We woke this morning to a clear and sunny, although slightly chilly, morning. The last few days with Katie and Mick have been great, and they both came out to the caravan park with fresh coffee to wave us goodbye.

Clear blue skies leaving Canberra
From Alivio Tourist Park we headed onto the Barton Highway and then onto the Hume Highway before turning off at the Lachlan Valley Way to Boorowa. At best this could be called a “scenic route” with single lane highway and double lines most of the 100 or so kilometres to Boorowa. This was quite difficult driving with few opportunities to allow speedier cars to overtake, but having said that the scenery comprised rolling green hills, full to overflowing dams, and plenty of healthy looking livestock. It was quite beautiful.

Rolling green hills with an interesting sky
We soon arrived at Boorowa and parked at the Rotary Park. Boorowa is a small country town known for its fine merino wool and for the Superb Parrot. There are some impressive heritage buildings in Boorowa, including, not surprisingly, some very nice old hotels.
Boorowa is also very proud of its ANZAC heritage, and there is a substantial ANZAC memorial and a very moving ANZAC walk with a Lone Pine tree and plaques dedicated to servicemen and women who served in the Wars.

ANZAC memorial and Lone Pine walk
After a walk around town we stopped for a very tasty lunch at the Pantry on Pudman. We’ve been to Boorowa a few times and have eaten at several places in town, but the eccentricity of Pantry on Pudman makes it quite a special place.
Back on the highway after lunch the conditions were very much as before, and we suspect that we had just missed a substantial downpour (for a change) as the roads were wet and there was running water everywhere. By this time the skies had turned from clear blue with a few white clouds to quite an interesting mix of grey and blue skies and a mixture of cloud cover.

On the way from Boorowa

Approaching Cowra
We soon arrived at Cowra, which is a place where we have stayed several times. We stopped at the Cowra Van Park, and secured a nice site backing onto the river. Not surprisingly the river is quite high, but we are at no risk of flooding.

View from our site at Cowra Van Park
After setting up connections for power and water we headed off for a leisurely walk around town. Being a Saturday afternoon many of the shops were closed for the day but it was great to stretch our legs. We were especially sad to note that one of our favourite bookshops, where we used to enjoy chats with the owner, has closed down permanently. Eventually we headed back to Bertha to close up, warm up, and settle in for the evening.