It can get a bit chilly in Dubbo, -2 overnight, but lovely during the day with a top of 17 and bright clear skies and glorious warm sunshine. Mind you, laying in bed in a thin metal caravan with a doona and 3 blankets it still felt like -15.
Undaunted, I was up and around to the start of Parkrun by the allotted time of 8am, and managed a reasonable walking time despite the cold, The walk starts on one side of the Macquarie river, then crosses over and heads back along the other bank until you reach the turn around point under the bridge. The parklands near the start were a white sheet of ice and totally deserted when we left. An hour later and there are 10,000 kids playing soccer, the ice has gone and the temperature is already climbing.
After a long hot shower and breakfast, we headed out to do one of the Heritage Trails. The first and main point of interest was Dundullimal Station, dating from the early 1800's. We had actually been here before many years ago and it was quite run-down. Today thanks to the National Trust it is in splendid condition and the homestead, barn and grounds are one of the best we've seen. A new feature is an old timber church that they rescued from a property out near Narromine. It was built in the 1870's and this is it's seventh home!
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| Homestead, Dundullimal Station, Dubbo NSW |
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| Barn, Dundullimal Station, Dubbo NSW |
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| TimbreBongi Church. Dundullimal Station, Dubbo NSW |
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| Barn, Dundullimal Station, Dubbo NSW |
Further along the Heritage Trail is the 'Observatory', which wasn't even worth stopping for; it looked like someone's house with a tiny dome out the back and a sign out the front 'by appointment only'. The proprietor of this fine establish was a Mr Peter Starr. No, they weren't kidding, it said so on the sign.
Next in this travelcade of delights was the Red Dirt Winery, where we had hopes of scoring some lunch and a taste and chat about wines. We parked up near the other cars and strolled into the property. Out on the wide verandah was a few people sitting around a table in the sun quaffing the wine being offered by a woman one had to assume was the host. We went inside anyway, to check the place out but all its secrets were revealed in a single glance: there would be no coffee or ploughman's lunch for us, there was basically nothing in there except a few bare tables, secondhand books and an abandoned bar. We made our egress back out onto the veranda where we were totally ignored for the few minutes that we waited and then we legged it back to the car and continued our search for a nice place for luncheon.
To cut a long story short, we ended up back at the Zoo where they were still open (it was 2pm and they were certainly set up to provide sustenance to the hungry hoards. I took a few snaps of the animals just for the hell of it:
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| Monkeys. Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo NSW |
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| Bird. . Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo NSW |
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| Giraffes. . Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo NSW |
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| Big Hippo, Little Hippo. . Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo NSW |
It was all too much; we went back into town and bought some supplies and retired to the van where a warm heater and cold wine awaited.
Congratulations on number 50 xxxx we'll celebrate parkrun style when you get back xx
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