The Dish

Saturday, 22nd September 2012

The Swans flag is flying proudly today after their defeat of Collingwood last night. Grand Final next Saturday – we will be in Melbourne but, unfortunately, will not be able to attend the game as we need to catch the boat home on the same day.

We quickly found out this morning what mornings in central New South Wales are like – COLD! The heater was very smartly recovered from storage under the bed. Today, though, has been the most glorious day, with clear blue skies, no wind and the temperature in the low 20s. I have a feeling this may change rapidly in the next day or two. We have been so lucky to have been able to wear our shorts and t-shirts for so long.

This morning we left Coonabarabran for the 305 km drive to Forbes and the first part of the journey to Gilgandra was through some lovely grazing farmland; we even saw our first sheep for many months. The country was a bit hilly but we soon dropped down to the Western Plains. We had a short “Driver Reviver” stop in Gilgandra for a cup of coffee and a quick look at the Cooee Museum. Today is the first day of the school holidays for Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, so there were many, many campers and caravans on the road today.

The monotony of the drive was broken for a short while as we followed a “Yank tank” type of fifth wheeler who was obviously out for a Saturday drive, until he came to a passing lane and took off at top speed. The driver of our vehicle became a little agitated and told the other driver just how inconsiderate he was (or words to that effect). Shortly after this, we had the “pleasure” of on oncoming truck attempting to take a corner too fast and moving over to our side of the road.

We didn’t stop at Dubbo, but did make a sudden decision at the turn-off to the Parkes Radio Telescope (made famous in the mover, “The Dish”) and made a sharp turn left. We had an enjoyable hour at this facility (including lunch), and Cat thoroughly enjoyed helping up with the technical stuff.

We are staying in the Big4 Forbes Caravan Park, which is a small park but has lovely green, grassy sites with garden borders. After settling in, and catching up with some laundry, we had a quick drive around the town, saw the free campers along the bank of the lake (and wondered what they did for hygiene purposes???) and refuelled ready for the longer drive tomorrow.