Tuesday

It was windy when we woke at Lake Cargelligo so we drove the car across to a nearby hedge to shelter for breakfast before packing the tent and heading off to Coonambel and Parkes. This was another new route for us, passing through nice country on the Lachlan River. Coonambel is a large town and we also went through Bogan Gate - an enigmatic name. Smoko was in a nice park in Parkes although we did not find a lot to choose from. A minibus of primary school kids descended on the amenities block soon after us so we enjoyed the moment, watching them study the fountain as the stragglers emerged.
On to Dubbo to refuel, then we grabbed lunch in the car beside their Japanese garden as it was windy with threatening storms which caused us to study the radar using our smart phone data and decided to travel on the western option via Gilgandra as a band was moving NE. Along the way we found it hard to see the line markings on the road as well as finding it slippery, and realised the road was covered with hail which we had fortunately missed. Later we did pull over for some hail as it was distracting, but did not get damaged.
At Narrabri we had some challenging moments working between James the GPS, confusing information and common sense as we thought we were going to camp at Mt Kaputar NP but both camp grounds are to the south while we wanted to take the road to Bingara on the northern end - another new route for us.
It turned out to be a lovely drive, now fully sealed with some steep and narrow sections and very scenic.
We arrived in Bingara at 6pm and went straight to the caravan park, looking forward to a hot shower. It is a lovely spot on the Gwydir River beside the swimming pool. The office was closed until 8am the next day, but the neighbouring caravan was very friendly, having arrived back with their dogs from a walk as we turned in. They lent us their key and told us to set up.
As I was cleaning my teeth, I heard a few spots of rain, but we went to bed on dark without any rush, but, almost as soon as we settled, a furious electrical storm hit and we lay wondering if we would be frizzled in burnt nylon to be found by the managers, unpaid, next morning. We survived and the tent prevailed.