12/01/2023 from Bingara to Baradine

We are up early again, knowing that there is free WIFI on the main road and we take care of our online business, which takes less and less time.

We are heading southwest to a national park that advertises with an extraordinary sculpture collection in the middle of the bush. The Timmallallie National Park can only be reached via a 40 km long unpaved road, called a gravel road, but it is dry and so we leave a long trail of dust behind us. At the Forest Discovery Centre, in addition to a very impressive exhibition about plants and animals in the national park, we receive patient and knowledgeable information about all our questions. And the most important question at first is how to book a campsite online that is located in the park. The ranger explains that the trail we want to hike is destroyed at one small section, but other hikers have managed it as well. Soon, we are back on tour, back on the gravel road, heading to the campground and the sculpture walk. We are the only guests and will remain so, in the middle of one of the largest forest areas in NSW. Not a problem, we start hiking and soon see the first sculptures, made from a variety of materials, here a polished granite, there a bronze figure (Aboriginal with child), soon a mosaic artwork and a wooden snake. But not only the figures, also the lightning and thunder deserve our full attention. It drizzles and at the damaged spot on the trail, I have to be careful not to fall into the creek. A very impressive hike and hours of rumbling, flashing, and thundering. There will be no real rain today, we let the day come to an end and are observed by a big kangaroo coming out of the bush. Otherwise, we are all alone.

PS 1: With the artificial light of the outdoor lamp, small beetles come at us in a nosedive.

PS 2: In the pitch dark, Laughing Hans calls, a bird that makes fun of us, he can be heard frequently during the day, but cannot be seen.