Day 72 - Bald Rock. I have seen lots of Kangaroos on the roads and any number of emus, but I guess thats what you get in the Australian bush. There has been a fair bit of movement since my last post; this post will bring you up to date.

60 kilometres north of Mungindi, in Queensland, there is a little oasis by the name of the 'Nindigully Hotel'. Camping is free and the pub runs an honesty box for the showers. Happy hour is at 4:30pm when you can get a middie of XXXX Gold for $2.40, anything else is normal price; not really all that happy, maybe a 'mildly lighthearted' hour. A schooner of normal XXXX is $6.40! I also had my first real experience of the boys on Bundaberg Rum, I forget exactly how many cases the pub sells each week but I remember being shocked when they told me, especially as you only need two hands to count the residents, although their are a more people in the immediate area. I managed to survive a couple of nights before moving on. In case you are wondering, the publican allowed the pub to be painted pink to raise funds for cancer research.

Having spent too much time in Queensland and suffering from the effects of no daylight saving (my curtains where starting to get darker) I drove east for 2 hours into NSW eventually arriving at a lovely little town called Yetman. I pitched the tent and it promptly pissed down rain for about 2 hours. Not that I was worried, the roof of the 'The Codfish Hotel' was doing its job and hours later I was able to emerge bone dry.

Bald Rock, is 25 kilometres north of Tenterfield. I am going to go all geological on you now, Bald Rock is a regolith, and it has created a landscape with many exposed inselbergs of granite rocks, some balancing on top of each other, or forming natural arches, see photos below. There is a track that leads to the top of the hill; you have two options a steep ascent 1.5 kilometres or an easy ascent of 2.5 kilometres. Naturally I took the easy way, I can only express admiration for the people who take the steep ascent I was, to use the correct technical term, 'rooted' when I arrived at the summit. Great view though, the obligatory pics are below. It was a cold night on the mountain.