Homewards bound

It was Frances. turn to have a foul night's sleep, mainly due to noise from the local dogs,  We have noticed in the past that this is often a problem in country towns (Bourke is the worst I had noticed until now).  Presumably the fence-looker was part of the problem.

So we broke our fast broke, down the tent - finding that the underside of the floor was both dirty and damp due to the rain - packed the car and headed for the poo pits.

As it was still early in the morning the insects were not a problem this time.   The avian highlight was finding about 20 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers: some were in one of the lagoons,

 ... while most were in a marsh alongside the pits.  Also in the pits were about 10 Red-capped Plovers, which we hadn't seen the previous day.

We had seen a White-breasted Woodswallow the previous day but it hadn't been as cooperative in posing as this specimen.

 On our way towards West Wyalong, where a pie was acquired from the Roundabout Bakery.  This was a Pepper Steak specimen and after applying  the official guidelines it came out with a score of 6: adequate but not startling.  However it was then a matter of finding somewhere to munch it which got us into a Rest Area where we found many interesting things.  This has led to the pie scoring a bonus point for stimulating an interesting visit to somewhere we wouldn't otherwise have gone.  (The Committee has been consulted and that has now been added to the official score.  NB: the ideal size of a Committee is 1.)

The most obvious feature of the site was this replica poppet head built for the centenary of the town in 1994.  I had never realised that this was a gold mining area but apparently they extracted 445,700 ounces of gold (worth roughly $750 million at current prices) from 368,203 tons of ore.

 I have no idea why this log cabin was here, but it was interestingly decrepid!

 There seemed to be a sculpture park here which needs more exploration .  This work is called Elephant and is by a sculptor from Wyalong by name of Ralph Tikerpae

 A nearby eucalypt was in exciting colour.  One of the few flowering plants seen on the trip.

 Some very noisy Apostlebirds signalled that they had a nest near by.  Proving they are cooperative breeders one bird was on the nest with another in close attendance.  (Several others were buzzing about in other trees.)

 We pressed on down the road a little to Centenary Lake, some 2.5 km out of Temora.  This time there were 2 Magpie Geese!

 Also 2 Yellow-billed Spoonbills.

It was then on down the road.  The most interesting sight in this was the level crossing at Stockinbingal with barriers down and lights flashing but no train in sight in either direction (see 4 red dots).  About 5 cars were there and they all followed the green arrows ...

So did we and then  got caught for 5 minutes by some useless temporary lights (2 red dots) at road non-works. 

The rest of the trip was a simple rumble down the road, getting home at about 1530.  By the time I had unloaded the car there was just time to watch the last 45 minutes of the Bathurst 1000 (just as Lowndes took the lead).