After our visit to the Pink Lakes, David Hufton and myself left Victoria and drove to Balranald, where we stopped for lunch and took advantage of those showers at the Discovery Centre that we had seen earlier.
We then headed to Griffith, and after a look around the town, we continued on to Venda and then into Cocoparra National Park. We had seen online that parts of the park were closed due to rain, and this was confirmed at the Information Centre at Griffith, so that greatly restricted our plans. But it looked like we could visit Falcon Falls at the south end of the park and camp at the Spring Hills Picnic Area nearby.
Falcon Falls
This proved to be a good plan. The road in was OK and the short walk to Falcon Falls was attractive. The waterfall was a little disappointing – there was only a trickle of water flowing over, but its situation was attractive with lots of rock outcrops and small cliffs. The rock appears to be sandstone and conglomerate.
We spent a quiet night camped at the picnic area. The next morning we headed off to Leeton and then Narrandera. At Narrandera, we first visited the Narrandera Wetland and then explored an area of River Red Gums (The Narrandera Flora and Fauna Reserve) looking for Koalas. A local we had met at the wetlands had suggested it was a good place. It certainly was a nice place – but despite a lot of looking – we failed to spot any koalas.
An interesting encounter was with one bird – a grebe I think. It had suddenly flown past us – but seemed to have a broken wing. It flapped about a lot and made a lot of noise trying to get across a pool. A short time later, I thought it may have been a decoy. Perhaps it had a nest nearby? So I went back – and nearly trod on a group of chicks trying to hide in the grass. They ran off – all over the place. I hope their mother found them again.
Then it was off to lunch at Narrandera and then another long drive to The Rock near Wagga Wagga.
More photos of this stage of our trip can be seen here.