Blog 6: We saw our first wild kangaroos and it was lovely until…

This will be a bit longer of a tale as we have been in the outback for a few days, so lots to catch up on – grab a cuppa.

As we left Brisbane to go to the wedding venue, we took the chance to visit Mount Coot-tha lookout point for a great view over the city and surrounding area (what3words: bleat.chip.woes)

As we left the lookout point we saw signs for Slaughter Falls (what3words:notes.putty.advice) so we thought we would check them out – we didn’t use the Sat nav, we just followed signs….. and 30 minutes later we found ourselves right back where we had started from! For our second attempt we used the tools available and found our way to the right carpark for a short trek up to the falls – only to find there was no water in them – at all. It was a nice walk though, and we saw some pretty cool art/graffiti

We had been recommended to visit the Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary (what3words: space.else.repay)– which we did, but I think we were spoiled by our visit to the Zoo – there were lots and lots of koalas, and other animals, but it just was not in the same league as the zoo.

We did see two baby koalas who were almost brand new to the world, and that was delightful – but God do koalas stink!

At this point we decided we should head to the wedding venue, which was in a place called Gordon Country (what3words; confirming.incremental.officials) – it is a remote campsite, which is absolutely gorgeous and although the only other vehicles on the road were 4x4s or trucks, we duly followed the directions to reception to check in to our accommodation. They gave us a very simple map to find our place – it was so simple we couldn’t follow it and got lost 3 times! At one point there were signs for ‘private land, absolutely no trespassing’ I mean, it may as well have said ‘Moscrop Girls on Tour you are lost again’, but we went over streams, down gulleys, up no entry signs, the ruts in the road were as deep as canyons, but we ploughed on through and ended up back where we started (there is a theme to this day) eventually we found our cabin, and our family members – Yeah! Honestly, even though we live on the edge of the Lake District, it does not hold a candle to Gordon Country (apart for the lack of lakes). The cottage was rustic, but comfy. No electricity, which meant enforced lack of gadgets and absolutely no phone signal, never mind wifi. We were a convenient 150m from the communal loos and showers, but at 3am, that 150m felt like much further, especially when everything in Oz wants to kill you and you only have a torch! We had a lovely bonfire and it was great to catch up with everyone – even as the temperature dropped to -1 and people kept putting additional layers of clothes on – I was like the mitchelin man by the time I went to bed.

The sky was so clear – these are some pics that Emily took on here phone – no filter!

One thing I have noticed here – whereas the moon seen from the UK waxes and wanes vertically – over here it is horizontally – so the moon seems to be lying on his back – and Orion’s Belt is on it’s side.

It was pretty tricky to sleep as the blinking possums kept dropping on the cabin roof from the tree, and scaring the bejesus out of us, and then they were pushing the lid off the BBQ – that went a clatter in the middle of the night.

Next day was the day of the wedding. I will not include any of the wedding pics as the Bride and Groom may not have posted any yet, but the location was stunning. It was in a Barn, and the service was outside next to a creek. When the bride arrived, just as the service was about to start, the local cockatoos began to roost and they were making such a racket that even with a PA system it was tricky to hear - the humans just had to wait for the wildlife to finish calling. It was such a relaxed service, full of humour and tailored to the bride and groom – it was just perfect. Then up to the barn for drinks, food and a party – excellent!

Not a pic of the bride or groom, but here are the grooms parents – they still got it!

We met some great people at the wedding, and had some quite surreal conversations – on finding that people on our table had a sheep farm, I got into a long conversation about Herdwick Sheep (which they had never heard of, but now think I am an expert on!)

We partied into the night and then back to our campground for another great sleep in the pitch black.

This morning we set off on our road trip proper and headed to a place called Armidale in New South Wales – we picked this place purely as a stop off place, and after 4.5 hours we were ready to stop. As we were leaving Gordon Country we saw our first wild kangaroos – we were super excited but more on kangaroos later…

On the road, in the spirit of saying yes to things, we saw a sign for Queen Mary Falls so turned off the highway to investigate. We thought we could just follow the signs, but we had gone quite a way when Emily looked the falls up on our trusty friend Google, only to find they were actually 2 hours drive away! U turn later, we were back on the highway for a fairly uneventful, if long drive. Every other road sign here is telling you to take a break – they are very direct; Survive the drive!

Other road signs say helpful things like ‘Trivia questions keep the mind awake’ and then asks a fun fact – such as what is the tallest tree species in Australia (Australian Mountain Ash, in case you are wondering – the answer was on the next road sign!)

Checking into our digs for the night, our host recommended we visit Wollomombi Falls – which we did (What3words: tinted.bossy,molten) there actually was water in these falls and they were really pretty – the pics just do not do the scale justice though… the water falls 907 feet so you can see how deep the actual gorge is.

We viewed from one viewpoint and then went to trek to the more remote one. Emily was just saying that wasn’t it nice not to have to worry about bears as we did last year in Canada, and just then she squeaked ‘Mum!’. Just to the left of us were two kangaroos, and she had made eye contact with the big one (implicitly warned not to do this as they think you are being confrontational!) ‘What should we do?’ ‘Just keep walking and ignore them’ I said, so we carried on…..but they were following us – still in the brush, but definitely following… the terrain was getting harder, so we decided to turn back and be really nonchalant – at the same time I was getting my selfie stick out, just in case – ‘Mam, put it away, what if they think it is a weapon’ Em said – well, wasn’t that the point?

Anyway, we got back to the car, out of breath and completely spooked, then turned round to see a group of youngsters who had obviously come the same was as us and were unperturbed by the wildlife...I am sure we will be very blasé about them by the end of our trip

Dinner was in the Whitebull tonight (what3 words; cornering.clouding.bodily) – a delicious mango salad with goats cheese and balsamic dressing – plus a side order of chips – don’t want to be too healthy, and back to the hotel where

1. We found we have lost the room key – probably when we were being chased by the kangaroo

2. The ignition key for the car snapped off actually in the ignition

I called the car hire company, and they said will have someone call me tomorrow (eek!). We are just so tired though I just did not have the energy to argue.

Tomorrow is a new day and we are hopefully off to Tamworth – the Country Music capital of Australia.