Oh what a slow start we had. Victor didn’t wake until after 7 and we played a funny game of eye spy whilst snuggled in bed for an hour before we got up. Victor was a hungry boy and had a bacon and cheese brioche bun followed by two pancakes for breakfast!

The laundry was piling up so I got two loads of washing done and hung up. Now the inside of the motorhome looks like a laundry. But it was a sunny day so it might dry as we go along.

I had to clear the Check Engine light again before we could get going. The motorhome will really need to go back to the mechanic when we get home.

While we were packing up Victor declared this camp in the Warrumbungle NP a 10 out of 10. High praise from the 6 year old. When I asked why he gave it that rating he said because he made some new friends and had fun making damper with Granny.

Before we left the mum of the Victor’s new friends came over with her children to tell us about a fantastic tour to do at an emu farm that is located on the Tooraweenah Road if we are going that way. She explained that it is really worth a visit.

We all really enjoyed our stay in the Warrumbungle NP and we were a bit surprised how empty the campgrounds were. The powered section we were in was almost full however the unpowered sections had lots of vacant spot. It is a beautiful campground set in its natural bush setting and the brand new amenities block was impressive. There were rows of bins for rubbish disposal too. Our site 93 was a drive through site with plenty of room for us to slide out and we could have put our awning out as well. Each site has a fire pit and ours even had a picnic table.

After packing up we drove out of the campground, past the visitors centre and back onto the road that goes right through the Warrumbungles. Richard’s dad, so the story goes, built the first road through the Warrumbungles with his dozer back in the day when he was an earthmoving contractor. Today the road is a good sealed road. Out of the park on the western side you take a left turn towards Tooraweenah and Gilgandra. That road is now sealed all the way too.

Not long past the turnoff is the entrance to Emu Logic Emu Farm. This was the one we’d been told about so we turned in to check it out. It is a gravel farm road in to a large carpark in front of an old shed used as the farm tour building & shop. We signed up for the 11am tour. It cost $20 per adult and $6 per child. In the fifteen minutes we had to wait for the tour to commence we checked out all the emu info in the shed including a large glass enclosure that held three 2 day old emu chicks. They were so cute.

Out in the yard we checked out the huge variety of chickens and other birds the lady owner has collected. There were chickens with weird feathers that looked like the chicken had stuck his foot in an electric socket! Strangest chicken I’ve ever seen. There were bantams and silkies and even a beautiful pheasant. Victor got to feed the goat and kid with the nanny goat butting the kid out of the way to get to the offered leaves.

The tour commenced in the grassy yard with the lady owner giving a talk about emus and why they chose to farm them. Emus don’t have much meat however they do have a significant amount of oil and they are farmed for their oil. Emu oil is used for medicine and cosmetics. Emu oil is particularly good for arthritis just rubbed into the joints daily. Ostriches on the other hand are farmed for their meat.

Phil, the other farm owner, brought out the three 2 day old chicks and all the children were able to hold a chick. Of course this was a big hit.

The group was then led out the gate to the paddocks. On the way we passed hundreds of Muscoveys. Did you know that Muscovy are not ducks? They are between a ducks and a goose. They are quite large birds and there were hundreds of them. The lady explained that she breeds them for a lady at Paddy’s Market in Sydney who buys 100 each month. We came to a section of the farm where we could see into the emu paddocks. On one side were the 1 year olds. We were amazed at how much emus grow from 2 days to 1 year old. The next paddock held the teenagers and they were bigger again. The next paddock held the breeding adults.

The owners little granddaughter handed out small branches of saltbush for us to feed to the emus. We entered the paddock with the adult emus and they all gathered around us for the food. We were surrounded by emus! Victor bravely held out the saltbush for the emus to each and they pecked at the saltbush leaves until the branch you were holding had no leaves left. You had to hang on to the branch tightly s they. Teared the leaves off with their beaks.

