7th July, Wednesday.
Lightening Ridge to Dubbo

Manly supporter finds a sea eagle! John Murray art.

Sonja's guest house had a good set up for attracting local birds, even on a frosty morning. They were pretty shy though.


We had a lazy start at Lightning Ridge so we could visit the opal stores that only opened at 9am and have a look around .

We returned to an opal shop where we did some window shopping last evening, and found something we liked.  Lucky I have a birthday around then! 

Then we moved on to see the sights of Lightening Ridge and have a look at art galleries. We found the Gallery of John Murray whose work we really liked and also the photo art of his wife Viki.

The walls of the John Murray Gallery were beautifully graffitied.

After making our purchases we took plenty of photos of his graffiti gallery before heading back out onto the road towards Dubbo.

Heading home, Dubbo tonight

The roadside grasses are lush and beautiful golden and other colours . We spotted a few goats and growing numbers of sheep in the roadside paddocks.
There was a giant steel Emu as we left Lightning Ridge, the body made from an old VW bug !

Plenty of wild emus to see in the fields.

Wild emus by the roadside

We found that Walgett had 2 painted water towers, one of a musician Jimmy Little. 

Jimmy Little, surrounded by construction and mud!

and then the expected one with Galahs - painted by John Murray! A bit of a quick stop at the second Walgett water tower for lunch.

Painted water tower, Walgett.

Water tower detail.



We saw an echidna by the side of the road.
An amazing mountain range to our East. Could they be the Warrumbungles? A destination for another trip.


Fields of art work including a pair of corrugated iron galahs.
Then 2 more coming into next town of Gularganbone (its obvious when you say it out loud!).
Another painted water tower! Gularganbone kingfisher- how special. Painted in 2018 by Jenny McCracken.


Water tower at Gularganbone.

Water tower detail.


We checked into the cattleman’s motel at Dubbo. We have stayed here before and knew it was OK.  To get a bit of fresh air after a long drive, we went for a walk down to the river and saw majestic gum trees and mulga parrots. And a beautiful old railway bridge that might just still be in use!

gum trees by the river in late afternoon light

Railway bridge


Dinner at the cattleman’s restaurant was pretty fancy and delicious. Our last night away from home and so far we have manage to dodge and weave and stay away from any Covid hot spots!

Tomorrow home!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Monday July 5th Undara to Emerald Queensland Cooking toast at the bush breakfast, Undara 8359km journey from home Homeward bound on the great inland way Up early, we had, without thinking too hard, on arrival booked in a bush breakfast for our departure day. It seemed a good idea to not have to rustle up breakfast while packing, but actually we have a long day's drive and now we have to wait til breakfast starts up! Eating bush breakfast on individual 'tables' Anyway, turned out the Bush Breakfast was a great way to wind up the stay and the holiday. It was a short walk from the main restaurant area, down among the Currawongs and kookaburras. Back on the road, leaving Undara.  What we saw: A couple of circling black kites to say farewell. There were plenty of cattle by the road on the way out and on the road too. Most abundant birds and easily identifiable are the magpies and some galahs. Numerous dead cows and occasional pigs on the road. Flock of about 30 black cockatoos f...
Read more
Image
 23rd May, Finke departure is coming up at  race pace with only 21 days to race day 1. Rider Roy has been out in the country having some serious sand and whoop practice near Braidwood. Tested out all the new gear including serious Steg pegs. Made sure the bike could stand up to a bit of sand... and water... Not sure the rider stood up to it so well, but all good!
Read more
Image
Thursday 8th July Dubbo to home via Cowra From Dubbo we are homeward bound and will sleep in our own bed tonight. We've had a fabulous trip, but its always nice to get home too. What we saw: Eastern rosellas Galahs Cowra lookout, a nice coffee spot with amenities Cowra look out. Back to mask wearing in NSW Also a nice  park under the bridge on the way out- maybe next time! Flocks of corellas Mulga Parrots 10735km round trip . Home!
Read more