Kanangra Walls - Boy's Weekend Escape - Close to Sydney

Sometimes it takes a woman to get a bunch of blokes together for a weeekend away.  My wonderful wife had succeeded where we had failed and managed to select a weekend for a group of old friends to get together and designate an official Big Boys Weekend!

The passage of time had seen us go to school together, cut our teeth in the big smoke, before dispersing.  As we all have children now, fitting a little time for our own friends is rarer and rarer as our social lives increasingly revolve around our children's schooling / sporting / music / scouting interests.

We met at the Boyd River Campground, in Kanangra-Boyd National Park, as it was almost the exact same distance for all four of us to travel to, from north, south and east.  As we all started closing on the park, the weather was looking pretty ominous.  It was about 3 degrees and raining sideways, when the suggestion that we bail and head to the Oberon Pub was mentioned...  but being tenacious males, we decided to persevere.

And I'm so glad we did. The weather cleared as soon as I arrived, and continued to improve all weekend.




Boyd River Camp

Pigeon House Mountain with kids!

With our lap around the country fast approaching, and free time seemingly disappearing from the calendar, we decided a few months ago to lock in a date to hike to the top of Pigeon House Mountain on the south coast.  After all, it is not just the car we need to get ready! We picked our date carefully not to clash with any likely major events... until Kevin Rudd decided to change the election to our day of reckoning.

Initially we were going to plan a camping trip at Yadboro Flat, where we have camped previously.  Yadboro Flat is conveniently located in the upper Clyde River, and is a popular free camp, with plenty of space.  In the end we decided we would simply do a day trip, leaving early on the Saturday morning, and returning home after our hike.

We enjoyed an uneventful trip to the Pigeon House Mountain carpark, where we quickly topped up our water bottles, enjoyed morning tea and then set off to the summit.

The climb to the top is in three main stages.  An initial steep climb followed by a flat section, before the climb becomes steeper again, culminating in a series of steep ladders and steps to the peak.  We were interested to see how Master 8 and Master 6 1/2 would go, not just with the hike, but also the ladders at the peak.

The first bit was easy

Big Red Run - Day 10 and 11 - Eulo to Trangie and then home via TheDish at Parkes

After being delayed and back tracking to Eulo, we pulled out the map again and decided the easiest and simplest way home was on the blacktop, east to Cunamulla and then south to Bourke, before pushing on to a free camp at Warren.

Being a long day of  just over 600 kilometres, we hit the road early and found it an easy days run on wide straight highways.

We tried a self portrait...  whilst the boys made cubby houses in the back!

We stopped for lunch at a great future camp north of Bourke at Mays Bend.  This former caravan park on a bend in the Darling River was a beautiful spot for a rest and a leg stretch. We marked it as a great spot to consider coming back to.  The access track could be a little difficult after some rain, but we found the camping area wide and grassy with plenty of shady camp sites.

Mays Bend - Bourke

And so we continued south, through Narromine and on the Warren Weir, where we were confronted with a locked gate, barring our acesss to a promising camp.  Despite our wearieness we returned to the main highway and pulled into Trangie Caravan Park a short time later.

Big Red Run - Day 9 - Quilpie to Currawinya to Eulo - Or the day we nearly lost it all!

As our plans altered so drastically the day before, we thought we would try to head south on roads less travelled, with the aim of camping at Currawinya National Park near Hungerford. We got away just after 9am, after stocking up on a few supplies at Quilpe.

It was the last time we don't check a weather forecast when we have the opportunity to. And as it turned out, after an unfortunate series of events, we were lucky to have a camper to sleep in by the days end... 

We set off confidently enough from Quilpie, and made good time to Eulo, where we stopped for lunch at some mound springs.

The mound springs wern't exactly what we expected, and the chap at the Eulo Visitors Centre didn't seem eager to explain more (but he did kindly point out where we could find out about the Eulo Queen with a vague wave of his hand towards a collection of newspaper clippings on the wall).  Enough time spent here we thought, so we headed south towards Currawinya NP, north of Hungerford.

Our lack of observation of the changing weather began to haunt us as we turned off the black top.  The road ahead was red, and a sign ominously said "Boggy When Wet"... A short time later the wipers came on as a few spots hit the windscreen.  The Meteorologist of the family went a litte quiet as she confessed that she hadn't checked the weather for a couple off days...  Ah, what could possibly go wrong!

Big Red Run - Day 8 - Birdsville to Maree...er no make that Quilpie

We rose early to capture the sunrise on Big Red to overcast and foreboding skies.  And after a leisurely pack up, we headed back into Birdsville to fuel up and make tracks south to Maree.

The sun starts to make its appearance felt through an overcast sky.

Sunrise lights up our camp - at Big Red

We headed out of town on the Birdsville Track - and almost immediately got stuck in clouds of dust, behind a convoy of caravans doing about 50 kilometres an hour.  It became apparent in the next minute or two that the caravans weren't likely to pull over and let the trail of 4WDs behind them past in a hurry, so we pulled over to the side of the road to re-think our options.