Big Red Board

Easter Holidays 2021:

In 2020 Covid changed my extra long Easter holiday plans and I had to sit at home not even allowed to leave the house … I was extremely pissed off to put it mildly.
Now it was 2021 and I had booked my holidays to begin on Good Friday 2nd April and join on to Easter Monday taking the rest of the week off, then I would be taking photos at Cliffhanger for the week after 11th to 16th April before heading down to Tuff Truck for the 17th and 18th April then driving home on the 19th and be back at work on Tuesday the 20th … however … Covid changed all that!

First off Tough Truck changed there dates to October which made it better for me so I was happy about that, then a new case of covid happened on the 27th March so I had to get a permit to enter NSW as I had worked in Brisbane but you had to apply for it less that 24 hrs before entering …then on the 29th of March they announced a 3 day lock down which meant if I went to work on the 30th I would be in a hot zone so I would not be allowed to leave home except to go to work … Luckily I have a great boss and he allowed me to change the dates of my hols to 30th March to 18th April, I put in for the NSW entry permit on the 29th which meant I had no time to do all the prep I had planned during the week and instead headed home after work, sorted out some camera gear and clothes then headed across the border before midnight .
As someone pointed out next day that permit was no longer available.

Monday night the 29th March I camped at Paddys Flat arriving at around 23:30 to find the campsites changed dramatically due to floods, I managed to find a level enough spot easily as there appeared to be no other campers and quickly made a coffee before hitting the swag.


Tuesday 30th March the damage caused by the recent floods was extensive and looked to be 8 to 10 metre high going by the debris in the tops of the trees and the cliff face on the other side of the river.

I went for a walk down to the bridge where the water was still lapping at the bottom of the top surface and the water had even scoured the earth away high up on the banks uncovering more of the old WWII Tank Traps.

At lunch time I packed up and headed in to Tabulam for a pie and grabbed some milk then headed south again to Alice for a look at the campsites.
The floods had left debris high up on the fence well above the normal river level.


Crossing the old wooded bridge you could see the water splashing up between the boards




When I went to turn left I found the water had been more that 10 metres high as it had washed away the track leading up to the high floodplain and the sides of the quarry like track entrance had fallen in.


There was an old completely washed out track up the right side ridge line and a quad bike had left some tracks up it so I locked in 4WD low and gave it a go but the side slope through a deep hole near the top had me lose traction when she diffed out and left me stuck on quite an angle.
I managed to reverse out of the hole and tried again but just dug down in the coarse river sand so I reversed back to the bottom.
Problem was if I tried a bit further to the right I would likely tip on its side when I hit the hole so I hit it in second up the right side then veered left into the hole and punched the diffs through the soft bank, with a slight hesitation she scrambled over the lip and I was up top, woohoo!!, a new track made and the whole area to myself.

Would have loved to see this area in flood as every tree on the high section had debris in the top branches, had to be 20 metres.
I pulled up in my favourite spot but there was not much in the way of grass left and I couldn’t go any further around as the ground was very soft and wet, at least the water had washed away all the old fire places so it looks a bit tidier.


I chose a dug out section of bare rocks in a line behind a tree so when the grass grows back there will be some good tent spots for other campers in the future and built my campfire there, plenty of wood around but the recent rain has made it all pretty damp.
No canned baked beans tonight … thought I’d try something different … canned Spaghetti and meatballs!!

Wednesday 31st March
I spent the morning having a look around and chasing Dragonflies.










I tidied up the woodpile and doused the fire as it was still warm then headed south again stopping up on the high bank to check my phone for messages, not enough signal to upload some pics though.
I drove down to Baryulgil and headed towards Northern Washpool campground


a property owner has chained and padlocked the gate so I had to go back to Baryulgil and keep heading south.


I turned off towards Wave Hill station and followed the track west then south towards Cangai, crossing the Clarence River


Further down I crossed the Mann River where the river was flowing on to the bridge from the track.


Stopped on a bank for a look




A few K’s further on I came to the Cangai bridge crossing of the Mann River but the bridge was under and I couldn’t see the boards.


I started to walk it but the flow was pretty strong and over my knees so I just went round through Cangai to Jackadgery and around to the other side for a look passing an old ruin.




I headed towards Glenn Innes as I needed fuel and food.
Going up the range I lost a fair bit of power so I stopped at Raspberry lookout and cleaned out the electric pumps filter screen and found when I turned it back on that the flow was very very slow.


