Well our night at the rest area just south of Dubbo was a shocker. First there was this very strong and gusty wind blowing and we were reminded of not parking too close to gum trees by an almighty crash on our roof. It appears a branch about a metre long from an adjacent tree had blown down. Luckily there was no damage but we decided to move as it did not look like the wind was going to die down for quite a while.
Next some trucks pulled in for the night – one of them was a refrigerated unit and about every 10mins or so an engine would start up that was supposedly responsible for keeping things inside the truck cool. Then there was the general traffic noise from the continual trucks barreling up and down the Newell Highway that we were next to. Oh well – this will be the last time we consciously stop next to this main drag as it is soooo busy. Even the TV reception was rubbish which really annoyed Ross as he especially wanted to watch the next episode of the “Flash Forward”series that is on here.
Ok, enough wingeing. Morning came and it was still windy but we had survived without any damage so off we headed south towards Parkes. On the way we made a stop at Peak Hill which has some open cast type gold mines in the town. They only recently stopped the mining there so the largest of the mines is quite fresh and apparently there is still gold in it but it is just not cost effective to get it out.
Then it was on to “The Dish” which is the very large radio telescope that is just north of Parkes and was the feature of the movie “The Dish”. Lots of very good information about radio telescopes in general as well as the part the dish has played in various events – especially the Apollo missions. The scenery around the area is very lush grain fields and quite flat now that we have descended from the table lands to the north.
Our mission once we finally arrived in Parkes was to pick up a parcel from the Post Office that was there for Carol and having sorted that we had a bit of a look around and came across a rather large statue of old Henry Parkes whom the town is currently named after.
By this time the wind had picked up even more and blowing from the west which was unfortunately the way we were heading in order to get to Condobolin. We had decided to head further west before going down to Canberra as this will be the last time we are in the area and are interested in what the area is like further out. Well the road west was quite slow going due to the head wind but luckily it was reasonably flat so we got along ok. The only drama was coming across a guy who had a brand new trailer full of stuff but missing a wheel. Seems the bearings collapsed and off went the wheel. There was nothing we could do to help and he was not too far from Condobolin and going to phone for help.
Just out of Condobolin we found the Gumbend Lake reserve. This is a man made lake but for our visit the lake was very empty of water – presumably it fills during the wet season. We set up and had a windy night on the very red sandy camp area with the local quirk being the tumble weed type things that were being blown along by the wind that collect nicely against anything in their way.
