Cranky Rock

On Monday, Steve, Sue, Richard and I took a trip to Cranky Rock, in their nice car. If we had arrived there and turned around and come back immediately, it would still have been a good trip --- their car is ultra smooth, especially by comparison with our clunking truck!!

We stopped in Warialda first, where we made "expensive" purchases at the St. Vinnies shop. I'm so pleased with my goodies. I think I'll make a separate post about them when I have some photos.
Sue and Richard appreciated the quaint aspects of the town that we like so much.

I went into the IGA supermarket, in the faint hope that I might find a can of Cream of Celery soup that I couldn't find in Moree. Heaps of them! Now I'm very suspicious that the 2 big stores, Coles and Woolworths no longer sell Campbell's soups, for some reason. I guess I had better try to find out why. It is so infuriating that these supermarkets can substitute their own labels for the familiar old brands.

Cranky Rock is 8 kms out of Warialda, on the road to Inverell and Armidale. The rough road in is surrounded by increasing amounts of rock until you arrive at a natural amphitheatre, completely surrounded by boulders perched on, tumbling over, crowded in, with more boulders.

After a delicious picnic lunch of sandwiches and sausage rolls kept warm in the Dreampot, we crossed the suspension bridge (a favourite of mine) and headed up the hill to the Cranky Rock (which was still in place and hadn't tumbled off since last year!)

The view from the lookout at the top of the hill always thrills me. Markings on the boulders show that the water was once many, many metres higher than it is at present.






















This time we saw feral goats eating on the bank of the river.


Richard was able to satisfy his passion for birds and we all admired a beautiful yellow robin. Some other tiny birds, also with a touch of yellow, flittered around way too fast for the camera to catch them.

A little rest on the way down. If I had known that Steve was taking a photo, I would have sat more elegantly, like Sue did!!

Before we reached the bridge again, we turned off and went down to the river (where Josh first learnt to "skip" stones.) In this area, I could easily pretend to be a child again!