I never thought Id make it; I was not a grey nomad merely just a spectator. I perused the site reading rarely commenting as I lived vicariously through the travels and experiences of others. Gaining knowledge and suddenly realising sometimes I had something I just wanted to know or better still I had EXPERIENCE that I never knew I had.

I just read an article elsewhere commenting on the lost art of travelling: http://www.newphilosopher.com/articles/the-lost-art-of-travel/

This made me sit and ponder: what am I? Am I a traveller or just a tourist? What makes me tick? What is the pleasure or need I seek to fulfil in my wanderings?

A recent personal blog I wrote impacted myself as I realised I become my surroundings as I travel and seek out to avoid the well travelled tourist areas. I imagine and think and try to understand the people who passed here before me.  So now at the grand old post age of 100 I share it with you. I removed most of my photos to ensure I don't spoil the experience should you wish to go there.

Pilliga
Now that I have successfully survived camping in the Pilliga for the second time I am game enough to research the Pilliga stories. My first trip into the Pilliga I came across the stories and refused to read them as I knew they would play on my mind. I first camped out at Pilliga Bore in 2011 in a sedan and tiny 2 man tent. It was an interesting experience with brilliant night skies and very dark. I was being very brave knowing there was eerie stories about the place but trying to forget them. A little while after dark I was climbing out of my tent when something ran past me, I did not know what it was but it SCARED me! So I spent the night cramped up on the back seat of my car waiting to get outta there. (Now I never told anyone this then and that was 3 years ago!) I think it was a fox, but I wasn't taking chances, it couldn't get in my car.
So 3 years later I return to deep into the forest where not many people go but this time I am prepared I have an enclosed ute to be brave in! Nothing can get in here, no snakes, bugs, bears, Yowies! I am off to the Pillliga Sculptures in the scrub.
I travel from Coonabarabran to Baradine to the Discovery Centre. As I pull into Baradine I hear a sickening screech from under the car, I get out to take a look and see nothing. I drive around the town a bit and the sound has disappeared, I was worried as Baradine is the middle of nowhere with a population of about 500 people, I could of been in a lot of trouble if something went wrong with the car. I decide that it was just gravel in the wheels from the newly patched potholes I had just travelled over. I locate the Discovery centre and go in and talk with the ranger there.The ranger  tells me the road to the sculptures is okay and I should have no trouble. She tells me that the camping sites at the Sculptures are the better sites and offers me alternatives for a route to visit each. She tells me of the sandstone caves and suggests they are worth seeing too. She gives me a local paper map which proved invaluable. There are many dirt tracks out there and some are not as good as others.  I set off with my trusty GPS guiding me. It is not long before I realise my GPS is not taking me the same route as the paper maps, I become concerned as I know that there are only some roads that are regularly graded and used. I turn around back to town and start again abandoning the GPS for the paper map.  I find the right road and it is not much better than the road the GPS was taking me on, red dust corrugations and large stones to avoid hitting. I only had one large stone kick up and hit the underside of the car so I slowed down travelling about 10 to 30 km an hour max. It is only 33km out to the Sculptures but it takes forever. I wonder at my wisdom but think nothing ventured nothing gained. I know I have enough food and water to last me at least a week should I get stranded and the road is the main road out and it IS school holidays so I figure I wouldn't be stranded long before someone come along. There is no phone service out here, I wonder whether I should invest in a UHF radio or CB but I guess there still has to be someone in the area to hear me if I should need to use it. I potter along determined to get to these sculptures they look amazing and in a location you would not expect. I reach the Sculptures eventually with no issue. I check out the campsites, they are just clearings in the bush with remnants of fire pits where others have camped before. There are some nice covered picnic tables and some BBQs and one clean long drop toilet. I decide to grab a campsite and take time to decide whether I camp or do the 3km walk to the sculptures and get out of there. I claim my spot when an older couple who are camped nearby come past, I talk to them about the sculptures and the walk and ask if they are staying the night. They are staying so I decide I will stay too. I have a cuppa and then set off on the walk, I take water and a jumper and my phone not that I think my phone would do much good but it is all I have, maybe an emergency call may work if required. The couple know I am going on the walk so hopefully if I don't return they will investigate.

I set off full of anticipation hoping that the reward is worth the effort. It seems strange to be tramping in the bush when no one really knows where I am but the sense of freedom and the isolation is awesome. I imagine what it must of been like for the aboriginal groups who once lived in this environment, the bush is thick and I have a well made man made track the aboriginal people would not have had this luxury they would have been moving through thick undergrowth with no path to guide them. I think about how the people who placed the sculptures out here would have had to carry them out here along the track.  I soon come to the first Sculpture which I find a bit disappointing it was just metal spikes to me. I read on the plaque that the figures represent the spirit and are spirit people without arms and looking down over the gorge, behind them are a set of metal spikes called hunting sticks. The shiny metal does not fit in with the environment for me but as the artist states designing something to last and that is safe for the general public required some compromise. He consulted with an aboriginal elder and a young aboriginal person in the design process of these.

I move along hoping that this trip is worth it, I have to decide whether to do the full round trip bush walk down into the gully and back or turn around and retrace my steps back to the camp ground. I look out and down into the gully there seems nothing but thick bush I imagine that after seeing all the sculptures along the top the gully walk will just be a trial rather than enjoyable. The older couple at the camp site told me they just turned around as they didn't think the walk down the gully would offer much.
The next sculpture I come to is stunning and feels so right in the environment. It is of an aboriginal man with his young son sitting on his shoulders. They are looking out over the gully with the man appearing to be pointing out something in the distance to his son whilst holding a boomerang and spear. You can imagine him talking to his son. The artist hoped that this sculpture would be seen as part of the landscape rather than just a sculpture and he his has captured this well. It is as though the man and his son are there and we are observing a conversation taking place.

Walking along the track now with anticipation I wondered what the next bend would bring. The next couple of sculptures were of axe heads the shape of the Aboriginal axes and a European axe head. There was also a large snake carved into the trunk of a tree.

Moving further along I came across some of the most striking and colourful sculptures made from mosaic tiles on stone structures. They all looked like serpent heads to me and a close inspection showed that there were animals and creatures within the mosaics; it was amazing how many things were incorporated into each sculpture. Like the metal sculptures I first saw I was not quite comfortable with the bright colours and cold tiles as being one with the environment but the detail of animals within the sculptures sort of gave the idea of images you may see in rock paintings from an Aboriginal past. A unique experience in all, where modern materials are used to depict an ancient culture.

The decision now must be made turn around and go back or head off into the gully. I decide to go the gully way, not expecting much but maybe a good bit of exercise, what goes down must come back up. What is remarkable about this bush is the lack of wildlife, I have seen very little if any and it is eerily quiet not even the birds seem to be about. I have been in the bush for several hours and there is an uncanny quietness.
I head off down the gully it soon becomes a flat walk, I am at the bottom of the gully and you can see it is a waterway when it rains I imagine this whole area would be flooded. It is a cool and pleasant walk, I take some pictures and try to record the nothingness of the environment one lonely bird can be heard somewhere in the distance. I come across a rock face and look up to see the top where I have just come from. I come across a sign written in Aboriginal language which interpreted means "look up". I raise my eyes to the top of the cliff and standing all alone in the gully I yell out "Oh my God"! What I saw was the statue of the Aboriginal man and his son overlooking the valley where I was walking. It was an unreal and strange feeling, something one did not expect. The walk through the gully is one that should not be missed and finishes off a great and thought provoking bush walk.