravan park on the other side of town. It was also so-so and also on the highway. The lady at reception seemed pretty grumpy at me asking questions about price and facilities so we decided to head back to the one south of the town.

Connabarabran is a bit of a mouthful but apparently most people refer it simply as Coona. It's a pleasant looking town seemingly existing to provide travelers on the Newell Highway with a place to break their journey. Apart from the two caravan parks there are also couple of hotels and a great number of motels. We have managed to find a B&B on Booking.com for Thursday and Friday and hope to get to the national park on Saturday, weather permitting.

Attractive clock tower in the center of the town, none of the four faces being correct.

Thursday/Friday the 4th/5th of April 2024

The rain started soon after I returned from the local Woolies with two day's worth of groceries having checked into the Langley B&B at around one o'clock. It has rained almost constantly since then, very heavily at times, but it is forecast to stop raining at around midnight tonight. It feels pretty cold and we are grateful for being inside.

We've caught up on our laundry and the charging of our electronics. Our booking at Camp Blackman in the Warrumbungles NP has been made for Saturday and Sunday nights. All very organized given our track record. We have a number of options for heading further north after that.

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,152 km (715 miles)

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