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We packed up from Myrtleford and spent a bit of time saying goodbye to all our friends from this caravan meet, a couple of people were staying on until Friday and the rest of us were on the road either to home or our next destination. I had mad a coffee for our trip and we were on our way. We had a fairly uneventful trip but did come across this beautiful spread of grasses across the roads on some of the back roads our GPS was taking us on. We crossed over into NSW but not sure where this happened as our GPS has a habit of taking us along some very minor roads to reach our destination. I know we crossed the Murrumbidgee River at one stage but we were not aware of crossing the Murray, would this crossing have taken us into NSW? Anyway we were well into NSW before we realised it and some of the back roads were quite desolate. We called into Coolamon for lunch at the Bread and Cheese factory, we had visited here previously when we were staying at Wagga Wagga, today we had lunch with Robb having an eggs and bacon breakfast plate and I had an egg and bacon roll and then after walking the street, we were back on our way, we stopped for fuel at a stop on the edge of Coolamon because we didn't think our fuel would get us to West Wyalong. We came to one very long stretch of road that was covered in a mysterious grass that completely covered the road, after we came through this area we had this grass stuck everywhere in the car including the wheels, mirrors and aerial, however, we had not seen this phenomenon before and found it quite beautiful. It was an easy drive and before long we were entering West Wyalong. Robb had researched stops last night and we found the showgrounds in West Wyalong had a few sites with power and water for $20 PN so we thought we would check this out before looking for a caravan park. It is not very pretty here but we thought it was ok for a few nights. We had only just parked when someone came around to pick up payment, we had been tossing around whether to stay for two or three nights but Robb said three so I was happy enough with that. I don't really like staying anywhere for two nights because you don't get a proper rest. We set up and I did the washing that I had been wanting to do and prepared the vegetables for dinner, there wasn't much time left after that but I did get a chance to load up some of my photos. Robb cooked steak for dinner and we watched TV until bedtime.
The next day was really overcast, we had a lot of rain overnight and it was still drizzling when we were ready to leave. We drove into town looking for somewhere to test the car battery as we had a few problems with it and wanted to make sure it was ok for when we were travelling in remote areas. As it worked out we needed to purchase a new battery as our current one was only working at 60% which would be a concern to us along the way. After the battery was replaced we drove to the information centre to pick up some brochures so that we could plan our day. It was suggest that we did the silo circuit starting at Weethalle and then moving onto Urangie. This round trip was only going to take us a couple of hours and we had the time so we left the Information Centre and headed in the direction of Weethalle firstly to see the silos. It was a pleasant trip and well worth our time, the silos are quite beautiful and are dedicated to the agricultural history of the area. I took a few photos and drove through town before heading off towards Urangie. Urangie is a very sad looking little town with lots of desolate buildings and very few looking like they were inhabited which was really weird considering they had quite a few tourist attractions in town which are all in very good repair. Our first stop was the Big Footy, apparently this is the home of the Danihers and this memorial to them, from here we drove down the main street and came to an old shed, in very bad condition, which had a mural on both sides, I took photos but I am not sure why. We then found Ungarie RSL Park and this was a very pleasant surprise, there are two very long walls of murals and a shed painted on both sides and every painting is dedicated to someone from the area who had lost their life in one of the wars, either World War 2, Korean War or Vietnam War, the area was very well maintained and very special. You can't help comparing the different areas in this town. We returned to the van from here and had lunch. After lunch I prepared a curry for dinner and had a shower it was still raining and it didn't look like we would be sitting outside at all so we set ourselves up inside with our devices. The wind picked up as the night went on so we ended up closing the awning in case it suffered any damage. The curry for dinner was excellent and after dinner I started back on my photos which I had neglected for the last week or so. Thankfully the rain stopped overnight but the wind was still very strong, however, it was not cold at all and we were throwing the doona off overnight.
We had picked up a brochure from the Information Centre the previous day that listed 30+ things to do in the area and last night I had picked through them to find the ones that would interest us, so we set off with this list and a map the next day. We are not too sure if some of the attractions were worthy but we enjoyed driving around town and finding the various sites. Our last two missions were to walk up and down the main street with information on the historic buildings in town of which there are many. It is a fascinating town built in gold mining times and what makes it so interesting is that the main street was built around trees and gold mines standing at the time, rather than moving them, so the street winds it's way around and has a few twists and turns. Once we had walked up and down we looked for a supermarket in the area and the only one we could find was an IGA, not that there is anything wrong with that we actually have found IGA country stores to have a great range of products. We picked up the few items we needed and noticed there were specialty sausages advertised but they didn't have the ones we wanted and we were directed towards the butcher who supplies their meat. Unfortunately we called into the wrong butcher who directed us to the correct one. We found the sausages we wanted and bought some extra meat while there. We were interested to see that both butchers had a fantastic display of cooking knives for sale in their windows and the second butcher we went to had a good variety of sauces and spices on offer. After that we returned home where I had ironing to do, a vegetable back to prepare for dinner tonight, lunch for today and lunch for tomorrow as we may need to stop for lunch on the way to Dubbo. We still need to plan our stay in Dubbo and we will get to that later on. Steak and potato bake for dinner. Robb has a regular facetime call with his camping buddies on Friday night and after that we came inside as it is still very windy outside.
