9/4/17 Out to the tops

 Leaving Sandy Hollow , we head west and have a look at Battery Rocks - a free camp and rest area about 20klms away . The basalt rocks there are quite extraordinary , instead of being vertical columns of rock , these are horizontal and have been cut in half by a creek !!

  And here's a drone's eye view of them and the creek as well .

 There must have been some water rushing down the creek , it was over a metre higher judging by the debris on the side .
 We had a drive back and took a side road into Giant Creek , another valley off to the side of the Golden Highway . It took us through beautiful rolling hills and forested areas , before coming back onto the hwy just outside Sandy Hollow - it greeted us with a part rainbow .

  The next day , Friday , we packed and headed off to Coolah - about 130 klms away past Merriwa & Cassillis and only about 40 klm from Dunedoo . The scenery as we drove was great , totally unexpected for this time of the year , it was green and with plenty of growth for the farmers through winter .

  Arriving at Coolah , we got one of the last 2 spots at the park - there's a country music festival happening over Easter , but you can already go out and stay there - Hartford is the property about 30 klms out of town where it's held . The main event is over the Easter weekend , but they also have other entertainers there beforehand . You can camp out for the week starting tomorrow for $120/head and that includes your entertainment . There's no power and limited water , but there are toilets !!!! Apparently it's extremely popular , just goes to show how up with it we actually are !! didn't know it was on hahaha !!!
 The main purpose of our trip was to go up to Coolah Tops to the National Park that sits above 3000 feet above sea level . It usually gets snowfalls each year , and has the tallest snow gums in Australia - not sure about the rest of the world . There are also giant grass trees , several lookouts and waterfalls , as well as camping areas .
 Seems to be a bit more of the same - it's 30 klms out of town !! The drive takes you through more glorious scenery , a gradually narrowing valley with a creek meandering it's way through , properties here & there , one of which must be the mayors or something - the road is narrow , very bumpy , bitumen , till you get to the farm boundary - all of a sudden the road goes to 2 good lanes in much better condition , but then goes back to it's ordinary self again when you reach the other boundary !! Approaching the end of the valley , we turned off onto a gravel road that winds it's way up lots of hills , the views back down into the valley were great .

 After several klms we had reached the plateau but were still driving through farmland , finally we arrived at the National Park and drove into a beautiful forest of Silvertop Stringybark , and Ghost Gums .

 Our first stop was Norfolk Falls , we hoped the recent rain would still have some water flowing over the falls .  The walk down is great , wandering through pristine forest , birds everywhere , kangaroos hopping around , wombats getting a fright as we walked past their home and nearly bowling me over, then there's the black snake I walked straight past while looking at the scenery - Lyn called out to me "did you see the snake ?" to which I replied - what snake - the one that was about 300mm from where I had already walked !!! It was just sunning itself and warming up , thankfully was interested in either of us . It did look healthy though and was about 1.2m long !!

 Continuing down the track we arrived at the viewing platform only to see a trickle of water running down the rocks !

 There's also a track to the top of the falls , so we went down there as well , the track also continued on to another waterfall , but we declined that one and headed back up the 250 steps to the carpark .

 Back to the main track , we headed to Pinnacle Lookout , which is 5klms along another track with plenty of other features as well - remnants of an old timber mill , 2 camping areas , Cox's Creek Falls and some giant grass trees . 

 There are 2 lookouts here , one about 100m away , the other 900m away . Both have the most amazing and broad views that stretch from the Warrumbungles in the NW up toward Mount Kaputar NP in the north near Narrabri and the great dividing range in the east . Spreading across in amongst all this is the Liverpool Plains . You have to stop and look so that you can take it all in - there is so much to look at !!!!

 We had some local Wedgetail Eagles come across for a visit whilst we sat on the rocky outcrop at the end of the ridge that is Pinnacle Lookout .

 There is a walk down and around the escarpment to some lava caves , we didn't go , but they are down toward the rock in the middle of the next photo .

 Back to the ute and some lunch while sitting at the lookout taking in the view .

 There's still lot's to do , so we headed back out stopping to look at the camp area near the old sawmill then going for another 1.4 klm walk in & back to look at the giant grass trees . It was a little hohum , then we found 4 or 5 grass trees beside the well maintained track , okay , they looked good , but seemed to be a bit average . Continuing on we found another turn off this track to another area , well!!! the track does a loop and takes you past hundreds of very hard giant grass trees , some that old they'd fallen over many years ago , but had continued to grow and had 6 or 7 branches all still growing just above the ground . Most of the trees whereabouts 4 to 5m tall .

 Certainly much more impressive !!
We left there and continued on , there's another lookout and some really tall snow gums down the other end of the park - about 24klms away , and it was 2pm already .
 The road was okay , but had to be taken slow in places , so we decided to go down to Tabralgar Falls instead - it's a 4wd access track , and would be a bit dicey if it was wet , but it was dry today - apart from the creek crossing . This is a shot of some of the snow gums beside the track .

 The NP do a good job of maintaining this park , having regular burn offs to remove all the undergrowth and dead leaves & branches . However it does take it's toll , with many of the larger trees that are a bit rotten down below - they tend to burn away at the roots & ground level creating dangerous trees that need to be cut down before they fall down - one of which was at the picnic ground near the falls . The falls themselves had some more water than the previous one but was still average and had a lot of trees covering it up . The time had slipped away and it was getting cooler and more overcast , so we headed for home . It was getting to that time of the day when the animals start to come out , reinforced by a couple of deer crossing the road in front of us , kangaroos & wallabies beside the road , not to mention the herd of about 20 feral goats !! Speaking of goats , on the way back down the mountain we saw about 200 of them - we asked back at the park , and they do "farm" them - well round them up every couple of years and sell them off or something - neither of us have seen that many goats before !!
 The day was finished with a cold beer and a chat with some of the local retirees that live at the park in their prefab houses , topped off with a great sunset .

 Today was spent changing a few LED clearance lights and a couple of other jobs , as wells a bit of a relax . Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tl9GZYko2dRod3W82AjNRdp63nw&usp=sharing