8-June-2004 - Stage 2, Day 11 - Melbourne to Dubbo, NSW

Stage 2 Blast-off finally happened at 4.30pm on Saturday 29th May! Being the highly organised sorts, we did all of our packing the day we left! Needless to say, by day 11 we've become keenly aware of several packing-oversights, as there are a number of goodies missing from the kit... Not to worry, we'll have forgotten this lesson completely by the time we pack hastily for our next big trip!
The first night was pretty big and lots of fun. We headed straight to Katamatite (north of Shapparton) for the 60th Birthday party of Lloyd Teasdale. Big party in the country, lots of food, drink, music and hay. Lloyd had gotten really keen and built a big shed out of hay to have the party in. That's right, not a shed FULL of hay, but a shed OUT of hay with a tarp roof - three little pigs style! Luckily the wolf didn't arrive and blow it all down too, because it was a DAMN COLD night! But that didn't deter us, while we ate, drank and be'ed merry. No pics of course, we were having too much fun and forgot.

Next day we hung around for tasty bacon and egg snacks before heading off to Wodonga for a lovely hot lunch with Nigel and his parents. We discussed possible travel plans with them and they recommended a super way to go, so we went...

From Wodonga we followed the Murry River via Bonegilla up to the Hume Dam.


And I found a lovely tree, so I took a picture for sally


The water was really low behind the dam, so Bradley took a couple of pics.




And then some more pics of the outlet




After leaving the dam we followed the Murray River and drove through Bellbridge and Thologolong. The upper reaches of the Murray are reall pretty, although the water levels were extremely low. And just for a change, we forgot to take any pictures!
We camped that night in the bush at the Mt Lawson State Park (The Kurrajongs) with a tasty dinner beside a big camp fire. We smelt a male fox nearby, but didn't see him. Yes, that's right, no pics.
Packed up and took off along side the Murray via Walwa and Tintaldra to Towong, then headed into Corryong to get some food for the next week. A definate newsflash at Corryong for the greenies amongst us. The supermarket there doesn't have plastic bags! Not one! You either bring your own bags, or they supply you with a cardboard box. I was most impressed!
Anyway, shopping done, we took off into the Kosciuszko National Park via Khancoban. Really lovely drive too. Stopped momentarily at Scammells Lookout for a pic and a look.


We drove over the mountains that day past Thredbo to Jindabyne. There was a little snow on the side of the road in the shaddows, but no fluffy white peaks to report. Following the recent fires, the forest seemed to be regenerating well along this road as there was lots of green regrowth.
We crossed over the Snowy River leaving Jindabyne and headed to Buckenderra on the southern tip of Lake Eucumbene with the intention of camping there for the night. No bush camps available though, and we thought the caravan park sucked. Needless to say, we pressed on...
We drove back into the northern section of the Kosciuszko National Park, this time along the Snowy Mountains Highway via Adaminaby and pulled up at teh Providence Holiday Park on the northern tip of Lake Eucumbene.
Cooked up a very tasty dinner that night of Moorish Skewers with Eggplant and Tomato Pilav.


We had a late night visitor after dinner too...


Then a couple of early morning visitors who were keen to clean up the dishes from our dinner from the night before.












While we were packing up a mob of wild brumbies (horses) passed by down in the valley we overlooked.


We packed up and took off north along the Snowy Mountains Highway.


In some places the forest was not regenerating well at all from the fires, and all the trees were completely dead. It looked very spooky, but we didn't get any pics, because there wasn't really anywhere to stop on the mountain roads.But not all places were dead and the tree-less alpine plains were great to drive through.


We took a short break from driving to have a look at the caves and thermal pool at Yarrangobilly. I even saw a Supurb Lyrebird in the bush while walking down to the thermal pool. That was pretty exciting for me as I'd never seen one in the wild before! We took the self guided walk through the caves and it was well worth it, but as usual, we forgot to take the camera, so you're all going to have to get in your cars and go and see for yourselves!

We left the mountains that day as we'd only packed for warm weather and alpine regions are definately not warm in winter! We stopped briefly at Tumut for a snack, and then headed out north along the river looking for a bush camp for the night. We passed through Brungle, Darbalara, Gobarralong and Jugiong onto the Hume Hwy with no success. By this time it was dark and we were 'over it' to say the least. Ended up at a really crap caravan park in Gundagai for the night and dined on what Sally and Evan call 'chaussie' (very Australian Chinese food) at the local Chinese Restaurant. Not what I would refer to as a highlight of our trip...

