Day 57 and 58: Dubbo to Cranky Rock to home

The last two days of our journey were mostly driving, but we did find a place to camp for the night that had a cool name. And also two fascinating rock formations. If we'd not been looking for a campsite or stopped to ask at an information centre, we would never have found either of these. I'll tell the story mostly with photos:

Our last campsite: Cranky Rock Recreation Reserve
We used their showers and toilets, but opted to pay less
 and go without electricity. This is just outside of
a small town I'd never heard of: Warialda

The width of Australian country town streets can be astounding
to these two travellers who've lived in Tokyo most of the last 19 years.

Narrabri. We ate lunch here and watched a bunch of school children
running around and around a largish circuit in this park. Not sure what
it was that they were doing, but it didn't look especially competitive.
I found something on the footpath nearby that told me this small
town is the "origin" of a high percentage of elite
athletes. I'm pretty sure none of the group we saw running are
destined to be runners, though!

Wide open plains. We're not in Tasmania anymore!

Sawn Rocks. Allegedly one of Australia's best example of
a rock formation called "organ piping". We took a "road less 
travelled" from Narrabri to Warialdra and this was just off the road.
We would never have stopped except for the mention of it by a
keen local at the information centre.

Beautiful drive through Mount Kaputar National Park (not far past
Sawn Rocks).

Cranky Rock. The source of its name is debated.
The sign here gave two possible origin stories, one
more colourful than the other and involved the stabbing
of a woman and death of a Chinese man known as "Cranky".

We climbed up to a lookout (looking down at the pool seen in 
the previous photo)

Got a little sentimental as we watched our last sunset
of our trip.

And there were chooks at this campsite!

Final day on the road

We crossed the border into our home state in a town called Texas :D

It was great to get home again after over eight weeks away. What I'd looked forward to most was my own toilet and shower. But unpacking and inhabiting a larger space where things didn't always have to be put away before you did the next thing was wonderful too...as was our own washing machine and a larger kitchen and a larger selection of clothes. And multiple places that one could sit! We emptied the van as soon as possible and then parked it down the road on a level parking space. The next day we spent a couple of hours cleaning it and then David drove it one last time back to its home with my parents in Toowoomba. I drove our car; we took our younger two sons too and enjoyed 24 hrs with my parents. They were patient and listened to some of our travel stories!

But I'll leave the rest of my reflecting till tomorrow's post.