Mt. Kaputar

More road obstacles.  People say
these guys stink if you move them, so
I didn't try and detoured around.

Obstacles while driving to Narrabri!
This guy wouldn't move off the road so
I had to drive around him.

A wave of bad weather (good for the farmers though!) has been occurring in large sections of New South Wales, so I pulled the plug on paragliding in Manilla, packed up my car and headed off to explore some more of the local area. In this case first toward a town called Narrabri. As usual around here the trip was slow on a mix of asphalt and gravel. The gravel isn't an obstacle even with the tiny wheels on my car, but the wildlife sometimes is.  I had to detour around a lizard and a turtle that figured the road was for sunbathing.

Nandewar Range. Mt. Kaputar is
1510m tall!  An actual mountain!

Forests!

Well, Narrabri was somewhat uninteresting (unless you want to visit the Australian Cotton Center) so I had lunch and headed to Mount Kaputar National Park. The national park comprises most of the Nandewar Mountain Range that was formed from an ancient volcano 20 million or so years ago.

Views from the mountains.

In the range there are real mountains, real forests, and even rainforest flora in a few spots! I felt quite at home.

Camping at the top of Mt. Kaputar.
My car is small, but my tent is even
smaller!

So, me and my little car crawled up all 1510 meters of the highest mountain, Mount Kaputar. By the time I made it to the top, it was getting late, so I settled into the campground at the top of the mountain where the guide-pamphlet promised Hot Showers and Toilets for $5. After a sublimely quiet and somewhat exotic dinner of turnips, muesli bars, pistachio nuts and beer I retired to read. Soon enough it began to storm. I've had my tent up through a lot of bad weather including some severe winds which have taken slightly less aerodynamic tents and rolled them like tumbleweeds, but this was too much. I figure I spent the night inside a cloud, which might explain the explosive nature of the wind gusts. You could hear them coming through the trees well in advance. Midway through the night while I was contemplating the necessity of getting up in the cold, wind and rain to pee, nature made the decision for me by ripping the stake that was holding my vestibule/entry way open out of the ground. Since that was all that was keeping my shoes dry, I was forced to head outside for some repair work

Next morning it was still raining, so I skipped breakfast, abandoned the idea of hiking and headed down the mountain hoping the roads were still there with visions of a big breakfast in town. I left early enough that the kangaroos were still quite active, and finally my camera quick-draw skills let me capture them on film! I had to do it through the car window otherwise they would run away. So here is the final proof I am actually in Australia.

Roos in the mist!

Well, the day was just starting, so I drove farther on to Moree, yet another small town, where I have now settled into a pub (the pub names are all the same, it's either the Royal Hotel, Post Office Hotel, or the Imperial Hotel, and in fact even the smallest towns have all three) and am planning to go to the local hot springs tomorrow in the rain.  As a travel hint, McDonald's is the best source of free WiFi internet access in Australia (though I am writing this post through a broadband internet stick at the pub).