14-17th December: Warrumbungles NP

This weekend my parents and I went on a road trip to the Warrumbungles, a national park about 7 hours NW of Sydney. We went car camping and stocked up in Mudgee on the way up. The next stop was Gulgong, a small town which had its hayday in the 1870s in a short gold-rush period. A high number of pubs and hotels and some other historic buildings is all that's left nowadays.


We went to the local museum which was full of displays with daily-life items, which kept us occupied for quite a while.




We stopped for the night in a caravan park in Dubbo which had basic but cheap cabins.


Dubbo's highlight, the Western Plains Zoo.



We got to the campsite at the end of the afternoon, apart from us there were only a few other parties.


The wildlife around came closer to us than the humans.





On sunday we went for the 14.5 km Grand High Tops walk, which lived up to the expectations.


Just after coming back to the campsite a huge cloud built up. It attracted a few spectators on our picnic bench....


....But not for very long.


We watched the spectacle from inside the car.



After about an hour we had the brilliant idea to leave the campsite and look for somewhere dry to stay for the night. We didn't get very far as the road out of the park was flooded. We drove back to the campsite but couldn't reach our tents because of the water....



....So had a cosy meal under the veranda at the visitor's centre. We managed to walk to the tents later on, but had to leave the car behind.


All peaceful again the next morning.


Lots of mud and branches, left behind by the water.