All good things must come to and end and so on 29/6/2010 we traveled the Pacific Highway through the outskirts of Newcastle through Raymond Terrace and to Karuah where we stayed at a park for 2 nights to enable us to drive through the New England Highway to Scone passing along the way some huge coal mines, the like I’d never seen, also the Bayswater power station to find the Burning Mountain.
Over the next 2 hours we climbed the mountain and were amazed at this natural process which had been burning for an estimated 5 – 6 thousand years, some 30 metres underground leaving a discernable trail of deforested landscape with giant subsidence cracks. As you walk along the track the soil colour changes from grey brown to red, this is caused by oxidization of the iron compound in the soil. We saw native animals which it is said hang around the area in an effort to keep warm on cold days.