Coombadjha Creek

Today we headed inland for a drive up into the mountains for the day (or hills to NZers:). About 2 hours drive inland is the Gibraltor Range National Park (25407 hectares) and the Washpool National Park (68779 hectares), a remote wilderness area with steep gorges, clear waters and tracts of ancient rainforest which form part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area. Once up in the mountains the Washpool track then leads down a narrow dirt road for a few k's until you get to the picnic area and walking tracks. It's a natural haven for an incredible diversity of plants, mammals, reptiles and birds (beware of the Bunyip though). We did one of the short walks around and along Coombadjha Creek and through a rainforest track which was very overgrown in parts but it is a beautiful place. It was really cold so we decided to go back up and find a sunny spot for our picnic lunch but as we were heading back up the steep track a young family of mum, dad and aboout a 7yr old boy were waving us down. They had locked their car keys in their car and didn't have mobile coverage down in the walking tracks so were sloggin up the few k's to get to the top to try and get coverage. We took them up with us but there was still no coverage so we took them further on to the Mulligans Hut area where there is a Ranger station and a pay phone. From there they rang family in Glen Innes who were then going to get the spare keys from the couple's home and then drive an hour or so from Glen Innes to get them out of trouble. Thankgoodness for the pay phone or I think we may have had to drive them to Glen Innes ourselves and then back to their car. It made me realize just how isolated it is if there is a medical emergency or such.
After all that drama we decided to head back down to Jackadgery and have our lunch there by the river - Coriander and Lime chicken pieces, potato salad and tossed salad - yum. It was a lovely day out.
PS I have been trying to add a couple of other interesting shots to Blipfolio but they just won't upload - is anyone else having this problem?