October 17-18, 2015
Leaving Moree with Keith in better condition we headed down to the rest area known as Pilliga No.2 which is placed just as the Newell Highway enters the Pilliga Forests. This is a large open area shared with trucks as usual along the Newell, but has a lot of space at the back for RVs, with some shade trees.
Next morning, a little South of the rest area, we turned off onto Pilliga Forest Way, a dirt road that traverses the main Forest areas emerging at the township of Barradine on the Western side. Along the way there are 3 actual Picnic Areas that are suitable in one way or another for camping. They are not specifically designated as camping areas as camping is allowed anywhere in almost all NSW State Forests. There are a couple of other camping spots to the South of this road but they are inside the National Park (where we can’t take Tess).
On the way in we frightened a log truck driver, who kindly pulled over so we could ease past each other as the road is fairly narrow. The comment on the CB was “we don’t expect to see a caravan in here very often!”. Overall the road is in fairly good condition although one stretch of a few km was corrugated; mostly we were able to sit on about 60kmh. Total distance through the Forests is about 60km.
First stop for one night was Schwager’s Bore which shows no sign of any bore or windmill any more but does have a small dam with some water in it. There is a lot of birdlife around here although we only saw a few species but there were more than enough flies! Again!
Schwager’s has a picnic table and lots of shade while still allowing us to place the van where we could get enough Solar onto our panels.
