Coolamon to Lockhart

Coolamon to Lockhart = 81km
Cummulative total = 8006km

Well it finally stopped raining ... for the time being! We got stuck in Coolamon yesterday but that was okay since the camping was nice and cheap and the supermarket wasn't that far to get food. So towards the end of the evening we were suffering a bit from 'tent fever' and even Kouta was beginning to get sick of being couped up inside, but when the rain stopped for a break for us to run to the toilet he didn't seem to bother to leave the tent at all. But it was a nice relaxing day and we both managed to start and finish a book each!
We looked at the radar this morning and it showed and forecasted no rain for the day but very heavy falls at night and tomorrow morning so we decided to pack up and make for Lockhart. On the ABC radio this morning Lockhart apparently received 93mm of rain yesterday and the night before and there was flooding of some roads around the town but we asked the local policeman at Coolamon if there was any roads closed between Coolamon and Lockhart and he said no. So we set off. There is a bit of water lying around and as we got closer to Lockhart you could see mini streams running alongside either side of the road.

I think farmers like this rain as their fields are green and saturated ... although I am not to sure that they want too much more or else the crops will be damaged. About 30km south of Coolamon we crossed the Murrimbidgee river.

and it was running quite quickly.

The route today was a little bit of climbing first out of Coolamon for around 15km and then up and down to get down to the river and Collingullie and then 20km of absolute dead flat floodways (which weren't in flood!) and then 20km up small easy undulations to Lockhart. While riding along the floodway if we looked to our left we could see something they call 'the rock'

it is a big rocky outcrop alongside the Olympic Highway and the small town near it is actually called The Rock! (around 25km southeast of Wagga Wagga)

There was relatively no wind today so we had to pedal the whole 80km by ourselves with no assistance from a tailwind!

Just before we got to Lockhart we saw that someone had painted a face on a tree ...

it actually looks quite good!

We got to the campground and we saw that there was one other caravan and it was very closed to a flooded stream and thought that we would camp as far away as possible from that stream with the expected rain. We saw that their was a caretaker and they would come later to collect keys, we also saw that they had an ensuite cabin fro $65 and 1 onsite van for only $30 so we thought that since camping unpowered is only $15 why not pay an extra $15 and be completely safe and dry in a caravan!!! So we rang up the caretaker and she came down (and she is a very friendly lady) and offered to give us the ensuite cabin for $30 for tonight but then we thought that if it rains first thing in the morning we will be staying and the cabin was booked for tomorrow night so we opted for the caravan just in case we have to stay on here tomorrow due to rain.

So here we are in our onsite caravan and believe it or not she is that laid back that she doesn't mind if Kouta stays in the van with us as long as he is not that dirty!!!!

Neil made himself right at home

And I must admit it is nice and there is plenty of room for us ... so it better rain tonight!!!

Lockhart itself is another lovely town and it has just won the NSW tidiest town 2010 award and apparently in another 2 weeks the town itself gets the award given to it in a ceremony and apparently the entire town is booked out for it!
We went for a walk after dinner and apart from the old lovely buildings they also have alot of sculptures around town especially metal ones ...

... this one was in a courtyard of a Bed and Breakfast

... this one was made for the town completely out of scrap and rubbish

... and this one was made and won some award back in 2008 it is titled "gettin' there mate"

this is the main street

this is some old hotel/pub but has a strange name "New Gunyah Hotel" ... I hardly think it is 'new'!!!

and I would love to live in this place! .. it is now a Bed and Breakfast.

So I think Lockhart is yet another nice NSW town - one thing I forgot to mention was that the road between Lockhard and Urana is closed today due to flooding! Lucky for us as we don't go that way and will be going straight south to Walbundrie if it is not raining tomorrow.