Rankin Springs to Lake Cargelligo

Rankin Springs to Lake Cargelligo = 71km
Cummulative total = 1101km

The morning we rode this was somewhat cold - it didn't feel cold at night but as we were moving about our toes were cold and I did contemplate putting socks on under my sandles (we both don't have covered shoes but sandals and jandals!). I think there was a very slight frost as my cycling shorts that were out drying (or trying to dry) over night had a very thin layer of frost on them. However it was warm in the sun and once we got cycling the toes soon thawed out!
Again we continued on a quiet road and since it was a Saturday the majority of traffic was going opposite to us and heading towards Griffith and maybe 5-6 cars over took us throughtout the entire ride! For the first 30mins of cycling we climbed over a gap and then the road ran between 2 ranges. We both thought the scenery was absolutely beautiful. I really love this sort of country - extremely blue sky, bright red dirt and green trees and since the rains late last year it has really made this area lush and I mean LUSH! Even under the trees there is a green cover of grass so it must have had alot of rain (maybe from the St George floods?).
The road is no longer absolutely flat and it is more undulating but not hard to ride. Below is our view while we had lunch on the side of the road about 34km south of lake Cargelligo.

Beautiful isn't it!
Not long after our lunch break, about 3km up the road, we were stopped by a local farmer who wanted to have a chat to us and like most people around here he was absolutely gobsmacked that we were cycling around here! He himself is a cyclist and had not long come back from a guided tour in Sri Lanka and had done alot of guided tours throughout Asia. He also said that this time last year this area had nothing and things were looking very sick and dry (due to the drought) as we commented as to how green it was around here.
From there the road ran through a State Forest so ideal camping spots along the way.
We got to Lake Cargelligo around 1.40pm.

And listen to this! ... the town was closed! Nothing was opened which sort of stumped us for a while! Even the 2 grocers were closed and what made matters harder was they were both closed the next day! (Sunday). Crikey, after living in a city where everything is open 7 days a week and we were warned that small towns will shut down Saturday afternoon and Sunday ... it still was a shock to us!

The Bakery was still open so we got bread and it was also a takeaway so we thought we could get our Sunday dinner there and make do on Saturday with what was in the pannier bags - Noodles and curry tuna which we made into a soup and it was absolutely lovely it just needed a few veges!

We found the campground which is a council one and I have to tell you this is a BRILLIANT caravan park and more people need to get out this way to appreciate a clean and tidy caravan park! It costs us $13 to camps unpowered ($16 for power) and it has a camp kitchen that has tea, coffee, sugar, detergent, free bbq, toaster, microwave etc. And that is not all - the toilets are beautiful and clean! and believe it or not (and this is in both male and female toilets) they have shampoo, hand cleaner, body wash and cotton buds for you to use! Now that is an excellent campground! We both rank this campground as the best we have EVER been in (and we have been in alot!).

So I am writing this on Monday and we will move on tomorrow towards Parkes. We decided to stay an extra day here since it is an ideal spot especially since Kouta can move about better and doesn't have to be chained up (which he hates!) like he has to be in alot of the council parks we have come across.

The weather has been good for us - it is currently in the mid 20's and a beautiful bright sunny day and even the nights are not cold (around 10).
Here is a photo of our campspot.

The lake itself was empty last year (like alot of lakes!) and is not quite full at the moment and you can see where grass and shrubs have grown when it was empty and it is not all that big.

At sunset the lake looks nice and if I could get up before the sun I would to get a photo of the lake at sunrise!
But otherwise here is the lake taken at sunset!