A Country Catch up With Coastal Friends.

Where do I start!
 I just can't seem to find enough time to keep up with the blog posts. The Facebook page always seems to get done as it is maintained  and updated in small few minute bursts, travelling in the car, taking a short break on my mobile phone. The blog takes a lot longer, dedicated time  of a few hours at a time to transfer and edit and resize photos( our internet is slower and limited, so this is necessary) and then time to actually compile it, So the blog seems to  slip  into the to do later box  all to often. I love doing  the blog and  will just have to find  the time to  sit and do it as I don't want to give up on it.
We recently had some visitors come to stay, two girls from the coast, Les and Sue that I catch up with in November every year to celebrate  Les's Mothers birthday.
We usually hit the city, Sydney a couple of times, Melbourne one year, Newcastle and this year we decided to base ourselves here in the country.
The girls arrived on Saturday afternoon  and our first activity was a high tea  on Sunday at a lovely rustic cafe in Dubbo, called The Little Darling Cafe.

We were joined by  my Mother, and my eldest daughter, two sisters in law and another good friend.
It was a lovely venue, the food was wonderful , and I think we did  the memory of Rita's Birthday proud.(we always try to include a high tea in our celebrations every year).
The next day we decided to venture to the Pilliga Forest which is about 45 minutes to an hours drive from here.
Firstly we  visited The Pilliga Discovery Centre at Baradine,

This was a wonderful  centre to visit  offering an insight  via a timeline around the building of the history  of the Pilliga  and the local aboriginal and  more recent footprints on the forest.
We then drove to see the Sculptures In The Scrub. These to tell the story of the local aboriginal  history in the area, all the statues have been made by local artists in collaboration with local people whose  ancestors had lived in the area.
Each statue represents different aspects of life and history in the Pilliga.
There is a  great  walking trail circuit (3klms)  and the sculptures are located at strategic important locations around  Dandry gorge.

The next one a sculpture of an aboriginal man and his child is my favourite,

The back of this sculpture shows the landscape and history of the Warrumbungle  Mountains.

The next collection of mosaic covered sculptures shows  life, from the seed, to seedling to maturity.

 After descending down from the top of the ridge you then wander the trail along the floor of Dandry Gorge where the scenery changes dramatically and we were lucky enough to see some birds and kangaroos and wallabies along the way.

 As we walked along, looking back up to the  ridge we were able to see the sculpture of the man and child from a totally different angle.

At the end of the walk there are excellent facilities , camping area  with great BBq's tables and chairs, toilets and information boards.

We had a lovely picnic lunch  at this spot and then headed off to see  The Sandstone Caves which are also located in the Pilliga forest.
The Sandstone Caves  have  a 1.7 klm circuit walk which is certainly well worth the small effort  for the outstanding  views .

The sandstone was just amazing.

The caves are just breathtaking, I cannot  find words to describe them.Mother Nature at her absolute best.

I have lived in this area on and off for many years and this was our first visit to both the sculptures and the Sandstone Caves, we certainly will be returning  back to both of these places when we have visitors to the farm.
Our friends  both told us that they really enjoyed the days activities and would recommend  them to their friends.
The next day we visited the Warrumbungle  National Park, firstly checking out the wonderful  newly reopened Information Centre, replacing the original one that was destroyed in the tragic 2013 fires.
We visited the Siding Springs Observatory and took in the fabulous views.

This photograph of the observatory

was not taken by me but one that I found on Wickipedia as the photo I took was not a good one.

After our wander through and around the observatory we then headed to  The Blue Wren Bush cafe
at Pilliga Pottery for lunch .This great place is also known as Barkala Farmstay.

At the pottery you can see the process first hand, my favourite  bit is watching the  talented  artists hand drawing the beautiful  birds, flowers and dragons on the pottery pieces.
We had a wander around the grounds, stopped at The Tree of Life and had a wander around The old School House where the children of the German  potters were educated in the early days of the pottery.

We had a wonderful  time showing our guests around our area, we think  our Rita(Les's Mum) would have enjoyed her country travels for her birthday too and I am sure she would have enjoyed all the scrumptious food that we enjoyed along the way, I wonder where we will celebrate  her birthday next year.
We have been so busy here at the farm, having three groups of visitors three  weeks in a row , it was wonderful  and we enjoyed every minute of it, but were exhausted at the end.
I will try and update again soon, hopefully in the next few days, but if I don't manage  to get back here  I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas  with your family and friends and I will  be back again in the new year.
Take care until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.