Longreach Trip – Day 8 – Bylong Valley and Putty Road

July 12, 2025

Our final day of the trip started much the same as the others. We set out from Coonabarabran at 6:30AM as we headed towards Sydney. It was quite cold and overcast, so we had to take it slow to ensure we didn’t hit any wildlife. I saw a couple of kangaroos plus some feral cats. According to my car’s outside temperature display, at one point we got down to minus 0.5C.

As we drove, we kept passing the model solar system from yesterday. Saturn was along our route, and Neptune was close to our breakfast location.

The countryside was gentle rolling hills and the roads were quite good as we made our way to our breakfast stop at Coolah. When we got there, we found the bakery did not open until 8am, which seems quite late for a bakery. Luckily the service station down the road had a cafe attached which was open.

After our breakfast we headed the short distance to Coolah Valley lookout. The lookout offered quite good views back over the valley, but we didn’t stay long due to the cold.

Our next stop was the town of Wollar. It wasn’t so much a town, more a few buildings and a disused service station. The service station still had a working toilet, which was useful. The operators left many signs warning people not to shower in the toilet. I’m curious who tried!

After Wollar, we headed towards Jerry’s Plains, our lunch stop. To get there, we took Bylong Valley Road. I’ve done this road a few times and have always enjoyed it. It has a good mix of sweeping corners, good scenery and there is never any traffic. I took a day drive here after I had the SLS re-installed in my 560SEL to see how much better it was. I wasn’t disappointed.

Since we only stayed at the lookout a few minutes, and skilled the Wollar stop, we got the Jerry’s plains very early. We refuelled at the service station, which was super busy even though it only had two pumps. As we did so, we saw a pair of Police BMWs drive past at high speed, lights and sirens on, only to stop at the place we planned to have lunch. A couple of paddy wagons and another BMW arrived soon after.

We waited back for a few minutes to see what was going on. When one of the BMWs that was blocking the driveway left, one of our group went to see if we could go in. There were only two police vehicles left – A paddy wagon with a flat tyre and a Sergeant who was interviewing somebody at the restaurant. Apparently police officers are not allowed to change tyres. We were given the all clear and went in for lunch.

We were meeting a couple of people who had come on our previous road trips but could not make it this year. It was great that they were able to come up and drive the last leg with us.

After lunch a few of the group had to leave early, but the rest of us went down the Putty road. It was a great way to end the trip and the people that left missed out on a great road with little traffic. Putty road is probably the best driving road close to Sydney. I’ve done it many times, but I usually take it northbound, and it has been a long time since I’ve done it southbound.

After we said our goodbyes at McDonalds Windsor, we each headed our separate ways. I arrived home at about 5:15PM, my car having covered 4,954km over eight days. The planned route, including the amendments for Day 1 was 4,941, so the slight extra makes sense. I’m creeping up to 350,000km in the 560SEL, and will probably pass that next year.