Junee to Dubbo (Day 005 to 007)

Day 5—Saturday, 29th June

We departed the Junee CP around 10.00am on Saturday morning, destination Dubbo on the Olympic Highway. It had rained lightly during the night and continued most of the morning as we headed north.

Passing through Bethungra, we were interested to see the 360º rail spiral. The spiral makes use of local geography in the shape of a convenient hill which the uphill line spirals around. This eases the gradient, allowing the train to make height and enable it to climb over over the local ranges. Only used by north bound trains, The southbound take the original steep downhill line. The hills became more noticeable as we climbed out of Bethungra, heading towards Young.

By the time we reached Young, the rain had almost ceased, as we pulled into the Information Centre. The Info Centre is housed in the old Railway Station Building and has an Art Gallery as well. Too early for lunch so we went for a wander round the town's retail area. Just another country town, with the shopkeepers starting to wind down for the half day close. Back to the van which we'd left parked at the Info Centre's allocated caravan parking and lunch.

Onward up the Olympic and to Cowra. You'll know that Cowra is famous for the Cowra Breakout, when in 1944, some 500+ Japanese POW's staged a breakout from the POW camp, just outside the town as it was then. Many of the POW's died in the attempt, the Japanese being ashamed to be captured and would rather die fighting for their Emperor. Much later, in the 60's, the Japanese Government arranged for the remains of all other Japanese killed on Australian soil, to be re-buried at Cowra.

Nowadays Cowra is better known for it's beautiful Japanese Gardens. Helen had been wanting to visit the gardens for years and now we did. Truly delightful and tranquil and well worth the visit. After a couple of hours in the garden, we drove bck into town and checked into thr Cowra CP, situated on the edge of the Lachlan River. Overnight, no unhitching.

Day 6—Sunday, 30th June

Woke to a brilliant sunny day and after our usual breakfast, headed onwards about 9.00am, benefiting from not having unhitched, looking forward to Dubbo wher we had pre-booked for two nights, just in case NSW school holidays made sites hard to come by. Passed through Canowindra and then Molong before pulling up at Cameron Park in Wellington for lunch. We had a quick walk around town and called into Coles for some fresh bread for sandwiches. Moving on, we arrived at Dubbo's Top Tourist CP at 2.15pm.

After setting up, we decided that since it was such a nice sunny, clear blue sky afternoon, we'd just have a loaf until dinner. Got the camp chairs out and relaxed. I did manage to find some time to re-arrange a couple of items in the caravan boot though, nothing too strenuous. Off to the Zoo in the morning.

Day 7—Monday, 1st July

First day of the new financial year, so what!! And another beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky. After breakfast, Helen thought it might be just as well to do some laundry and get it out to dry, which it should be by the time we return.

So, by the time we got to the Zoo, the rest of NSW population is queueing up for tickets. Did I say it was school holidays up here? It wasn't that bad, a ten minute wait and forked out for two concession tickets.

I had really been looking forward to this visit but of course my memories of game viewing in Africa do not compute, even at Western Plains. Still, compared to a plane ticket to Niarobi, this was cheap entertainment.

I think I enjoyed the Giraffe enclosure best. There were about ten animals of various age including one quite huge bull. Turned out he was "the daddy", one of the cows having dropped a calf about ten days ago and a second cow gave birth last week. The latter mother and baby not yet on public display. When I say dropped by the way, I do mean dropped. The cow births standing and the new born calf drops about two meters to the ground. The calf has to be up and about, literally in minutes, something they don't have to worry about here as there are no lions or hyenas around. Could have spent the day watching them. Unhappily, there's no natural feed for them here and they have to be hand fed, hay and other fodder, although there was some grass in the enclosure and we were told there's also a much larger enclosure, "out back" and out of view.
Next best, must be the White Rhinos and the new arrival as of May, 2013. As we arrived baby, who has still not been named, was busy having a feed from Mum. Dad was really busy having a snooze. We spent a while here just watching no-name trotting around the enclosure, all very close to us. Just weeks before we left home, we had watched the ABC series on Wildlife at the Zoo, which featured the two rhinos being introduced. Looks like the intro went well. I think the series is still running.

After the Giraffes and rhinos, on to the hippo's, then elephants (Indian), zebra, eland and various other non African species. Most of these could happily live together in the one paddock but I guess it would need to be a big paddock and being fenced, that would make it difficult for the paying public. Oh well, might have to save up for that plane ticket.

Back to the van about 2.30pm, got the kettle on while Helen got the washing off the line. After a cuppa, we went for a drive into town and a visit to the Western Plains Cultural Centre. On the way back to the CP, we filled up at the local Coles Express but unhappily, no shopper docket. Back to the van, got the camera's downloaded to the laptop and got the laptop backed up for the week. Then it was dinner, dishes, some typing for the blog and bed. We had something like 26 TV channels here but no ABC! Not that there's much worth watching Monday nights ABC. Off again in the morning, heading for Collarenebri via Walgett.