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While waiting for the bangers I sampled the Verdelho, which was pleasant enough, with the requisite tropical fruit notes rather than overtones, but didn't stand out enough to warrant buying a bottle, and the Rose, which was in the sweeter style, which I tend to avoid.

From there it was a case of replenishing the garlic supply, which involved a compass and a cut lunch circumnavigation of the building with the Coles sign, and gave me another occasion to muse on the habit of people with a substantial load of shopping to use the twelve items or less checkout.There was an old bloke unloading his trolley at the adjacent checkout who'd barely finished before I got through next door, having followed a woman with a chatty kid who interacted at some length with the checkout chick, and a woman who needed a packet of lollies, presumably as an aid to driving.

A garlic bulb set me back $1.20, but lack of a dollar coin had me getting a dollar's change, which the checkout chick advised against spending all at once.

We headed back out to the bypass, which brought us back to the other end of the main drag, checking the fuel options (last fuel stop had been Warwick) but with a little over a hundred k to Narrabri with a seventy k round trip to Sawn Rocks thrown in along the way felt we'd have enough to get us safely there, with enough left over to allow a slight further diversion if necessary.

The country, all the way from Goondiwindi to Moree had been flat, featureless, and largely devoted to broad acre farming, with cotton featuring heavily. Grain silos en route suggested possibilities of wheat, barley or sorghum (or quite possibly something else, things have definitely changed in these parts since Hughesy's dimly remembered High School Geography classes) though there didn't seem to be much grain in evidence.

South of Moree we sighted mountains on the horizon, guessing, correctly as it turned out, that was where we were headed if we wanted to see this interesting geological phenomenon.

The Sawn Rocks turnoff is about three kilometres north of Narrabri, and Madam had some reservations about the road, which turned out to be comfortable two lane bitumen rather than the unsealed surface she'd feared.

It's 33 km each way, but if you're in these parts and have the time on your hands it's a pleasant drive, and a 750 metre walk along a good track delivers you to the foot of this quite remarkable feature, allegedly the only one of its kind in the country.

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© Ian Hughes 2012