Saturday 23rd September

We say goodbye to Simon and Jane and head out to Dangar’s Falls (named after one of the pioneer settlers/landowners who owned the land where the falls are located) but stopping at Petersons winery (which just happens to be on the road out to the bush camp) to pick up half a case to keep our stocks up.   The road in is a bit corrugated in places and we are the only people at the campsite, so we get settled in.  It’s well laid out, the parking areas are a good size, there is a clean drop toilet well stocked with toilet rolls.   It is very peaceful.

      This campground is at the top of Dangar’s Gorge which is pretty spectacular, we intend to stay here ‘til Tuesday.    On Sunday night we listened to the rain on the van roof for what seemed most of the night but in the morning there was no sign that it had rained!   We went on three walks and have really enjoyed the exercise.    Here are some photos of the scenery’.

    

          The following day we did a longer walk out to McDirty’s lookout, no idea how this got it’s name but hey, the views are spectacular.

….and a couple of the locals………….

  

It’s Tuesday morning we’re leaving Dangar’s and are heading for Tia Falls on the way to Bonny Hills.     Simon said we should look at Gostwyck Chapel on the way and also an unusually designed shearing shed at Deergee.

The church was built in 1921 in memory of Major Clive Collingwood Dangar MC and is dedicated as All Saints Anglican Church.   A ‘magnificent avenue’ of 200 English elm trees were planted by an unnamed Englishman who was brought out specifically for the task!   

  

The Deergee woolshed is an unusual design by the same architect who designed Armidale Cathedral, John Horbury Hunt, it was built in 1872 to replace the original shed that had burned down under suspicious circumstances and housed 80 hand blade shearers.

Unfortunately we could not get into either of these buildings, the woolshed would have been interesting I think,  as it has been modified over time to accommodate the changes in shearing technology. Pat did see a photograph of the inside taken some years ago at the  tourist information in Uralla but unfortunately there were no copies.

There is a shortcut to Walcha but the battery which runs the freezer in the car had got a bit low (we have not done much travelling in the Troopie of late and we want to give it a good run today), so we’re going via Uralla where hopefully we can pick up a newspaper.

Mission accomplished we set out for Tia Falls stopping for fuel in Walcha – it is quite expensive so we only put enough in to get us to the coast.

The Tia Falls camp ground is very similar to Dangar’s and on arrival we have the place to ourselves again and have the pick of the sites, we choose one with plenty of sunshine so we can get the best out of both sets of solar panels.

Pat has a bad cold, we’re not sure where she picked it up but it is dragging her down a bit.   Nevertheless, she’s up for a walk and we walk until we can see the falls but leave the lookout ‘til tomorrow.   These falls do have a little water going over them but you have to imagine what they look like in full flood.

   This is the view from the lookout      Although Pat didn’t feel up to it I decided to walk out on the other side of the gorge and from that lookout there was a completely different perspective of the falls and it was clear that they were higher than could be seen form the east side.   Unfortunately, as usual, its too big to photograph but this is the overall view,

  This is the top half of the falls   and this is the bottom 

When we get back to the van a local has dropped in for a drink!

  …. like a lizard drinking………     ….well its five o’clock somewhere……!

Thursday – we’re heading to Bonny Hills and a caravan park for the weekend so that we can attend a handbell festival.

There is a bit of a climb out of the valley then it is downhill all the way to Wauchope through the Great Dividing Range BUT this is no ordinary downhill, it is a roughly 10% slope, the bends are frequent and tight, starting with signed speeds of 85 and 80 kph, they quickly get steeper more frequent and tighter, the speed limit drops through 65, 55, 45, 35 and then 25 kph for very good reason, low range engine braking and the caravan brakes are essential to holding the rig back, the turns are constant and tight hairpin bends. This continues for around 80 ks and I am told that the scenery is fantastic but as the driver I have seen nothing but tarmac and bend signs for the last hour and three quarters!   It is pretty safe but really hard work, mainly because its relentless and we were both pretty happy about getting to the bottom.    Then it is few ks of traffic to find the caravan park, unhitch the caravan and have a late lunch.  

Not much to say about the weekend, Roger ungratefully received Pat’s cold and spent most of the weekend avoiding encounters with anyone, though he did have to turn up for one or two of the handbell festival events, reluctantly but with good grace!   Pat enjoyed the workshops and massed ringing, so overall probably not a totally wasted weekend.