We took a road trip especially to go and see these wonderful rock formations called Sawn Rocks at Narrabri in New South Wales, Australia. The trip was a little more than a 6-hour drive from where we live but it was totally worth it. These spectacular pentagonal basalt rock pipes are also called organ-piping because they look like a wall of tall organ pipes. They are said to be the best example of organ-piping rocks in Australia. They formed 21 million years ago by the slow and even cooling of basalt lava flow from the now-extinct Nandewar Volcano that use to once dominate this area.
To get here it was a short and easy 15-minute walk through Mount Kaputar National Park. Starting the walk you couldn't see any of the formations but within the last 5 minutes you could see them appearing through the dense bush landscape of tall eucalypts, fig and wattle trees. They're not hard to miss, standing an impressive 40 meters tall.
These rocks are massive and looking back now I question why I stood directly beneath them looking up. I mean, I got some great photos and that is certainly all I was thinking about at the time. But you can see the fracture lines running through the formations and there is plenty of evidence lying all around the area where not just singular columns have fallen but clumps of these magnificent rock formations have broken away. They wouldn't be so magnificent if one happened to fall while you happened to be standing under them.
In saying this, I have to question why there are no barriers, why you can walk and freely explore the entire area when there is clearly a level of danger. In saying that, they are spectacularly impressive, the photos don't give justice to their sheer enormity but I am so glad that we made the trip to go and see them!
That's a long way to go see some rocks, but as you say, totally worth it. I think in a way it's nice that there are no barriers as it keeps it more natural, just hope people will be careful and respect nature by not damaging them in any way.
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Thank you @livinguktaiwan. I've only just moved over to hive from steemit, I had gone offline for a couple of years and things have very much changed in that time. Thank you for the tips, I have gone and joined the community! 😊
It was a long way to go but sometimes it is about journey too. We stayed for a week and explored the whole area, so it was really nice. But yes, the trip was planned just to see these rock formations.
I believe the damage occurs more from Mother Nature herself. Trees and plants start growing in the crevasses and overtime cause these breakaways. Not knowing when a column may drop, it is still rather risky. I'm not sure how often this occurs but they are mighty impressive!