Coonabarabran

We were up early this morning, ready to leave Tamworth, which is now like a ghost town after the last couple of weeks. But when my alarm went off at 0500hrs, it was still bloody dark, so I managed a bit of a snooze in anyway. 

However, we were on the road by 0700, heading for Coonabarabran but along the quieter roads.

We hardly saw any vehicles at all, except for the odd ute and one or two cars. By 0930, we stopped for brekkie at Spring Ridge where the woman in the cafe looked astounded at our arrival. 

She clearly thought we were there to rob her or something and nearly fainted when we ordered eggs on toast and two flat whites.

The choice of road was good  because it went through some interesting countryside. Not spectacular or anything but a bit different, with red soils, and parched grass so brown and short that it looked like sand. In fact, cattle and sheep were grazing along the road, with farmers watching their stock. There really is no feed anywhere, so its verge time.

We also came across some roadworks ( unattended) in the middle of nowhere. It always makes me laugh when that happens because although its usually well marked, I have this theory that the only reason they bother is to let you know that something is a bit different. Not a hazard like it would be anywhere else, but just different because most of the roads look like permanent roadworks anyway.

But the signs get better and better. Who the hell named this place? Fan-feckin-tastic job!!

Anyway, we reached Coona' wothout mishap and decided to stay at the big hotel in town, The Imperial,a grand old wooden and cement affair which is gloriously tatty but still very imposing. Its got an upstairs outside verandah which overlooks the main street, putting you at near eye level with passing sheep trucks and the tops of trucks.

We spent most of the afternoon charging bits and pieces, catching up on jobs and drinking tea. But then this evening, we went out to the Warrumbungle Observatory to do a star gazing tour.

Coona’ is the start gazing captial of Australia, dark skies filled with stars and no light pollution making it an excellent spot to peer out into the universe. There a big research station here too where you can find out about telescopes and things, but the star thing is what we wanted to see. So we headed 9kms out of town to the aptly named Peter Starr ( real name too!!) who used to manage one of the big telescopes out here. And what a good choice that turned out to be. A really knowledgeable man with some very powerful telescopes that enabled us to see stars and planets clearly.

Actually, it was all quite mind boggling but worth the effort. Jupiter was clearly visible, as was Sirius and Uranus. Uranus was discovered by Herschel ( a Brit) back in the 1700s and called George after the then King George 3rd of England       ( who was actually a German) But after 50 years, the French got the arse and renamed it Neptune, so the Brits changed it to Herschel, until finally, everybody agreed on Uranus. And I do wonder whether the Brits agreed to that name because it sounds so much like what they thought of the French. Just saying.... But anyway, light from it takes three years to reach earth, therefore proof that  light does in fact shine out of Uranus.

I also discovered that our sun is so big, that one million earths would fit inside it, and it would take eleven earths lined  up to cover the diameter of the sun. It's five million years old, and expected to last ten, then it will blow and die. But Siruis is 49 times brighter than our sun but eight light years away, which is why we can't feel its heat, or see its light any more than we do. Light years are measured in 300 000kms per second, so eight years is quite a way away. But there are loads further a field but I cant remember what they’re called.

The Southern Cross has two pointer stars, Alpha and Beta centuri,  Alpha being one of our fairly near neighbours at just four light years away. However, were you to take a motoring holiday to it, it would take you  42 million years. And apparently, it would be quite a boring drive too as there’s not much to see on the way. Better then to go by space craft, and pack it into a mere 75000 year trip. But I’d still rather go by postie bike,given a choice. 

The southern end of the long axis of the Cross points towards the Southern pole, but unlike the northern hemisphere, there is no southern marker star. Coona' lies at 31 degrees south, and it's a fact that there are more stars in the southern sky than the north because the Milky way ( our galaxy) passes almost directly overhead at 30º.

But that is enough anoraking for tonight. The bikes went well in the dark, the very dim headlamp straining to pick out grass verges and roos grazing on them. But again, we took it carefully and got back to the hotel in one piece. (or two pieces as there are two of us) So tomorrow, its onwards to Dubbo and then Parkes.