2008 Road Trip: Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens, New South Wales
During our 2008 Road Trip to Sydney we drove from Narrandera to Wagga Wagga during the second morning. This took us through some interesting farming country. The weather was far more pleasant than the heat of the previous day.
We arrived there just in time for a picnic lunch. coming into the town we saw signs pointing to the Botanic Gardens. As we approached the entrance I remembered that we had visited these gardens about four years ago. We found a suitable picnic table and were soon having a lovely lunch.
During our meal I managed to get a good photo of a Tree Sparrow, a species of bird I had previously not seen in Australia. It was one that had eluded me. A few years ago I did see this species in Thailand.
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
2008 Road Trip: Narrandera, New South Wales
Narrandera, New South Wales
On the second day of our 2008 Road Trip to Sydney we travelled from Hay to Narrandera before stopping for fuel and morning tea. We found a lovely spot in a park near an oval (see photos above and below). It was a much more pleasant day than the day before; the cooler change had come through overnight.
We had a lovely cup of tea with a few home made biscuits we’d brought with us. We quite often also take a thermos with for picnics.
Again, we were disturbed by the excessive use of water. In the middle of the day the evaporation rate is enormous, yet the large sprinklers were pounding out volumes of water on to the nearby oval, as shown in the photo below. Narrandera, like Hay, draws its water from the Murrumbidgee River, a tributary of the Murray River. In South Australia we have been unable to use sprinklers in gardens for several years, and many sporting ovals are dry and dying grass.
I find the lack of restrictions to be environmental vandalism. The lower lakes in South Australia are almost dead, yet here water is being used as if we are not in the biggest drought on record.
Unbelievable.
Narrandera, New South Wales
2008 Road Trip to Sydney
Hay Plains, New South Wales
We are off on another road trip – this time to Sydney for Christmas. The photo above was taken on our trip last year; this year we are driving our daughter’s car, but we didn’t stop to take a photo of the Hay Plains this trip.
We left on the Monday before Christmas so this article has taken a few days to appear. Over the coming few weeks I will be adding many more articles about what we did and what we saw. I will also be adding heaps of photos.
On the first day we left home in Murray Bridge soon after breakfast. We stopped at Underbool in Victoria for a very hot lunch. We had been travelling just ahead of a cool change sweeping across the countryside. We had afternoon tea at Piangil on the banks of the River Murray. Soon after we crossed the river at Tooleybuc and into New South Wales. We bypassed Balranald and travelled on across the Hay Plains shown in the photo above.
Because of the heat the birding was poor all day. I saw very few birds as we travelled along.