Dubbo 2021 - Day 1

Bit of a slow morning for me on account of the shutdown party yesterday, but got ready and on the road by 8:30. We headed up to Yass, along the Hume for a bit, then turned left at Gunning. Had a brief stop so Stu could take his jacket off and get his phone organised. Then continued north. It was quite a pretty drive. Stu was feeling pretty tired (he barely slept the night before), so I drove from Tuena.

Countryside north of Gunning
Countryside north of Gunning

Wind turbines near Gurrundah
Wind turbines near Gurrundah

Bridge across the Abercrombie River
Bridge across the Abercrombie River

Got to Bathurst around the middle of the day and headed straight for Mount Panorama. I was going to drive around, but in the end Stu drove so I could take photos. Annoyingly, even on a Friday, not a school holiday, the place was *packed*. There was a non stop stream of traffic. So I couldn't reproduce the photo we took in 1986 of us pushing red car over the finish line. I didn't even get a photo of the finish line at the right angle. So that was pretty annoying. Then at the top I was trying to find the spot we took another photo, but didn't realise where it was until after we were done. I haven't looked at the photos to see if I got the shot. I also wanted to get a photo of the view, but the whole top of the track has a concrete barrier around and there was only one entry point waaaay back. So I jumped the fence. As you do. (I wasn't the only one, in fact I followed another couple).

Pit Straight at Mt Panorama
Pit Straight at Mt Panorama

Pit Straight at Mt Panorama
Pit Straight at Mt Panorama

Control tower at Mt Panorama
Control tower at Mt Panorama

Mountain Straight at Mt Panorama
Mountain Straight at Mt Panorama

View from McPhillamy Park on Mt Panorama
View from McPhillamy Park on Mt Panorama

Brocks Skyline on Mt Panorama
Brocks Skyline on Mt Panorama

Super annoying crash barrier making it hard for me to get the viewing platform
Super annoying crash barrier making it hard for me to get the viewing platform

View from Mount Panorama
View from Mount Panorama

View towards Rydges Mount Panorama
View towards Rydges Mount Panorama

Mt Panorama panorama
Mt Panorama panorama

Viewing platform at Mt Panorama
Viewing platform at Mt Panorama

Windy road on Brocks Skyline
Windy road on Brocks Skyline

View down Conrod Straight
View down Conrod Straight

Chicane in Conrod Straight
Chicane in Conrod Straight

View up to the top of Mt Panorama
View up to the top of Mt Panorama

Headed back down into Bathurst so we could find some lunch. The town centre was chaos. Traffic everywhere. Madness. Found a shopping centre car park and parked there, then went and got Subway for lunch. Ate it in the park across the road which was quite nice.

Bathurst War Memorial Carillon
Bathurst War Memorial Carillon

Bathurst War Memorial
Bathurst War Memorial

Bathurst War Memorial
Bathurst War Memorial

Then we headed for Lithgow. Went and checked in at the motel, and dumped our bags, then headed out again.

View towards old Wallerawang Power Station
View towards old Wallerawang Power Station

Our room at the Zig Zag Motel in Lithgow
Our room at the Zig Zag Motel in Lithgow

Our room at the Zig Zag Motel in Lithgow
Our room at the Zig Zag Motel in Lithgow

Tiny bathroom in our room at the Zig Zag Motel in Lithgow
Tiny bathroom in our room at the Zig Zag Motel in Lithgow

We went down to the reserve off Bells Road at Oaky Park to have a look at the Zig Zag Railway viaducts from below. But there was a sign saying keep out, due to the risk of falling trees from last summer's bushfires. We could see glimpses of the viaducts from a distance, but epic disappointed I couldn't get any good shots.

Keep Out sign at the bottom of the Zig Zag Railway
Keep Out sign at the bottom of the Zig Zag Railway

The only view of the Zig Zag Railway viaducts I could get
The only view of the Zig Zag Railway viaducts I could get

So we headed out to the Glow Worm Tunnel. If we were redoing the trip from 1981 properly we would have done the walk from the Newnes end, but it just wasn't going to work logistically, so we did it from the Lithgow end (which we did in 1989). The road out was ok, but there were a lot of potholes, and we couldn't really see them because of the tree shadows across the road. So it was a bit of a tense drive. Plus it was fairly late in the afternoon and it was out of mobile range, so if anything had happened we could have gotten fairly stuck (although there were still a few cars out at the glow worm end could have maybe gotten help from on their way back).

On the road out to the Glow Worm Tunnel
On the road out to the Glow Worm Tunnel

Tunnel on the Glow Worm Tunnel Road
Tunnel on the Glow Worm Tunnel Road

Valley south of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Valley south of the Glow Worm Tunnel

So we finally made it to the car park, and walked down to the Glow Worm Tunnel. There was a good spot near the beginning that had a lot on the roof which was pretty cool. We walked all the way through the tunnel to the bottom entrance, then came back and got some photos of some of the worms. Very cool!

Tunnel Creek
Tunnel Creek

On the Glow Worm Tunnel walking track
On the Glow Worm Tunnel walking track

Stu on the bridge over Tunnel Creek
Stu on the bridge over Tunnel Creek

View along Tunnel Creek
View along Tunnel Creek

Stair case near the bridge over Tunnel Creek
Stair case near the bridge over Tunnel Creek

Tree making a comeback
Tree making a comeback

Stu on the Glow Worm Tunnel walking track
Stu on the Glow Worm Tunnel walking track

Eastern entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Eastern entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel

Ferns near the entrance to the Glow Worm Tunnel
Ferns near the entrance to the Glow Worm Tunnel

Looking into the Glow Worm Tunnel
Looking into the Glow Worm Tunnel

Stu taking a selfie in the Glow Worm Tunnel
Stu taking a selfie in the Glow Worm Tunnel

Western entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Western entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel

Gully at the western entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Gully at the western entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel

Western entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Western entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel

Single glow worm
Single glow worm

Two glow worms
Two glow worms

Glow worms along the roof of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Glow worms along the roof of the Glow Worm Tunnel

Eastern entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel
Eastern entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel

The sun had set by the time we got back to the car, so we took the drive back very slowly and carefully. We even saw one car going the other way !? No bouncy bouncies though.

Inside the road tunnel on Glowworm Tunnel Road
Inside the road tunnel on Glowworm Tunnel Road

Got back to Lithgow and parked on the main street and looked for dinner. We ended up getting western Chinese. Turns out two dishes plus rice is a lot of food. Whoops.

Stu and all our dinner at the Lithgow Palace Chinese Restaurant
Stu and all our dinner at the Lithgow Palace Chinese Restaurant

Headed back to the motel to collapse. The room was nice enough, although the bathroom was tiny. It even had a microwave, I could have brought back leftovers :)