Gariwerd, in Victoria, is the southwestern tip of the Great Dividing Range that runs 3,500 km up the east coast of Australia.
Its a beautiful place for riding the back roads, walking in beautiful bushland, and taking in the views from mountain top lookouts.
Geriward is also a place of significance for Australian Aboriginals. There are over 200 sites of Aboriginal Rock art in Gariwerd. It has the largest number of rock art sites in southern Australia.
Gariwerd can be translated as meaning Mountains created by Bunjil. Bunjil is part of the Aboriginal creation story.
I visited a couple of sites on this trip.
‘Bunjil shelter’ is the only known representation of Bunjil with two dingo helpers.
Ngamadjidj is another site that is accessible.
The art is generally found in rocky outcops in Gariwerd.
There are beautiful walks through the forests…
To waterfalls…
And mountain top views…
For the motorcyclist, the riding both on and off road is excillerating.
The beautiful dawn view from the balcony of the Brewarrina Hotel disguised the storms that were brewing.
With rising morning sun shining over my shoulder, conditions were right for an early start on the 1200km ride home.
The rest area by the Bogan River in Nyngan is the perfect stop for a roadside breakfast. The decorative post showing the height of major floods that have hit Nyngan.
Painted grain silos are a well-known feature of the North Western Victoria, in the big river country, there is a water tower art trail.
It was a nice dry 700km ride to Nerrandera and a comfy room at the Historic Star Lodge. It is a beautiful historic building with many of the original features.
And a view over the township from the balcony.
The last stop on the central plains of NSW was the small Riverena town of Urana.
The diarama of sheep, shepherd, and horse at the southern end of town is a unique piece of street art.
The picnic area on the lake is the perfect place for barrista made coffee for morning tea.
Across the Murray River, I was soon in North East Victoria, on the edge of the Australian Alps, in the cool autumn air of the King and Goulburn River Valleys.
It was an easy run home through the hills to end a little 11 day tour out to the edge of the outback.
"See here, young man," said Mulga Bill, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
From “Mulga Bill’s Bicycle” by Banjo Patterson.
I like stopping at the towns and villages recounted in the early Australian balads.
The flood plains of the Namoi River were full of water.
In the “land of drought and flooding rain” therehe had been a flooding monsoon north in tropical Queensland a couple of months earlier. The flood waters were slowly moving south, bringing vital water to the edge of the Outback as it travels thousands of kilometres to the Murray River, which empties into the Southern Ocean.
Wallgett was just a photo stop as my destination was Lightning Ridge, famous for its Opals.
Lightning Ridge is very much more a tourist town rather than a prospecting these days. Especially if compared to the Opel prospecting South Australia, Coober Pedy, and Blinman.
There are some good aspects to a tourist town….
The street art…
The Opal shops…
Even fine coffee with delicious apple strudel and ice cream.
Lightning Ridge sits on the Great Artesian Drive, a series of thermal baths drawing water from Australia’s Great Artesian Basin.
It was hot 30c in Lightning Ridge so I enjoyed the cold water of the campground pool to the hot spa.
My next stop was Brewarrina and little detour to Goodooga for a hot bath in the cool of the morning.
I arrived at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Brewarrina for the last cultural tour of the day
Brewarrina sits where the northern rivers come together to form the Darling River, which funels the monsoon rains of the tropical north of Australia southward along the edge of the Outback, providing precious water to a dry land.
Drone photo by Dave Kelly
Brewarrina, which means Tall Trees, was/is a special meeting place for Aboriginal Australians. The rock fish traps pictured above were built over 10,000 years ago. And were an intrcately designed so that fish could be caught and stored in ponds.
This photograph (below) from 1870 shows aboriginal children collecting fish from the fish traps.
Photo in Aboriginal Cultural Centre.
The banks of the Darling River also contain ochre, which is used for skin care and decoration by aboriginal people.
White ochre on the river bank.
Unfortunately, the high state of the river had covered fish traps. But a river full of water is something beautiful in itself.
And on the river bank, I spied some some red tailed black cockatoos. A beautiful bird that lives along the rivers on the edge of the outback.
From Brewarrina, it was time to follow the river flow south toward home.
The film ‘Force of Nature‘ has recently opened in Australia. Parts of it were shot in the beautiful temperate rain forests of the Otway Ranges.
Hopetoun Falls features in the movie. Its currently approaching summer, so the waterfalls in the ranges are flowing slowly. Some, like Henderson Falls, gently cascade over the cliff face.
Henderson Falls, are near a rocky feature in the ranges named The Canyon. I think I recognised it in the movie.
Its a beautiful walk through the forest to reach the Canyon in a quiet part of eastern end of the ranges.
The western end of the ranges faces the incoming weather and is a thicker forest. With more Beech trees, ancient Beech trees.
The Otways are a mountain range that abuts the sea. The Southern Ocean, to be precise.
So after a long hike on a hot day, it’s easy to cool off with a swim in the cool ocean waters.
I camped a couple of nights at Apollo Bay, which sits on the ocean about halfway along the ranges.
It’s a beautiful town, at night as dark slowly descends over the harbour.
From Ohrid, the route to Kosovo continued through the mountains of North Macedonia with Albania to the west and Kosova to the North.
The small village of Janche is nestled in the mountains of the Mavrovo National Park.
Where remnants of old Yugoslavian industry can be found.
Beside the new highway heading to Peje in NW Kosova sits the Terzi Bridge. A fine example of Ottoman architecture.
The destination, though, was the White Drin Falls in the Accursed Mountains near the border with Montenegro. A spectacular natural park. With the waterfall….
Just over the border with Montenegro is the village of Rozaje and nearby nested in the forest in the most beautiful camp ground.
These forests are the best I’ve visited in Europe, amazing old growth forests.
It was late September in the mountains so turning cold. But the welcome at Sastanci – Grahovaca was as warm as the fire and the home cooked meal fresh and delicious.
