The Warrumbungles

We decided to stay for a couple of nights in the Warrumbungle National Park near Coonabarabran (described as "The Astronomy Capital of Australia"), in central NSW.  Two main reasons: Firstly, to allow us to do some star-gazing through telescopes at a local observatory by night, and secondly, to do some hiking and bush walking through the picturesque landscape by day.

With the weather forecast indicating a cold but clear night was expected we booked our places for some professionally guided night-sky & telescope viewing at a privately owned observatory.  The observatory being ‘private’, rather than a government funded research institution, means they typically make their money through doing their own research and by ‘selling’ telescope access time to scientists, astronomers and enthusiasts from around the globe.  They supplement this by conducting viewing tours for tourists like us.  While we were there we could periodically hear the whirring of one of the 'telescopes for hire' being repositioned by the renter who, in this case, was located elsewhere in the world and was controlling the telescope via the internet.

Numerous 'telescopes for hire' at a privately owned observatory

The ‘tour’ included an astronomy presentation followed by our fully qualified host pointing out various stars, planets and constellations using the naked eye then through 3 different telescopes.  We managed to get a look at Jupiter and Saturn along with a number of star clusters, distant nebulae and galaxies.  It was a very enjoyable and informative experience!

The following morning, we embarked upon the longest and most strenuous hike thus far in the WTF? - Where are The Farrows? era.  The ‘Grand High Tops via Breadknife Circuit’ is 14.5km in length and took us through the national park along creek beds, up gentle and then steep climbs to to lookouts near the top of the range and back down again.

We set out around 9am and hiked steadily with pauses only to appreciate the spectacular views that were revealed around almost every turn in the trail. A brief but welcomed 15 minute picnic lunch stop was all too quickly over then back down into the valley we went.  After 5 hours we were both feeling a little foot and leg weary but we had completed the loop!

Our hike in The Warrumbungles revealed many spectacular vistas

Part of the way up!

Didn't matter which way we looked it was always impressive!

A hot shower upon return to camp was a great way to relax after the hike.  We did not stay up too long looking at the stars that night and were pretty much asleep as soon as our heads hit our pillows!

We really enjoyed our visit to the Warrumbungles and, as it turned out, it neatly wrapped up the ‘Space’ theme that our travels had taken a few days back starting with our visit to the Parkes Radio Telescope.

WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, will continue as we wend our way down the highways and byways of eastern Australia.  “Which way now?”, you ask.  “The Waterfall Way” is the answer.