Parkrun at Lathan

 Can't remember the name of it but it starts with a U and as it's one of the challenges to spell out the alphabet many visitors go there to do it apparently. Rob needs a Q and an U and Canberra is the closest to him in Melbourne to achieve them.

We parked in the shopping centre carpark and had to walk down a path and under a highway.

This mural was painted on one of the buildings. The run went up a rise and then around a small park.  

Later on in the day we went to Weston Park mainly to seek some relief from the heat. We sat under trees similar to this and ate lunch. Funny but we had lived within a few kilometres from this park but not been there before. 

Lots of water activities, people were kayaking, kids swimming, there was a safe area roped off and at the back was a miniature train called old Bluebell. The flower emblem of Canberra is the Bluebell. Very small pretty flower that one of the wineries use on their labels, we visited there once and bought some very good dessert wine.

Bungendore

 Our first full day in Canberra and we went Bungendore. Bit of a yuppy town or it used to be when we lived here. Canberrians visited on the weekends to see art galleries, pottery places and eateries. It's also on the main road from Canberra to the beach.

I thought it would be quiet being Good Friday, it wasn't! Lots of cars going through as well as foot traffic. 

Our (my) main 9bjective was an adventure lab and a couple of multis. The ad lab was a walk around, then we found a great cafe for lunch. Lucy was sitting under our bench outside until she heard "Order for Lucy" she was out like a shot. 

We got a couple of traditionals and a cute letterbox just outside of Bungendore.

Street art, no explanation, just there.

Leaving Dubbo

 Packed up the camper and doing the final check and a tyre looks a bit flat. Yep, it was down. The beauty of the camper has a flap at the back that has access to Warren's toolbox.

Changed the tyre and went looking for Bob Jane's. They did it straight away, couldn't find a puncture, suggested that when checked the day before, it may not have seeded right and slowly leaked. They pumped it up and advised to keep an eye on it, no charge.

Next stop was Yeabol, never heard of it as we are trying out new routes. Signs advertising animals on bikes, what the ?

This was the first one I saw at the petrol pump, an eagle on a penny farthing. 

Bit hard to see this one, Warren stopped and I walked across the road and took it.

Very big one out in the paddock, there were several similar to this but of course bit hard to take when barreling down the road at 95ks. Rather cute, I thought, didn't find an explanation why but did see quite a few on the yellow animals on bikes signs.

Dubbo

 A nice walk here to go for breakfast. Then a drive to the botanical gardens. Dubbo is twinned with Narra (I think) in Japan and they have a Japan feel about them. Not very big as we walked the whole length and breadth of them and only measured 1.8 KMs, felt longer.

Shops were a bit crazy, we needed milk and a couple of other things. Warren offered to do it, doggie bags are hard to buy!

This is a large sandstone frog, the sun made it hard to take a decent photo, we have to go over a rubberised walkway.

Very large lizard 

Lovely patch of lavender

Resting and washing was order of the rest of the day

Cootamundra

 This was our lunch spot but there was no where to park. Well, yes we did but we like to look for a green spot park, toilets and room to park car and camper trailer.

A lot of smaller towns in NSW have angel reverse parking. Found a side street which had an IGA store so I went and bought something for lunch. It was 12.30 and they only had two quiche type things were turned out not that nice. 

We decided to drive on and stop at the next rest stop.

The planets dot the area around and we just realised that we had never stopped at one. Room to pull off but no toilets or seats. It was a break though.

Don't know if it's still true or not but truckies do not stay overnight around here. It's supposed to be Yowie country. Very long drive along wooded bushland. 

An Earth cache

 I saw one of these coming up on the road, 16ks away. Started reading, too much Graff. After a few ks Warren says to Lucy, next rest stop, we'll stop. Around the corner on the left in a rest stop. Lo and behold it's where the cache is. 

We have coffee and spy a walkway. Read the description again. There is no spacing in the description, it talks about how volcano etc come about and finally there are 4 tasks to do.

Humm, doesn't look too hard, some info off the first info board, took photo, more info required from viewing platform and compare rocks on the way, then a photo of proof. 

We go for a walk 700 metres bitumen or steel boardwalk Lucy was surprised at the noise her nails were making on the steel bits. Got the info and returned to car.

Nice tables and seats, bbq and big clean toilets. We wondered if it was .nAtional park but no signs about no dogs.

Oops, we saw 9ne tiny sign on the way, no dogs. Well, she was on her lead and didn't hurt anything.

Warialda

 We crossed the border at Texas or just after and our watches changed time but only for another week. Nice park, Warren rang when we were just outside town to see if they had room. 

20 powered sites, 15 unpowered sites and eight cabins in a horseshoe formation. Another caravan had pulled in just moments before us. For the nights we were there, we were the only two vans but five cabins in use the first night and six the next. Maybe that's the new thing, people travelling and using cabins at caravan parks rather than motels. Cabins were $100 for a four berth.

We did a nature walk just outside of town, then visited a lookout, R2D2 and an old brick works. Late in the afternoon we walked down the town, bought meat at butchers but bakery was closed, had heard that they had been doing a roaring trade so either closed early because they had run out of stuff, we were there at 5pm or that was normal closing time.

R2D2 made by Warialda high school kids

This was a virtual had to send a photo at the spot.

Lucy didn't really want to get out of the car, she figures that if she is there, she won't be forgotten. Spent much of the afternoon there while we had coffee.