Rest day in Cootamundra 30/9/19

We took the opportunity to have a much needed rest day today since we were not running in the relays.

This involved a long sleep in (to make up for poor sleep overnight) and breakfast at lunch time.

We sat around in our motel room, watching the "live" Utube channel of the relays.(which wasn't very live and wasn't very satisfactory) but was better than nothing. 

We were glad not to be out there trying to find a hidden control in rock with a camera watching us.

Once we had given up on the relays we went out to have a look at the "Cricket Captains walk" with busts of past captains.

This little guy was supervising the Captains walk. 

excellent wicket keeper.

Then we headed out to Migurra Reserve - which is a reserve of Grey box and ironbark. This was a dry area with no orchids (rats) to be found. Very crunchy underfoot.

Once we had had a bit of fresh air it was back to our motel again to see if there were any results yet, and a quick look around the corner at the creek near us and some local vegetation.

It will be an early night tonight before we pack up and head into Wagga for the event tomorrow.

Oceania Long near Cootamundra

Today we headed out to the local countryside for the long distance event.

Trevor already had a painful achilles and we had not slept so well, so it was not a good start.

The drive took longer than expected so we arrived with no time to spare for such things as toilet stops.  There was a long walk uphill and less than 15 minutes to do it in by the time we made it to the arena!  I ended up 15th of 29 today.

I made the start (just) and was pretty happy with a longish hard run (with lots of walking).
Trevor started much later and performed credibly given his handicap for the day. He ended up 5th of 15.

The presentations for today and yesterday took ages, but we stayed till the end to celebrate Simon's stunning victory.

big screen display

On the way out of the event we followed behind other vehicles (as you do) until we realised that we had all actually taken the wrong track inside the private property!
we all had to do a U turn to get back to the correct way out.

Sprints at Charles Sturt University

We made it to the Sprints with time to spare . The only really interesting thing on the way there from Culcairn was the big black sign with yellow writing exhorting us to "Obey your stomach" as we came through Uranquinty.

We had to park down at the bottom of the university and walk up around the buildings and in at the top to try to save us from seeing too many of the controls.

The assembly area was a quadrangle with paths and grass, surrounded by the buildings. The start entry was on one side of the quadrangle and we were filtered around a building so that the starts were not visible to the watchers.  It was quite difficult to find the start triangle when we picked up our map.

The courses were complex (as expected) with the longer ones heading out into the hill and rock area in the middle.  I was glad not to have to manage the mind shift of that on my course.

Erica's Course

Trevor's Course

Then on to Cootamundra, where we checked in to our basic motel room,. had a much needed shower and then headed out to tea with Al and Zita at the local ex-servicemens club

Trevor is hobbling due to an achilles injury and we took it easy walking to the club because of it.  We hope it will get better overnight.

Getting to Wagga Wagga

We are heading for the Australian Championships and Oceania championships at the moment and are due to commence competing tomorrow afternoon.

We left home on Wednesday morning (just) so this is a summary of our travel between now and then.

Tailem Bend for pasties for lunch and a cuppa while we admired the very pretty gazania weeds.

Visited Barry Diment in Bordertown (hostel) before heading on over to Serviceton to celebrate birthday tea for Trevor's cousin Judith Carter.  After a delightful dinner we headed down the road to Andrea's new place, where we used her spare room for the night.

Thursday 26th we had a quick toast breakfast before heading back to the farm for a cuppa with Judith and more catchup.  We had to be gone by 1030 though to get to Shepparton by the evening.

Lunch at Warracknabeal,


cuppa at Elmore by the river,


Made it to Jon and Nina's place in Shepparton just before 5, in time for an early tea before we went out on a night walk to spot some interesting animals. Saw sugar glider, possums, tawny frogmouth and a duck in a hollow of a tree (looking down on us).  We learnt that if you hold your flashlight at eye level and shine it from there you will see the eyes reflecting back on you and spot the animals much easier. Use a red light so as not to scare them away once you spot them.

Back to a long night of catch up with Jon and Nina before finally drifting off to bed.  This included making friends with "Beardy" who is one of their pets.  He feels beautiful and likes to tickle your neck as he tries to burrow under hair at the back of your neck, and have his head stroked.



Friday 27th was a public holiday in Victoria .  We enjoyed bacon and egg breakfast and then a walk around the Shepparton lake (including a short "across the river" diversion)

Cousins Jon and Trevor

Nina, Jon and Trevor

 before a cold rock icecream each


 and one more cuppa with Nina and Jon before we headed off on our way.

We decided to book a motel room, avoid the cold night and enjoy a good sleep (hopefully) at Culcairn Motel before we start competing tomorrow, and took the back roads there via  Lake Mulwala (where we ate our very late lunch as the paddle steamer passed by)


,and places with funny names like "Howlong", "Burrumbuttock" and "Walla Walla" while enjoying the stunning vibrant yellow of the canola crops

and the snowlike effect of the legumes with their white flowers sitting on top of the dark green.

Finally we arrived at our Motel and have settled in for a quiet night. It will be good not to have to drive so far in the next few days.

Hermitage Walk

Another lovely walk today with Four Seasons.  Our shoes were wet from wet grass, but it didn't rain and the 12 who came along were treated to some amazing orchids, views and company, not to mention the outstanding afternoon tea compliments of Craig and Bev.

small grevilliea

we saw quite a few of these spider orchids

Bev brought us to a patch of Purple Cockatoos what was incredible. 

some unusual Donkey type orchids (not sure of type) 

I think this is a blood greenhood

wet Purple Cockatoo.

some lovely walking on sheep tracks with views of rolling green hills

How has this ruin stayed together so well for so long?. 

This old mulberry tree was still alive! 

we walked past a number of old orange trees still  growing on the hills

every now and then there was an overhead noise as the planes headed over towards Adelaide Airport.

We took a quick detour through one of the nearby gardens and enjoyed finding this old bell. 

unusual fencing for the veggie patch

This tank survived the fire 4 years ago (just)

some of the tracks were not very well defined and some were not defined at all. 

These red tips of new growth next to Bev and Craig's driveway were beautiful. 

Lunch time - a seat for everyone was provided. 

The walk back to the cars. 

For those who were not able to be there , I hope that this gives you a little glimpse of the pleasures of the day.