But the dawn brought new hope of distant delights yet to be sampled (and the beginnings of a fabulous head cold for me). We decided to go to the zoo that morning, so we pointed the car towards the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo and floored it! Off we blasted... North, north, north in search of warmth and exotic animals via Cootamundra (good bakery there run by Vietnamese people), Young (lovely jam factory there where we got some great rhubarb jam and some passionfruit jam, but crap scones), Grenfell, Forbes and then we pulled up at the visitors centre at Parkes for some directions to the Parkes Radio Telescope (where The Dish was filmed) and the Goobang National Park.

It rained most of the day, so we thought we'd camp out in the bush! Clearly a winning option! Before heading to the national park we visited the radio telescope in the rain. It was actually well worth stopping. They had a good science display in the visitors centre and an operating model of the telescope, which bradley took great delight in pushing all the other kids off and driving around on. Well..., to tell the truth, he didn't really push anyone off it, but he did play with it for a bit and drive it into what he informed me was 'the service position.' How exciting... But as usual, no photos - it would have drenched the camera!

We left the radio telescope at Alectown and headed into the Goobang National Park by doing a right turn at Trewilga. We set up camp in the rain and Bradley suggested that I wouldn't be able to light a fire as all we had was soaking wet wood which had been rained on all day, half a small magazine and a zippo lighter - no other paper or fancy fire lighters. Well I've never been a woman to let a little adversity get in the way! Next thing I've got our camp oven on the gas stove full of sticks and branches - drying them out of course! Bradley spent a lot of time laughing and shaking his head (the man had no faith!), but within half an hour I had the makings for a fire, and make it i did - both in the camp oven and on the ground was on fire! We talked about taking a photo, but never got around to it...

Well it rained all night that night and was still raining as we packed up in the morning. We had originally planned to take the 4WD track through the park that morning, but after a full day and night of rain and bearing a head cold in full bloom, we chickened out and took the soft option - driving back to the highway along the normal car dirt road. I was in no mood to be stuck in the mud in the cold wet bush with a head full of boogies!

So Dubbo it was (Thursday 03-06-2004). We checked out the Western Plains Zoo on the way into town and they wanted $25 each to get in. We both thought that was very steep, so we took the brochures and went into town to find a motel room with a warm bed to rest my head full of boogies in. Spoke to a few people who all agreed that the zoo was well worth the cash, so spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing and resting.

Friday 4th June, 2004 - Dubbo Zoo here we come! Started the day by checking out the African Wild Dogs




Then saw the keeper talk at the Black Rhinoceros. Did you know that their nose horns are not made of normal horn stuff, but instead they're made of heaps of hairs which are all stuck together. When they get really wet, they even get soft. Also, these rhinos are the smallest of the three rhino species, and they're built sleak for speed! These black rhinos can run up to 60km/hr!








Next on the menu was Barbery Sheep





Then came the Giraffes




The Giraffe keeper talk was a big hit. Did you know that giraffes give birth standing up, that they are the only animal to be born with horns intact, that they can kick in all four directions and that they have the same number of vertebrae in their neck as all the other animals. We even got to feed them at the end of the keeper talk...


















My what a long tongue you have!










And the keeper insists they have no front teeth, so you can put your fingers in without getting bitten!


Hippopotamus keeper talk and feed was the next highlight.










And some hippo toes


And a couple of movies of hippos chewing (Jonny specifically requested movies on the website!)

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P1010181.avi (1.2MB)

Dropped in on a few monkeys


P1010184.avi (5.4MB)

Then off to see the Tiger




Took some pictures of the board showing how the tigers are currently heading for extinction - in the very near future! (for more info on tigers, their demise, and what you can do to prevent their extinction, go to http://www.snakeshow.net and follow the links to 'Nature' and then 'Big Cats in Trouble'.)




Next was a quick stop at the Bongo, who wouldn't come out of the shade! But I thought he was super, so I've included him looking all secret like in the dark.


Checked out the african elephants and saw the keeper talk and feed. Really good talk too.




Had lunch not long after that where we got visited by a peacock




Finished off the day at the zoo with a keeper talk at the Greater One-Horned Rhinocerous who was living with a pair of water buffalo (although we didn't get them in the photo).




Well we'd barely seen half of the zoo by this stage, but the entrance fee gives you a two day pass, so we planned to come back tomorrow to see the rest. The zoo has a 6km one way trail which you can drive your own car or walk around, or hire a bike or electric cart to get around on. There are heaps of really clean shady BBQ areas too that lots of people use at lunch time. The Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo is definately somewhere you should visit!