Final Day and Review

 We have been pretty much constantly on the move for a week so were keen to get home to Mallacoota on the 20th.  As Commonwealth Park is effectively unusable until mid October we reverted to a morning walk around Reid.  The first few images are flowers seen in the gardens of that suburb and Glebe Park.

Flowering quince

A Magnolia about to hit its straps.

Plum blossom and a camellia.

An unusually tall Hellebore in Glebe Park.

A Camellia in Glebe Park.

So the car was packed (see below) and we headed off at close to 1000 hrs.  The driving was quite easy although the performance of some of our fellow motorists drew adverse comments at times: if you are going to overtake in a passing lane don't sit in the outer lane doing 2kph faster than the car you are overtaking!   However the sun was shining and on we went.

Once past Bombala the weather deteriorated a little with a few showers (when they got to Mallacoota a few hours later they amounted to a surprising 8.8mm).  However we progressed stopping for diesel at a very nice price at Cann River.  The trip took us just on 4 hours which is somewhat quicker than usual even using cruise control to sit on the speed limit.

One of the criteria for selecting the replacement for the Jetta was having a similar amount of luggage space.  On tis trip back we had our kit for a week away plus a lot of shopping plus a 50 litre box of documents that needed to be looked at.  This fitted into the car reasonably easily, using the back seat ...

.. and the boot.

An attractive sunset as  we had a libation.

Review of the trip.

Here is the route and shown post hoc on Google Maps.  

Looking at my refuelling records we actually covered 2600 km including all sorts of side trips as we went. We averaged about 6.1 l/100km (45.6 mpg in old money) which is satisfactory.  We did look at Petrol Spy to choose the cheapest fuel around, thus usually saving at least 5c/l on a fill up with prices ranging from 185.7 c/l at COSTCO in Canberra to 203.7 c/l at Narrandera.  (As an aside the one station in Mallacoota is charging 227 c/l - I assume the wholesaler is getting at least 10c/l economic rent, because they can.)

Here is a link to the full eBird Trip Report covering 101 species.  The birding sites recorded in eBird are shown on this map from the trip report.

There were no "rip your shirt off" rarities seen on the trip.  I thought Purple-backed Fairywren might have been a lifer at Chat Alley but it turns out I had a few other records, including from the nearby Lake Cargelligo Water Treatment ponds.  So I think the Bird of the Trip was the Grey-crowned Babblers seen between Condoblin and Forbes.  They're unusual for us to see and were very entertaining.