HOPETOUN TO REST AREA 4KM SOUTH OF WALPEUP = 79KMCUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 361KM
Rest Area = free!
Woo hoo it is 4.15pm Saturday afternoon and Sydney are beating Hawthorn in the AFL grand final. We got here a little late and it was already 15mins into the first quarter when we finally stopped ... but more on that later ... first let me show you some photos from Hopetoun.
We had 2 rest days there the first was hot but pleasant and the 2nd day was cool and sporadic rain throughout the day but the big winds didn't come until late in the evening and over night.
The photo below is of Lake Lascelles which is popular with boats and I would imagine this is a popular spot in Summer and over the holidays ...
like I said the first day was hot and there were 2 pigeons that hung around the park and on the hot day the sprinklers were going and they loved it and pecked the ground around the sprinkler and would occassionally lift their wings so the wind would cool them down as the feathers were wet ... we yesterday when it was cold and rainy Neil saw them again this time they were huddled together ...
doesn't that photo make you go "awwwwww" LOL
This is our camp spot ... there was nowhere in the park we could go that was next to a power point that offered shelter from the wind ...
So this morning we woke to a bright sunny day with a bitterly cold westerly wind ... not the wind we had hoped for but better than a northerly. We left around 8.15am and knew this was going to be our longest day yet. We took the Henty highway for the first 3km and then turned north on the Hopetoun - Walpeup road now this road was very quiet (with the exception of 11am to 12.30pm as everyone is moving to go to their AFT bbq lunches!). It is a strange road as it curves a bit but it is undulating (not hard thought) but it snakes it way to Patchewollock. So there was not a single piece of straight road you always had to go around a corner. Which was awful as sometimes the strong cross wind was slightly behind or slightly in front of you so it was difficult to get a rhythm going as the wind was incredibly strong and always blew me towards the middle of the road!
We did pass Wyperfield National Park - well the outskirts of it and I was looking for Mallee fowls everywhere - these are very rare birds and there are signs everywhere to go slow and watch out for them ... well you couldn't go any slower than us but alas we saw none!
The highlight for us today was seeing a few stumpy tailed lizards.
This is the first one and was crossing the road ahead of us ...
The second was sitting beside the road ...
we also saw a dead snake freshly killed today ... again caught sunning itself on the road trying to keep warm and a car comes along and .... well ... the poor thing.
Now our rest area according to camp 5 is 14km south of Walpeup ... we get to that point and there is nothing but grain fields so we decide to continue ... a bit annoyed as 10km before there was some great bushcamping spots but we did find this one - some Pigeon bushland reserve that is 4km south of Walpeup. It seems a shame to waste all that water that I carted to this point and have to stay at Walpeup so I was relieved that we stopped here and it is a nice spot ...
Not sure where to tomorrow ... maybe a short day to Underbool ... the rest area distances are not great for us either too close or too far apart ... The AFL game is still on and there is a point in it!
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