Saturday morning we were up and ready very quickly to move onto Dubbo. We were aiming for a private stay site and we found one that was 4kms outside the city centre called Blizzardfields, they required that you called ahead to book a site so we did that before leaving West Wyalong. We called in for fuel on the outskirts of town and then we were on our way. We had a pretty good run with the usual hold ups, oversize vehicles, roadworks, slow drivers. etc but we soon found our way firstly to Forbes and then onto Parkes. On leaving Parkes we saw the turn off to The Dish, we were both really keen to visit here and it was only 6kms from the highway, we could easily do that and still turn up in Dubbo in good time. It was well worth the stop and we had a quick look around the Information Centre before walking outside to take photos. The Dish is much bigger than I imagined and we were both suitably impressed on seeing it. We only had just over an hour to go from here so decided to have lunch when we arrived. We had put the address for the campground into the GPS and the owner had given us good directions so it wasn't long until we found the entry to Blizzardfields and we pulled in and called the owner as instructed. We were led to our site and Peter, the owner, helped Robb back in, which was good as otherwise it just ends in an argument between us. We are very pleased with this park, we are on a lovely lawn area with very soft grass underfoot, there is plenty of room and we feel quite safe here leaving our van through the day. We set up and I had a few things to do before joining Robb outside under the awning with the rain softly falling. The day had been quite muggy and finally with the rain there was a cool breeze blowing through which was very pleasant so we sat outside until it started to get too cool. We were having a lamb roast for dinner so Robb lit the Weber while I put the vegetables and meat in the tray ready to cook. We are going to the zoo tomorrow, this is the main reason I wanted to come to Dubbo.
Our first full day in Dubbo, the rain had eased a bit overnight but had started again first thing this morning. This is so crazy because it is generally thought that the weather is much better in NSW than Victoria where we live. Anyway because we are Victorians and are aware that if you waited for the weather you would never do anything we were up and dressed and when I had prepared our coffees I sat and purchased the tickets for the Taronga Western Plains Zoo online because we plan to visit today, I purchased two day tickets in case we don't finish the tour in one day. You are able to drive your car around the zoo so we packed our raincoats, coffees and water in the car and entered the zoo in our GPS. It wasn't a long drive and we arrived fairly early. You have a few choices for getting around the 5+kms of the zoo trail, one is driving your car and you can also hire little golf buggies that are big enough for a family, your other choices are to hire bikes or to walk the circuit. The majority of people were in their cars probably because of the weather but it didn't matter which way we travelled we were all fairly soaked by the time we left. The zoo has been very well planned with a one way circuit around to all the attractions, there is a parking lot near each viewing point with a short walk to the enclosures. Each parking lot takes in about three enclosures and there is information on all the animals in the zoo outside each one. We had a bit of an issue with any self respecting animal seeking protection from the rain today seeking some form of cover which usually took them out of our sight. Having said that we only missed a few and because we have the tickets for tomorrow we might go back to catch the last few we missed. All up a very enjoyable day, it is the reason we came to Dubbo and we weren't disappointed. We drove from the zoo to pick up a few items we needed from the shops and then on back to the van. After lunch I did some washing and hung it out, the rain has settled in for the day so we won't be going anywhere else this afternoon. When we entered the campground the host Peter handed us an envelope, apparently we stay here until we are ready to move on and on leaving we put the required payment into the envelope and leave in the letterbox at the entry, very trusting we thought but suited us because we weren't sure if we wanted three or four nights.
We have decided to move on tomorrow hoping to find better weather but if not the rain is expected to stop by Wednesday so hopefully this information is correct. We have discussed different ways to go but have now decided to head towards Narrabri only because it keeps us on line to connect with the coast, hopefully above where the floods are. We will probably stay two or three nights depending on the weather. We had a couple of plans for today and we intended to go to the gaol first but when we arrived we noticed a sign out the front to say because of renovations they would not be opening today until 12.00 noon. We went from here to Aldi to pick up a few items we needed and then we drove back to the zoo. We had booked our tickets for two days for the zoo and we thought we would try to see the last few exhibits we didn't see yesterday, we also had the toilet to empty at the dump site at the zoo. We were hoping to the the gibbons and the simians but when we arrived and walked around the viewing areas they were still hiding so we missed them again. We walked from here around to the otters and we were lucky enough to arrive at feeding time so they were very active and it seems they enjoy eating prawns, I managed to get some good photos of them eating. We then drove around to the Lions exhibit but once again we weren't lucky enough to see them. So the highlight for us today were the Galapagos Tortoise which are in a small enclosure and some were inside enjoying the heat from special lamps. They were a highlight for us when we first visited with our children 30+ years ago and we were fascinated to see them mating at the time, we couldn't wait for the whole process because it can take 2-3 hours. Today they were just enjoying the warmth, they are fascinating animals and we stood and watched them for awhile before moving on. Outside there are a couple of exhibits with 7 year old tortoises in them, we were surprised to see they were still fairly small, it obviously takes them a long time to reach their full size with the females smaller than the males. From here we drove around to empty our toilet and then onto the gaol which is located in the middle of the Dubbo shopping centre. We purchased our tickets and we were given a map and told which way to go. The exhibit was well priced and easy to negotiate. We enjoyed this exhibit commenting that it is similar to other gaols we have visited around the country, there must have been a general plan for building these structures. We took photos while running between raindrops so we were both quite soaked once again when we finally climbed back in the car. Driving back to the van for lunch we stopped so that I could take a few photos of the old bridge that is on the main road on the way back. The rain has been steady all day but Robb has managed to hitch the van up to the car to save a bit of time in the morning. We thought the rain was easing off but it just seems to have gotten heavier as the day has gone on. Pasta for dinner tonight and a bit of planning for tomorrow.
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