Home Again

After a rather pleasant few days away, we are back home.

We were at Hillston when I last posted and the weather was windy and rather cold.  It was snowing on the hills around here, so no wonder we were feeling a bit chilly.

We had thought of spending a second night in Hillston, but in the end moved on, as there wasn’t a great deal to do.

We had a wander up and down the street.

We called in at the little craft gallery and information centre.  I was very happy to find a pair of 4mm knitting needles.  Why, because I had started to knit a cowl and the pattern called for 4.5mm needles.  That is all I took from home.  I had done a tension swatch the previous night and it was far too large, hence the need for smaller needles.  Of course I have plenty at home, but that was no use to me while we were away.  Now I was able to get going on my project.

Hillston lies on the banks of the Lachlan River, but surprisingly, the township didn’t flood in the recent wet weather event.  Apparently, the water spreads out on the other side of the river, over rural land.  There is a swing bridge over the river to a riverside walk.  

The bridge was open, but you couldn’t go any further due to flood damage.  

There are a few decorated emu sculptures near the bridge, which are rather colourful. There is a historic homestead and woolshed out of town that are usually open, but that too was closed due to flood damage.

After our wander around we kept on our way to Lake Cargelligo, all of 90kms away.  It was lovely seeing the wide plains with the emergence of this year’s crops.

We arrived at ‘The Lake”, as the locals know it, by lunch time.

Our preferred camp site is “Frog Hollow”.  This is a free camp, right beside the lake and within walking distance of the town’s main street.  You never know what positions will be vacant and this time we were delighted to find what we consider to be the very best spot sitting vacant.  Happy dance.  Our home for the next three nights.  No wonder this is one of our favourite places to visit. Yes, Mick got out his drone and had another play.

On the day we arrived, Monday, the weather continued to be cold and windy.  Therefore, once we had set up camp we just hunkered down in the van and had a very lazy afternoon.  I managed to read an entire book.

Tuesday was a much better day, so we went wandering the streets.  We were rather pleased to see that a wide concrete path was being poured from the main road down to Frog Hollow camp ground.  This meant that there is now a nice walkway from there, along the lake front and right around to the other camp ground about 4kms the other side of town.  A great asset for tourists.

The main street was a mess, but that is OK.  You see, there is a lot of work being done to improve the street, with new guttering and irrigation.  It has taken quite a while and the locals are about sick of it, but the end product will be worth it and the street will look so much better.

We had a bit of a wander, checking out the town.

There had been talk of painting the town water tower for a few years, with an initial idea of painting the space shuttle on it.  Why the space shuttle?  Who knows?  Anyway, there was quite a bit of opposition to that idea and last year a more standard style of mural was painted.  

The artist is Heesco, who also painted the silos at Weethalle, Grenfell and Gunnedah.

It’s nice to see the different aspects of the town depicted, including all the campers and fisher folk.  It was funny to see a sign in a shop offering left over paint from the mural for sale.

Mick was looking closely at the artwork and was delighted to find the space shuttle included.  If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the it taking off out of the dust storm.

There are some lovely old houses in the town.  I didn’t get a photo, but we noticed at least three old houses undergoing restoration, which was nice to see.

The National Australia Bank is also undergoing some restoration.  It definitely needed it, when you see it up close.  We weren’t sure what was holding one corner of the balcony up.  It will be good once it is done and work on the street out the front completed.

This is the pub depicted on the water tower.

We had to call in at Cargelligo Collectables.  They always have interesting items and are well priced. 

I came away with a cute little sewing basket for $5.  

Inside was some ric rac and yet another knitting Nancy.  I seem to be coming across a few of these lately.  This one appears to have had a lot of use, as she has lost her facial features.  It had obviously been originally owned by Gwenneth, going on the name written inside.

There were also some lovely Doileys at the princely sum of 50c each.  A few came home with me.

Vinnies also yielded some treasures.  How could I pass up the little typist?  Obviously, I couldn’t.  More 50c Doileys and sewing bits and bobs, along with some brand new, still with the label, dress shoes for Mick.  Perfect timing, as he had just thrown out his old worn out ones.

The next day, the Hospital Auxilliary had a street stall in front of the Post Office.  Some jelly slice and delicious individual quiches were purchased.  That was lunch and afternoon tea sorted.

Once the cold spell of weather passed, we had lovely warm days and the lake was nice and calm.  This is the view we woke up to each morning. Rather hard to take.

The water level is lower than the last couple of times we have visited, as they are releasing water to enable repairs to be made to the levee bank that was breached in the recent flooding.  The floodwaters don’t affect the township, but caused the access roads to be cut.

In the evening, we had our little fire going, to cook tea.  Such are hard life.

On the second and third morning, when we got up, this was the sight out our window.  There were literally hundreds of pelicans and other water birds having a feeding frenzy.  The lake is full of carp.  Not the fish you want to be in our water ways, but they are providing plenty of food for the birds.

Lake Cargelligo is a popular destination for bird watchers.  There have been over 200 species identified in the area.  No photo, but we were particularly happy to see some Major Mitchell cockatoos fly over.

We enjoyed some lazy times, sitting in the sun.  I enjoyed getting a little knitting done. I did manage my 15 minutes a day of crafting - all knitting and not much more than 15 minutes on some days.

On our last day Mick took the kayak out.  No, he didn’t catch any fish, but he didn’t particularly want to.

He just enjoyed floating around and seeing the birds and lots of tiny fish, just below the surface.

The water was like glass when he returned.

The sunsets are also beautiful.  The light over the lake to the east is so soft.

On Wednesday evenings there is always a large military plane flying over the town doing training.  It was an added bonus to watch it.

On our last evening we walked up the pub for dinner,  joining the fellow camped beside us and some friends of his.  The early evening light gave everything a different appearance.

We headed home on Thursday, travelling via Condobolin, Forbes and Eugowra.  These were all towns badly affected by the flooding in November.  There was quite a bit of water still lying on either side of the road in places and many areas of road repairs and lots of potholes.

One bridge had been completed washed out, with a temporary one built beside it while the original is repaired.

We didn’t stop in Condo, but saw that a new information centre is being built at the site of the Utes in the Paddock.  From a distance, it appears that some of the utes have had a refresh to their paint.

There also appears to be a couple of new sculptures between Condo and Forbes.  We called in to one entitled “Sonata”.

Forbes is looking good once again, which is nice to see.  We had hoped to call in at the coffee shop in a container beside Lake Forbes, but it appears to be a casualty of the flooding, as all that remains is a concrete slab.  Sad.

Eugowra was the worst town affected, with the majority of homes and businesses impacted, some houses even being washed off their footings and many people having to be rescued from their roofs.  A lot of cleaning up has taken place.  Several businesses are still not open.  However, “The Fat Parcel” is up and running and doing a roaring trade.  

It is coffee shop and takeaway in a van on a vacant lot in the centre of the town.  

There are nice gardens and several sculptures.  

It is nice to see one spot that is back to normal.   The craft shop is also open again.  The town is a hive of activity with tradies doing work on houses.  We saw several caravans parked in front of homes that are obviously where the families are living until repairs are carried out.  Some of the worst affected families have had transportable pods delivered to live in for the time being.

Eugowra is known for the many murals around the town.  Many ares still in place, but some on billboards near the creek have gone.  This one is a new one.  The Fat Parcel in located beside the old post office building.

From there we continued on our way, enjoying the scenery.

Once we reached Orange we were treated to the glorious autumn colours in the trees.

For an unexpected trip we had a wonderful time.  We had planned on visiting Lake Cargelligo in the not too distant future, so now we are content to stay home for a while………..We’ll see how that pans out.