The adult breeding emus are kept in one paddock together. The females make a strange drumming sound from an air sack in their necks. The males don’t make much noise are a very docile. The females lay eggs and we were visiting right in the middle of their egg laying season. The males try to gather up as many eggs as they can and once they have enough, 10 -12 eggs, they sit on them. Emu eggs stay dormant from the time they are layed until the male sits on them. It’s the heat that commences the incubation process. It can take a month for the male to gather enough eggs and once he sits he will stay there for 56 days. He neither eats nor drinks in that time. His whole focus is on incubating those eggs. The chicks all hatch at the same time and then the male will stay with them until they are 18 months old protecting them from predators and female emus. Females will kill any chick left on its own.

On the farm all the breeding emus have had their claws chopped off to make them less dangerous to handle. The eggs are gathered each day. They can be tricky to find as the males hide them in the grass.

Phil led our group over to a group of four emus sitting on the ground. He explained that these males were all sitting on eggs they’d gathered up and instead of gathering the eggs the group of four had been left to show the tourists. Phil was able to life the male emus up and we were amazed to see lots of green emu eggs underneath. Each of the three younger emus had 9-12 eggs underneath them. The oldest male had an albino head with fuzzy feathers on top of his head. He is named Donald! He’s about 35 years old and although he had no eggs underneath him he sat with the others providing moral support.

Phil showed us the amazing feathers. Did you know that emu feathers are unique in the bird world as each quill has two feathers? Emus are so well insulated they can survive extreme heat and even extreme cold and snow.

The emu farm tour lasted for an hour and we declared it well worth it. We learnt a lot about these unique Australian animals.

Back on the road we passed through Tooraweenah and then we met up with the Newell Highway again and drove into Gilgandra. It was time for a lunch break so we found at skate park. It was a really good one and Victor gave it a 9 out of 10. He had a fun time scootering while I prepared lunch.

Following our lunch we headed south again on the Newell Highway and I used WikiCamps to find us a spot to camp for the night. I found a Farmstay near Parkes that looked like it might be good for us. $20 per night for self contained vehicles and they provided fire pits and had wood for sale. Sounded good. I called the owner and booked us in.

The Newell Highway bypasses Parkes town centre now and we stopped for fuel at the huge BP service station that’s been built on the Bypass road. Our little travel buddy’s eyes lit up when he saw the Big M sign. Then we had to listen to all the reasons why we should have Maccas! We resisted.

The Farmstay we’d booked is located just off the Bypass road and we found it easily because they have a large metal cow and calf on the front gate. The owner had told me to look for the cow. The paddock is a large one surrounded by a row of large pine trees along the fence. It looked like the owners had been busy planting lots of trees and shrubs to enhance the camping experience. There were a couple of fire pits and a large old truck that we found out was called Rosie. Rosie is a decorative feature and the owner has planted a garden all around Rosie. Rosie is also decorated with solar lights that came on after dark.

Karen, the owner, had told us to park anywhere so we parked up near the fire pit and set up camp. I warmed up the last of Great Gran’s sausage rolls for an entree and put a lasagne in the oven for our dinner.

Karen came down to meet us and we said we’d buy some wood so she went back to the house and came back with a trolley full of really good dry wood. She also brought a bag of pine cones to throw in. They do make the fire smell good!

We enjoyed meeting Karen and hearing about how her and Andrew had set up the Farmstay over a year ago. They enjoy meeting all the travelers they’ve hosted in that time. They have lots of plans for improvements but as they both have full time jobs it is a slow process. They have just finished putting in town water pipes so guests will be able to top up their tanks with town water.

We enjoyed our time around the fire until after dinner when it was too cold so we moved inside. Victor and I played the Connect 4 card game followed by a game of Memory (he won both of those!) before we all snuggled in our bed so Victor could read us a story.

Our batteries are really on their way lout and not holding their charge so no diesel heater for us! Oh well, it was warm in bed!