To Lake Cargelligo (again)

WE decided some weeks ago to pay a visit to Lake Cargelligo before it got too hot.  That resolved to leaving today.   The route was straightforward: Harden- Temora - West Wyalong - Lake Cargelligo a total of about 450kms of pretty easy driving.

When we done this before the country has been very yellow with Canola flowers at this time of year.  At the start it appeared that the dry meant this wouldn't be the case.  However the paddocks soon went the expected colour.

We started under drizzly skies but as the canola increased the overcast rolled back. 

The first town we drove through was Harden- Murrumburrah where an enormous funeral was being held on the far side of the town.  It turns out this was a Robert Stewart from a property called Springfield.  He must have been well respected to draw a crowd that big: hopefully his nominated charity - the Harden Murrumburrah Branch of CanAssist  -got a good boost.

We decided to pull in to Centenary Lake outside Temora as they offered a dunnie, which seemed desirable after 300km.  There were a few birds around and a bunch of birders.  It turned out they were from Wollongong and we recognised each others names from eBird!  One of them was a teacher and had acquired some bullock bones for use in the class.

They put us on to some good birds including a Glossy Ibis (not photod) and a Magpie Goose- far less expected.

Pressing on the clouds became a little more interesting.

The roadsides also got more interesting, showing signs of the good rain of the previous day (which is a bugger, as it might curtail some of our planned activities).

We got to the Lake , and noted the interesting altitude graph available for the Pajero information system.  I'll do a better graph when we get home.

Here is the better graph:

Certainly Harden is still High Country, and I think Stockingbal at 300m is also high.  Reefton, just before West Wyalong at 250m is my tip for the start of the low inland.

After setting up the tent

.we went for a short walk around the end of the ton and the lake produced a few good birds, of which the best was a Pied Butcherbird back at the camp.

Another species of goose was in the caravan park:

You'd have to be a goose to spend an hour washing your car on a camping trip!