Capertee Valley

Over the Queen's Birthday long weekend I had plans originally to drive to New England region of NSW and drive "aimlessly" around Tamworth and the surrounding towns. However, I ended up only having two days (intention to return to Sydney on Sunday night) and it wasn't feasible to make the drive there and back. Instead, I did a quick google search and discovered Capertee Valley.

In the past 12 months, I have driven on the same road through the Blue Mountains three times and all three times it has been very overcast despite being sunny in Sydney. I left a little later than what I would have liked due to the opening hours of the car rental place. There were also quite a few cars cruising at 80kmph on a 100kmph stretch of road which was a little frustrating. But soon enough I reached the roads that I love to drive on; 100kmph country roads with minimal / no cars on it. It is just so peaceful and the epitome of a road trip.

The Capertee Valley is apparently the world's widest canyon - even wider than the Grand Canyon in USA! However, it is not as deep and not as dramatic since it is covered with eucalyptus trees. It is a 3.5hr drive from Sydney and around 1hr from Lithgow. My intention for the two days was to drive and sleep at Glen Davis before heading off to Hill End the following day.

I have mentioned this before, but I am quite desensitised to the beauty of NSW since it is very much the same landscape. However, seeing Capertee Valley from Pearson's Lookout was breathtaking!




For some reason it reminded me a little of Flinders Ranges.


Ouch! The poor cow.






From the town of Capertee (I think it might be a village actually), I headed into the valley with Glen Davis as my final destination. In it's prime during the 1930s, Glen Davis had a population of 3000. However there are currently only 25 residents in the town. Where did everyone go? The population boomed in the 1930s since Capertee Valley is rich in high grade shale oil. This resulted in shale mine and works to be built however in the 1950s, this venture was no longer viable (as deemed by the government) and the works closed and the people left. The road to Glen Davis was so beautiful -albeit road quality was a little poor- and for the last few kilometres it was simply a dirt road.

After parking at the free campground (with free showers!), I headed to the abandoned shale oil works ... which I will talk about in my next post!

This was my eighth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here.