Elevation regained

After 2 weeks getting settled in to Mallacoota we had some business in the ACT so headed back up the hill.  The weather at dawn was very odd with a thick band of fog in the Narrows  ...

 .. and the inlets further East .

As we drove inland a couple of hours later it was still hanging around until we got to Genoa.

We paused briefly for this photo which I believe is Nungatta Peak, visible dimly from our deck in Mallacoota.

After passing Bombala we encountered a droving operation.  There was plenty of feed beside the road and the cattle were well spread out.

The far end of the stretch was, from the bovine view blocked by a dog staked out on either side of the road.  They seemed to regard their blocking remit to extend to road traffic as well as the cattle.

As we got to Ando a large flock of cockatoos were flying around.  Initially the calls of Little Corellas were dominant, but when I stopped for a photo it was apparent that there were two flocks and one was Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.  Presumably there was a good food resource in the area.  My estimate was 200 Corellas and 100 cockies.

At Lake Williams there was a queue for the gents and I chatted with the owner of this boat.  He'd left Lakes Entrance at 7 that morning and was heading for Sydney Harbour, which he would cruise on for a week.  He said they had been around Australia in a caravan and were now repeating it it with the boat. 

Frances liked this image of the Monaro Highway with clouds, hills and the road heading towards the vanishing point.

When we got to our apartment - apart from someone having stolen one of our parking spots

 - there was considerable noise from the Multi-cultural festival, largely attributable to pipers and drummers of a Caledonian persuasion.  I think it would have been very loud yesterday when the parade started immediately below our balcony.

Having resolved the parking situation (the building security guard- Mary - decorated the offending vehicle with a few stickers) we went for a look at the Festival..  On Bunda St it was fairly sparsely attended and I thought it pretty much a flop.  However heading into the guts of the event it was very well patronised and I ended rating it a great success.  This Andean Band - Inka Marka -admitted to coming from Melbourne (they were difficult to track on the net as I thought there name was "Mama Luna" which is actually the name of a CD) and were getting a good audience.

This was the biggest stage and very popular because of the shade.

We were mainly carrying Tammy due to (a) the density of the crowd and (b) the amount of dropped food she was likely to scoff.    This lady (obfuscated to prevent facial recognition) was getting a nice hug from her pooch.

Amanda Stuart's dog pack got exactly the same reaction from Tammy as do live dogs!

An area of Ainslie Avenue was designated China village.  The choir singing in the background wasn't exactly my cup of Oolong but seemed to be going down well with the masses.

On the subject of going down well with the masses Tammy was very popular with the smallend on town.

That's obfuscation not demon spawn!

I was invited to introduce Tammy to the lions, but she seemed to ignore them.  A nice lion lady took the photos.  (Frances found this whole business very funny.)

Back at the apartment some very interesting clouds were evident.

After the foggy start to the day it concluded with a pretty spiffy sunset over the Brindabellas.