It's reptile Season on the Imlay

Despite being in the throes of real estate we have taken a few days out to visit Mallacoota.  Despite having to prepare the house for an open inspection (and deliver a bunch of Community Gazettes - due to getting rain when trying to do it on Friday afternoon), we were away by 9:40.

The weather was very pleasant for the drive clear sunshine and mid 20s .  There was really nothing to report about the drive to Cooma: set the cruise control and rumble down the road.  On the plain heading towards Nimmitabel it is always brown-dry and depressing but this trip it was really barren.

The most interesting incident was the turn onto the Bombala Rd where I assessed whether to turn in front of an oncoming car.  Even though they indicated a left turn I noticed the large collection of aerials on the car and decided not to push my luck.  Yep, I didn't want to have Plod following me down the road.  He vanished so we were again into basic driving.  There seemed a fair bit of traffic on the road especially motor bikes.  It seems the bikes were in the Snowy Ride.

Almost as soon as we turned into Imlay Rd a former Goanna (aka Lace Monitor) was seen assuming a two dimensional posture in the road.

A reasonable sized specimen appeared a little later and was photographed as it headed up a tree.

There were more goannas on the Imlay than at a Packer family convention! We basically saw one - of various sizes- about every 10km over the 60km of the road.  This was very unusual so they must obviously be getting around and sorting out their territories.  They weren't the only reptiles.  A fair sized (~1m) Brown Snake was also seen contemplating crossing the road.

There was a lot of flowering along the road, both Acacia and Leptospermum shrubs and Xerochrysum and Leucochrysum forbs (amongst others - it's hard to ID flowers at 100kph!).

Even with a comfort stop in Bombala and the pause to photograph the Goanna we made it down in just on 4 hours.  Actually that is a small guess as we stopped at the information board on Genoa Rd to check for sun orchids.  We were initially hopeful as blueness was visible After unpacking the car we went for a shortish walk.

I am pleased to see that pedestrians and cyclists are limited in speed.  I wonder what it is for cars?

 Itr being a warm Saturday afternoon there were a good lot of boats out fishing.

 Coming up Schnapper Point Drive this array of flowers caught my eye.

That is basically it for the day.  The last 100m of the walk were up the lawn which appears to have lifted its game in the matter of growing.  I think I will get a good bit more than 2 catcher-fulls this trip!

At some point during the day we heard someone talk about a long weekend in Victoria.  That seems to be a slight misnomer as Monday isn't a Public Holiday although Tuesday is, for Donkey Day.  Perhaps the comment recognised that many people will also take the Monday off