And on to Canowindra
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| Canola |
I wake at 6:30 to a few drops of rain on the roof and when I check the forecast there's slightly more than a few drops of rain forecast for here and even more for Canowindra where I'm headed.
Again, last night I looked at my itinerary and trimmed it to a more realistic plan. My intent was to start with a short walk in the flora and fauna reserve and I might proceed with that on the grounds that there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing and I have waterproofs.
As I'm getting myself organised, there's a lot of splashing on the lake beside me and I look across to see a small flock of pelicans managing their most inelegant landing.
I eat breakfast standing in the shelter of the camp kitchen, but looking over the sun deck and the lake and a small flock of black waterfowl calling and exhibiting various antics, whether related to mating or territory, I have no idea.
I give my windscreen a really good rub with soap to remove the residue of a squillion minuscule kamikaze insects through which I drove yesterday.
The one staff member present at the caravan park knew nothing about the flora and fauna reserve. So I went in to town and asked the lady at the post office who told me where it is. Just past the aviary so I stopped at the aviary and could see no sign for the reserve so had a look at the aviary. Seemed to have about half a dozen birds in it and that was all. So I drove on slowly until saw the sign for the reserve.
I wondered how I was supposed to get in given that there was a locked gate which clearly hadn't been opened for quite some time. So I climbed the gate and went for a little walk. Let's just say it's underwhelming. There was little on the ground for much of the area, apart from fallen sticks and leaves and so forth. Maybe this is the result of floods? I'm not sure. I heard a few birds and the only herb I saw a in flower was a little Billy Button which was pretty. But maybe I'm here at the wrong time of the year.
I drive drive North through relatively flat landscape with more canola crops and at one point I crest a tiny rise and I'm looking down on the canola and from that perspective it seems incredibly, intensely yellow. It may have been just that field as nothing else seemed quite that intense even looking down on it.
I'm aware of a truck that is following me, but I'm first aware of him when there's about a kilometre behind me and he takes the best part of 20 minutes to bridge the distance between him and me. So as we enter Lockhart I pull over to let him pass. I liked that he was actually keeping a safe and respectful distance. I hate it when trucks tailgate me. If they are so close I cannot see their number plate, that's dangerous.
After an hour or so the rain becomes very heavy and that is considerably less fun even than driving in the steady rain which has pretty much been the situation since I left Urana.
Another truck comes up close behind me and his impatience is annoying given I'm sitting on the speed limit and when I get to places that have overtaking lanes and slow down to allow him to overtake he doesn't, but he persists in tailgating me and then beeping me if I don't enter a roundabout as quickly as he would like me to.
I turn onto the Sturt Highway and the surface is a vast improvement over what I've been travelling on but a dip along the edge of the road between the road and the hard shoulder collects quite noticeable puddles which can be a little bit of a hazard at times.
I smile in quiet, amusement at a car with engine problems, judging from the position of its bonnet, but there is plan B - he was towing a horse float.
My second stop for the day is the Junee chocolate and liquorice factory recommended to me by Debbie.
Unfortunately there are no tours today as there is nobody to do it, and they're not making liquorice today as the liquorice machine broke down this morning, so I content myself seeing what I can and with samples. I find it difficult to resist the purchase of some spelt liquorice and chilli dark chocolate. The latter I purchase without tasting first, but I like the taste of that chocolate which was around the chocolate coated liquorice I tasted, and the addition of chilli to chocolate is always excellent.
Noting my fuel gauge. I decide filling up with petrol was would be a good option and grit my teeth while doing so, as the bowser price was more than $0.20 a litre more than I paid in Bendigo.
Leaving Junee, I start to see hills, a nice change from the incredible flat expanses I've been driving through.
After half an hour of driving on dry roads, I once again enter a deluge and the necessity to deal with oncoming trucks which spray so much water it almost blinds one for a moment.
I pass through Cootamundra with no wish to linger, I spent too long at the railway station back in May. (see Canberra to Melbourne)
I pass through Young, which I've never heard of, and is a bigger town than I thought it might be and obviously has been for quite some time judging from the size of the cemetery and the age of many of the gravestones along with the prepossessing nature of some of the buildings.
I arrive at Cowra and call the caravan park at Canowindra to make sure that an arrival after 5:00 is not going to be a problem. The caretaker is a remarkably casual advising that if he's not there he'll catch me in the morning and I'm to select a spot down the back, on the grass.
So I continue to try and figure out where the hologram theatre is and eventually discover it's in the visitor centre. So I return there and watch the short hologram presentation. Cowra was the base for a Second World War prisoner of war camp. They had an Italian contingent and I knew about Italian POWs in Australia, but there was also a Japanese contingent and, of course, for Japanese soldiers being captured was most dishonorable and they were most resentful. There were also Indonesian prisoners of war I knew nothing about, but it turned out some of those were a bit dodgy and they were really political prisoners held at the request of the Dutch governments in Indonesia. Others were real prisoners of war and they were taken from, I think, a merchant ship that sank.
Anyway, the Japanese, because of their feelings of shame about their capture, planned and executed a breakout. Quite a number of them were killed. Quite a number of them were injured and the rest were recaptured in a relatively short time. It was the story of this that was the subject of the hologram show.
I decided I didn't really have time and probably didn't have the inclination to visit the POW camp, but it was interesting to know that the POWs were treated very well indeed, in some ways better than the military that guarded them in terms of their rations and the allocation of pillowcases and sheets to POW officers.
I got to my car intending to drive through to Canowindra just as the most tremendous thunderstorm started. I did not want to drive in heavy rain that inhibited visibility incredibly so I sat, contemplating my options for accommodation for the night. Google wasn't helpful since Telstra appeared to not be working through the thunderstorm. I eventually restarted my phone and resumed connectivity and searched for booking.com options and Airbnb options which were all a bit thin on the ground if I didn't want to stay in a hotel. So I thought I'd drive through to Canowindra and see what it was like.
The storm passed and then as I was driving the rain abated and the sun came out and there was blue sky with clouds which was completely strange given how the weather had been a few minutes before. I think changeable is an understatement.
I arrived at Canowindra and checked out the caravan park; the camping area had sections that weren't really soggy so I set up camp.
The camp kitchen is an interesting interpretation. It's basically a barbecue and a picnic table and a sink (with cold water only). I was anticipating doing a quick microwave of some vegetables and rice for dinner but I shall see what they are like on the BBQ. My subsequent note on this: it takes forever and the rice wasn't very nice. By the time it were ready to eat I had lost my enthusiasm for eating much.
I may have a koala in a tree near my campsite I can hear occasional growlings and grumblings.
With no rain and almost no breeze, it's pleasant enough sitting out under my awning with my glass of wine and my cheese and biscuits. It's dark but I have my little light and there are street lights around the campsite which I will need to block out when I go to bed.
The weather changed again, with first a cold wind, then that eased and the rain set in, just gently. I adjusted my awning so as not to develop an overhead paddling pool and retired for the night.
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