We returned to Cobar today after a two week gap to pick up where we left off.

The Big Plane at Moree. It started life as a Douglas C47 plane for the US Army and transported across the Pacific in World War II and transferred to the RAAF in 1945. It became a Foreign Aid gift to Papua New Guinea in 1972; flying 5000hrs in PNG before being put up for tender in 1993 and flown back to Australia as a tourist attraction at the Amaroo Tavern in Moree.

The Nandewar Range east of Narrabri

Bellata Post Office – a small silo town between Moree and Narrabri

The author on a cotton harvester in the Narrabri Visitor Information Centre

The Visitor Information Centre made a big hairy deal about the Piliga Yowie that lives in the vast Piliga Scrub between Narrabri and Coonabarabran.

The Newell Highway passes through the Piliga Scrub (home of the Yowie). No sign of our large hirsute friend.

Wattles were abundant in the understorey

Wattle and ironbarks in the Piliga

Wildflowers provided a lot of colour such as this hovea.

Boronia

Caladenia orchids on the forest floor

Liverworts growing on the same wet ground as the ground orchids.

Red velvet mite in the Piliga Scrub

Exploring the Piliga

Piliga grasstree (Xanthorrhoea)

Despite the bright colours in the scrub, this sign, in a series on the planets, told a story of a dark place where the sun doesn’t shine much.

Geography before atrophy – old Grey Nomad saying.

The Castlereagh River in flood at Gilgandra – Hardenbergia vine in the foreground.

Cactusworld at Gilgandra – a succulent place.

35 men marched from Gilgandra to Sydney in 1915 and recruited other enlistees in towns along the way. They arrived in Sydney with over 250 men. They called “Coo-ee” to draw attention to themselves as they entered towns. It became known as the “Coo-ee March”.

Floodwaters over the Oxley Highway at Warren.

Cotton bales at Warren. Do cotton buyers get a square deal from round bales?

Canola crops were common from Moree to Nyngan. They were widely spread.

I wonder what lives in the Bogan River? Mullet?

Heron at the edge of the Bogan River

Great egret on a railway bridge over the Bogan River.

The start of the Barrier Highway at Nyngan – this is half way from the Sunshine Coast to Adelaide.

Sun rays over the Barrier Highway. We made a few stops to look at wildflowers growing in the bush off the road.

Native daisy

Rock sida

Eremophila (Emu bush)

We stopped on the highway just outside Cobar to admire the sunset.

Goodnight from Cobar (again!)