Molong to Cowra

Molong to Cowra = 97km (Molong to Canowindra = 65km, Canowindra to Cowra = 32km)
Cummulative total = 7658km

We all slept like logs the previous night and in the morning we felt recovered from our Wellington to Molong ordeal!!! It was a nice sunny cool morning and we had a nice 10km climb out of Molong - the hills were steep around the township but once we got to Peabody Road the hills became far more gradual and it was lovely to ride out through the sort of valley - we were surrounded by canola and wheat fields and sheep and cattle - it was very beautiful!

the yellow was very bright in some fields and in other fields it was a bit paler.

After our 10km up hill we had a down hill to the turnoff at Escort Way. This road looked lovely when we joined it but it quickly deteriorated and was riddled with rough patches and pot holes. Along this road the traffic increased. We stopped at Cudal to have a cuppa - there was a small park at our turnoff for Canowindra so we went through and soon realised that there were council men cleaning the toilets and there was an awful smell so we assumed the toilets were blocked! So our cuppa wasn't that nice!
As we were packing up one of the council men told us to take the dog out of the park immediately - Neil and I were a bit dumbstruck and realised that it must have been a dog free park but neither of us remember seeing a sign about no dogs in the park. Anyway we left and went out the way we came and checked for signs and there was none, so we rode past the toilets and there was a sign saying no dogs - but you couldn't see the sign from the way we came from because the council truck was blocking the sign and the main entrance to the park (we went through a small gate as that entrance was blocked) so Neil was a little miffed and wanted to stop and point out that they are blocking the sign about no dogs!

Anyway we took a quiet road to Canowindra but unfortunately the road was quite bad as there was quite a few trucks using this road as well - and I suspect that they were using it as a short cut. The road was hilly but gradual - basically I have decided that this region is the land of the "neverending hill" they are not hard hills but they tend to go on forever and ever!!!

We reached Canowindra around 1pm and we were a little weary - the campground is nice and small and by the end of the night it was quite crowded. We did another load of laundry since it was free! The town itself is lovely and full of old buildings - on the long weekend they must have had a festival as in the shop windows they celebrated Canowindra women as there were old wedding dresses on display.

This is typical of the scenery we are currently going through.

We slept pretty well again last night although it was warmer. Today was a short day down to Cowra and the road was excellent! We couldn't believe it - it had pot holes but they were all mended and most of the time we had a shoulder to ride in and that shoulder was nice too! The only criticism (and there has to be one!) is that once you climbed out of Canowindra you were sort of on a lovely Valley floor and you could see Cowra in the distant but for some strange reason the road engineers decided to take the road east and head towards a small hill range instead of going south to the valley floor and following the river! So I thought oh well they must go to the base of the ranges and follow that way ... no they decided that instead of taking the straight flat route on the valley floor we will go up into the hilly ranges! Even Neil thought that was stupid! So it was up and down up and down but despite doing nothing by hills for the last 1000km I found them okay!

We approached Cowra from the north and we passed the Japanese cemetary and gardens and didn't decide to go in as they probably wouldn't allow dogs and last time we came here 12 years ago we went to see them. What we did notice is that there is alot of housing development just past the gardens so Cowra must be growing.

You know we have cycled 7500 odd kilometers and we have only seen 'Neil' or 'Jones' streets twice and 'OBrien' street once and believe it or not we finally come across a 'Kouta' street - although it is spelt different to Koutas' name but phonetically it is the same!

... they spell it 'Coota'

So we arrived at our campspot at 10.15am and it is the closest caravan park to the town (about 100m away!) and it is very expensive - and the unpowered costs the same as the powered sites so we got a powered site at $29.00 which is really expensive even for a powered site (but not as expensive as our unpowered $36.00 one at Geelong!!!). It is an immaculate park and very popular as it is absolutely packed at the moment and we are currently squeezed between 2 vans!

This park really has clean amenities and even the kitchen is spotless - I presume that is one of the reasons why it is so popular.

We will stay here tomorrow before a 2 day ride to Cootamundra.