Day Out at Dubbo Zoo

From Newcastle we headed back out through the Hunter Valley and had one last stop for morning tea at Denman to say goodbye. From there we followed the Golden Hwy through Merriwa and Cassilis. This is a beautiful road which winds its way through rolling hills and sharp rocky scarps that rear up alongside the track, It wasn't hard to visualize this country in Edward's time. Parts of it still seem rugged and foreboding today.

We camped at Dunedoo for no other reason than the name. While it is believed to be the local Aboriginal name for swans, it has a splendidly Aussie ring to it and every Australian should visit at some time in their life. Don't expect anything apart from the name though.

Next day we decided to visit the open range zoo at Dubbo. On 300 or so hectares, it makes a change from cramped zoos that exist elsewhere. The animals are in enclosures that in many instances are acres in size and you can either drive, cycle or walk the 6 kilometre route that runs between them, There are hippos, rhinos, tigers, elephants, monkeys and best of all Galapagos tortoises.

Matilda declares Galapagos  Tortoises fascinating.

However, the highlight of the day was witnessing an excellent ram raider in the making at the snack kiosk. While ordering a coffee at the counter, a tyke of about 4 made a flying leap past me up onto the counter, snaffled a bag of Smiths Crisps and then took off at high speed through the crowd with his beleagured mum in hot pursuit. Now I'm not sure if mum was a psych student carrying out a bizarrely unwise experiment, but it appeared that the little chaps name was "Bogan" because she was yelling "Bogan, stop. Bring them back Bogan."

Was mum trying to establish whether by calling him Bogan she could create a self fulfilling prophecy? If so, it seemed to be working fabulously. Eventually Bogan was apprehended and relieved of his booty. Probably needs some adjustment to his Ritalin dosage.

After an overnight roadside stop just north of Parkes we called in to the CSIRO radio telescope and had breakfast at the cafe there. Despite extensive interpretive signage I'm still not sure that I fully understand how the thing works but it was impressive and I couldn't help but wonder what Edward would've made of it all. I was pretty sure I could feel the space rays boring into my brain, telling me that I must join the robot army on  a mission of destruction but Trish said I was just imagining it.

The lovely Forbes Town Square. With most of the towns public buildings, plus a pub and several shops, facing onto it, its probably the nicest town focal point I've seen in Australia. 

From there we drove on down the Newell Hwy through Forbes which must have the prettiest Town Square in the country and eventually camped for the night at the Hay Caravan Park,