Day 112 Wednesday 30/9/20 Lake Burrendong to Canowindra, wet 18

Rain starts during breakfast. Just enough to make packing up a bit mucky. The forecast says to expect this for most of the day, but we can’t complain as most of the south east of the country is getting much worse.

We head south through struggling towns Mumbil and Stuart Town (the setting for the Banjo Paterson poem “The Man from Ironbark”) ramshackle comes to mind. The countryside and quality of farms begins to improve as we wind down to the city of Orange.

It’s a cold 10 degrees and raining. Though the city, the country’s 36th largest, is appealing. Street trees, always a winner, grand houses and civic buildings, botanic gardens and expensive schools set in wide expanses of lawn. This is definitely one we’d like to come back to, in the right weather of course, as it does snow up here in the winter and at present Mt Canobolas is hidden by low cloud. Brrr.

The Cargo Road takes us out of town through hillsides draped with grape vines and as we go westwards the weather improves.

The hamlet of Cargo has a public loo with a difference. Instead of pressing a button to flush the toilet there is a short piece of string hanging out of the wall, there is a knot on the end to ensure a firm grip and you must yank the stout little string to flush. It sort of harks back to the old chain pulls doesn’t it?

The drive is delightful, undulating through orchards with expansive valley views. We pull into Canowindra (that’s Can-oun-dra to the uninitiated) Showgrounds and we’re greeted by a bearded bloke who tells us where to park and apologises because he’s been crutching sheep all morning. He does smell rather sheepish.

There are clean and spacious new corrugated iron bathrooms and we’ve got power and water beside the old racetrack. Although it’s a bit out of town for those in need of refreshement there’s a Golf Club next door.

Not wanting to unhitch to explore the town we spend a quiet afternoon indoors while the weather blows through and by happy hour it’s warm enough to sit outside for a chat.

Accom: $20.00

Travelling Kms: 138kms