The road to Mt Garnet

Yesterday afternoon, we took a short drive west to Mt Garnet, as I wanted to head into cattle country to drink in the light and the landscape to get into the mood for my next book.

It's amazing how quickly the country changes once you head west. In no time we were seeing scenes like this.

And road signs like this. It's a list of all the cattle properties that can be reached down this road. (You can click on the pic to make it larger, if you'd like to read the names.)

Here's a typical front gate (for Wild River Station), and below is the row of letter boxes that belong to this property. (It's not far enough outback here for the mail to be delivered by plane.)

We had afternoon tea at Innot Hot Springs where the creek water really is a warm as a nice hot bath, and we checked out the famous Mt Garnet rodeo and race track.  I find it quite exciting that I can slip half an hour away and be in such very different country.

Just to show you the contrast, this was the road back from Mt Garnet (complete with warning sign just in case you didn't believe this was cattle country.)

And twenty minutes later, we were back on the Tablelands with totally different trees and clouds rolling in.

All in all... a fabulous and inspiring afternoon.