Day 17 – The Dish & Peak Hill

Let me tell you, that Kev and Maz can cook! We had another lovely meal of marinated pork and vegies last night, eaten al fresco. Once again, after the clean-up, it was time for Maz and I to clean up the boys at euchre. Which we did … in the first game. They were so far ahead they thought they had us done and then we came home with a wet sail. Maz and I have amended our celebratory high fives to a sort of elbow bump – can’t say we’re not taking precautions against infection. No need to talk much about the second game except to say we were not the winners.

As there wasn’t much on for us today, there was no need to set the alarm. We packed the car at a leisurely pace and drove out of Parkes right on 10am, first stop 20km out of town at “The Dish” aka CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope. As we discovered yesterday, the info centre out there was closed but we did grab a couple of photos. It was certainly worth while just to see it in the flesh. I love the movie “The Dish” and once impressively watched it three times in a row – it was three slightly different versions on the same DVD – some had commentary on the making of etc – and I was just too lazy to get off the lounge and stop it. OK, not so impressive. Disappointingly for Gaz, the Dish Café was closed (even though we were told it would be open) so he had to wait a little longer for coffee.

Next stop was Peak Hill, just a little further along the Newell Highway. We stopped at the first coffee shop which, I’d have to say, looked a bit suss – it was part of a very dusty looking antique shop that also sold lollies – yes, very bizarre. Surprisingly they had good coffee and presented our yummy shared lamington with aplomb, far exceeding expectations.

Just on the edge of town, only 200m off the highway, is an exhibition around a now abandoned open cut gold mine. We certainly weren’t going to miss that! Another interesting piece of history – and quite an impressive hole in the ground to boot.

Having heard from Maz & Kev, who had left earlier than us and already arrived at the caravan park at Dubbo, that we could check in early, we proceeded to straight to Dubbo and were unpacked and in the cabin by 1pm. Gaz was keen to catch up with an old bankie friend who lived in Dubbo. (For those who have heard the story before, this was the very same friend that we were visiting in Dubbo 25 years ago when the infamous Dubbo Zoo incident occurred, forever to be written into O’Shea folklore). Anyway, I spent some time wandering through David, Gaz’s friend’s, toy shop while they chatted and caught up. By the time they had finished their preliminary chat, (yes, more planned for tomorrow), it was after 2pm and we were unlikely to get a feed for lunch anywhere. We found a Woolies, grabbed some food from the severely depleted stocks (!) to cook for dinner and a couple of bread rolls for lunch back at the cabin.

Kev was working this afternoon, so after booking our tickets for the Dubbo Observatory for tonight, Maz, Gaz and I decided a quiet afternoon of rest and relaxation was what was required. Plans are 6pm drinks, 6:30pm dinner, then off to the Observatory for a bit of stargazing. Thankfully the skies are clear of clouds … so far, anyway.

Our cabin here is probably the best we've had this trip - the most spacious, and the kitchen is very well appointed, and there are two bedrooms so lots of storage options. The park is very quiet with apparently a lot of cancellations in recent times. As we were driving out to head back to town after unpacking, I said to Gaz "Is that ... could it be? ... a drive-in?" Yep, there is a drive-in across the road - now, THAT was unexpected!