Golden Canola

Dot and I travelled to Canberra for the Floriade long weekend and to pick up Max to look after him over the school holidays. As usual, we went down and back via the inland because it avoids heavily trafficked roads and the scenery is better. This time around the abundant winter rains had transformed the parched south of NSW into a garden of Eden. Dams were full; lams frolicking in the fields; pastures were green; and the winter crops looking well - wheat and canola predominating. Add to that lovely sunny spring weather on the way down and it really lifts the spirits of the driver and passengers, not to mention the farmers who are looking at the best conditions in a decade.

One of the most magical parts of the journey was towards the end of our 800 km journey - after we had been through the town of Cowra on the Lachlan River. Between there, Boorawa and Yass we floated as it were on a carpet of yellow flowers - Canola to us, bur Rape Seed to the Poms. The pictures shown above give some impression of this landscape as seen from the Lachlan Valley Way south of Cowra. The yellow is intense and, because the crops were so dense, the carpet was often seamless as far as the eye could see. Though not perfect, the pictures give some sense of the occasion.

AS