I checked my phone finding I had just received a message from NSW health that I now had to stay at “home” wherever I was and follow the Greater Brisbane covid plan which meant I was in lockdown until 5 PM Thursday.

I wandered down to Boundary Falls




I know of a remote camping spot beside an unnamed waterfall not too far away so headed down there finding that I still had low power. I was pretty sure no one else would be at the falls and sure enough the track in was overgrown and I had the place to myself.


I tried fitting another fuel pump and blowing the fuel line backwards in case the fuel pickup was clogged but that pump didn’t seem to pump at all and the clear bowl didn’t fill up at all.
I pressurised the tank by pumping fuel from the sub tank into the main tank and filled the bowl managing to get her started but it runs low on fuel pressure when I rev it … it was getting dark so I gave up and lit the fire to heat up a can of Baked Beans and Sausages followed by a can of Creamed Rice .

Thursday 1st April
After breakfast and a swim I grabbed the camera and took heaps of pics of the different scenes at the falls, it’s a truly awesome place when you start exploring.






I did a bit more thinking and though maybe the pick up filter had broken off and half a tank of fuel wasn’t high enough to pick up, it seemed that way but I decided to change the fuel filter as well.
I had removed the Nissan fuel filter set up when I first bought the Ute and had only recently put it back on to try fixing a previous fuel problem which meant the filter was about 7 years old … and was stuck tight!
I ended up having to remove the whole assembly then turn it upside down and rebolt it back on so I could get a decent grip on it to loosen it … several different tools later the whale jaw vice grips on the small end managed to crack it and I fitted up the new filter and reassembled the assembly back in the correct way. I had earlier pumped a fair bit of fuel into the main tank so I left the outlet off the fuel filter and switched on the pump and it filled quite quickly, I refitted the hose and started her up no problems.
After lunch I packed up and drove in to Glen Innes and refuelled … it must have been nearly empty even though the gauge read half full so it looked like my problem was all making sense now … all that work for nothing but a faulty gauge … lol

I had a look around the Celtic Stones










then headed out past Inverell before turning left to go down past Copeton Dam.


Not much before Bargara I spotted a likely camp spot beside the Gwydir River called Honeymoon Camping Area and once again had a great spot all to myself.

Friday 2nd April – Good Friday
Heading towards Narribri I stopped at The Sawn Rocks and walked up for some Photos, those amazing shaped rocks just hanging there 40 metres up makes me wonder how often they fall … and they do as witnessed by the large and small Hexagon and Pentagon shaped rocks and clumps in the creek below.
As I was leaving a lady locked her keys in her old Tarago so myself and another guy tried to break in with bits of wire … he won.

I had Lunch at KFC Narrabri then headed North west to Burren Junction and had a swim in the Artesian Baths there … I decided to take the opportunity for a hot shower but used the facilities out in the carpark first, Oh My God, the mossies were horrendous even in the middle of the day and after only a few seconds of sitting down one swat of my hand on my calf killed at least a dozen of the little blood sucking mongrels.



I finished as quick as I could and headed to the pool and jumped in to drown all the ones I couldn’t reach on my back then hit the shower beside the pool where mossies were still evident, at least in the pool you were safe but my plans for camping the night there ( $6 ) with all the caravans were cancelled and I hit the road south towards Pilliga which is now a bitumen road.
I stopped at a likely campspot but within seconds the mossies had me moving again and then got to Coonamble, I walked over to the painted silo for some pics and you could see hundreds of mossies in a cloud come pouring out of the cut grass with every step … amazing!!







I refuelled and kept driving south looking for a hill to camp up on top of but all I saw was flooded paddocks and water over the road in dozens of places.
I pulled up in the roadside stop just before Warren and it took a minute or so for a Mossie to find me and the sun was about to set so I set up the mossie net and camped there for the night.

Saturday 3rd April
It was a cool morning so I lingered in bed for a while before hitting the road again passing a couple of interesting sights.





I had spotted something on a tourist brochure but it was not on any of the maps so I headed south west to Tottenham to find the Geographic centre of NSW.
In the brochure it shows the road heading southwest to the Cairn but the sign in town said to head north west so off I went, after a while the road turned north which seemed at odds with where the centre Cairn was, maybe the sign was missing?, so I found some tracks heading down to meet the south west road and went that way instead, once back on that road I followed it and found another sign pointing north and pretty soon found the Cairn for the Geographical Centre of NSW.
Wouldn’t you know it, both the big sign and the plaque were both missing so there is nothing there to indicate what the cairn is for, just a roadside stop and shelter.