Sunday we headed to Boggabri and along Manilla Road to Dripping Rock . The plains grow a variety of crops , today we have started to see cotton growing - nearly ready to harvest ! If we'd seen it without all the cotton balls , we probably would have wondered what crop it was . There was plenty of it as we got to Boggabri , as with most fields up here , they are huge .
Just north of Boggabri is Gins Leap - a rock formation near our turnoff .
Driving along Manilla Rd , we notice the landscape has been changed by coal mining , it appears as if one large hill has been cut in half and moved about half a kilometre , with the mounds of spoil forming a new hill the same height as the original !!
As a side note , I played golf with one of the local mine workers , he told me the amount of coal here is enormous - as a comparison , the Hunter Valley mines are the size of a 20 cent piece , and the coal here is the size of a dinner plate , and is higher quality , but it costs $20 more per tonne to get it to Newcastle for export !!!
The last time I was up this way , the road to Manilla was all gravel - now it's bitumen till you get 20m past the turnoff to the last coal mine , then it's back to gravel again !! Turning off we ventured into the back blocks , past farm houses , through valleys and into the forested hills . Pulling into the carpark , we were surprised to see 5 other vehicles parked , as it is a bit out of the way !!
After some lunch we put hiking boots on and went for a wander up the track and down along the creek bed to Dripping Rock - not a lot of dripping happening however !! The rocks here are volcanic and very hard , we made our way into a little amphitheatre that was about 40m high , multicoloured from algae and water flow and where chunks have fallen off .
There are vines/trees growing on the side of the cliff face .
There are also some very small flowers appearing along the creek bed , as well as maiden hair ferns appearing in the cooler climate in and around the waterhole below what would be a waterfall when there was sufficient rain .
Back through the rocky , branch strewn creek bed
and out to the main track , we wandered up to the top of the hill . The track up was okay , rocky and a bit slippery , but then there's a property sign saying " no trespassing " , so I made my way up & over the hill and down to the top of the waterfall , and here it is .
Again , the very hard rock shelf appears , water making it's way through cracks and sitting in the lowest pools .
We made our way back down the hill and headed back to Boggabri and then Gunnedah . There's another lookout at Gunnedah - Pensioners Hill Lookout . It's not as high as Porcupine Lookout , but equally as good , with views over town & railway .
This is the flour mill , with the avenue of palm trees leading to the railway station at the end on the right .
Pensioners Hill has some history as well , during the Great Depression , many families camped here because there was a dam supplying water . There are some sandstone sculptures showing what the area is most known for and the indigenous as well . These are 2 of them .
And with that we headed for home .
Today - Monday - we did some more work on the van and went for a ride around town - after fixing another puncture in Lyn's front tyre . It's a great town to ride around when everything is closed !! We got back to the van just as Lyn's front tyre started to go down again - another puncture - that's 3 in 3 rides !!! got to love those cat's head spurs - 3 corner jacks - whatever you want to call them , they just go straight through the tyre & tube .
Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RTiPiWaf93xPGhyHKoM4885qJQw&usp=sharing
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