Canowindra to Lake Cargelligo

Sunday 13 September

Sadly, our balloon flight, booked for early this morning had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. We had not allowed an extra night for such an unexpected event, so we will have to come out this way again. We adjusted our day as we were not ballooning.

Eugowra was only 25 minutes away so after checking out some of the murals there, we had time to visit the site of the largest gold heist in bushranger history. Escort Rock is the site where bushrangers Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall and others helped themselves to a haul of gold being transported from the goldfields to Sydney. 14,000 pounds worth of gold and money was taken by the bushrangers in 1862. The whole gang was eventually caught.

Near the site of the Escort Rock hold up

A distant sign marks the route the old road took past Escort Rock

Eugowra has some lovely murals around the town but there is little else to offer visitors to the town to encourage them to spend. So we drove on to Forbes.

We had coffee here and then the forecast rain came in and we abandoned plans to walk around some of the heritage buildings. There is much to see and do here so we will come and stay here on another visit.

We drove through the rain knowing we were heading out of it At a few points for photos I had to jump out quickly. Then we were out in the warm sunshine once again.

Between Eugowra and Lake Cargelligo, we stopped at Condobolin for our picnic lunch. Just as well we had our own food, as nothing was open in Condobolin. Another brief stop just outside town to view the Utes in the Paddock, then it was on to Lake Cargelligo.

Country towns are all trying to find ways to bring visitors

I had been in touch with a Lake Cargelligo local bird lover and she had told me about places for bird sightings. The hide on the lake just on the outskirts of town was worthwhile. Although the sun was a little problematic, we saw many birds we are not used to seeing.