To Tara Cave for an early morning walk. A lovely walk, starting at the Woolshed Picnic Area with some of it paved. There were lots of interpretive signs about bush tucker foods, tools, basket making, boomerangs, spears etc.
Interesting that this part of the park had lots of wild pig activity - quite a large area near the creek that had been dug up. A pig trap indicated that National Parks were "on the case".
Tara Cave is a rock shelter that was used by the Aboriginal people for thousands of years and was used until around 1850. There are interesting tool-making grooves, created thousands of years ago, at the front of the shelter which are visible from the viewing area.
Great view of the Grand High Tops as we approached the cave.
There's quite an extensive walkway constructed at the cave and it's caged these days to avoid further vandalism and protection of the public - as some of the cave had collapsed.
After breakfast, we packed up and headed for Coonabarabran for supermarket, dump point, water and lunch.
On towards Coolah, calling in at the black stump along the way. Coolah is one of several towns to claim bragging rights as the home of the legendary Black Stump. It was here that the colloquial saying ‘Beyond the Black Stump’, meaning ‘beyond the limits of civilisation,’ is said to have originated. Supporting Coolah’s claim is a document showing land boundaries declared by Governor Darling in 1826. This boundary line passes through the centre of a property known as ‘Black Stump Run’.
A brief stop at Coolah Information Centre to pick up some brochures on Coolah Tops. Then the 25km drive up the mountain to the Barracks Campground.
Very cold up here so fortunately we had a huge firepit and plenty of firewood. We were joined by Mark from East Geelong who had been working at a BlazeAid Camp in the Coolah district - and lots of kangaroos.
