It’s April and we are ready to hit the road, last week was manic, note never leave your job and your home in the same week, far too hectic. Now that everything is sorted we are really to go.
The plan is to travel in Australia for 5 weeks, 20 years ago when we did an 18 month trip around Australia, back then we took the Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs so we missed out on a few places like, Broken Hill, Cobber Pedy. So let’s get this show on the road, our first stop is Dubbo
Dubbo is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia, with an estimated population of 36,622 as at June 2014, weather this time of the year is between 20 – 25 degrees. We stayed at the Ibis Dubbo, it was basic accommodation but very clean and the staff were very friendly.
We stopped here to see the Zoo and The Dish
Dubbo Zoo, I love the Zoo here as all the animals have plenty of space in their enclosures. They also have a large savannah were a number of different animal’s co habitat together. It is a large Zoo you can cycle, drive or walk around. There is a large playground and picnic area’s plenty to keep the whole family amused.
Feeding time for the Black Rhino’s
The Graceful Giraffe
I love the Gates of the Zoo as it reminds me of the movie Jurassic Park
CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope you may know it as the “The Dish” if you have seen the movie it is loosely based on the Parkes telescope’s role in receiving pictures from the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned Moon landing in July 1969.
Built in 1961 it is 64-m diameters parabolic dish used for radio astronomy the telescope works day and night about 85% of the time it is scheduled for observing, students can control the telescope over the internet for educational projects it receives signals from space never sends them. It is used by 300 researchers each year with 40% of these users from overseas. It takes 15min to do a 360 degrees rotation and it weight is 300 tonnes.
Did you know: NASA copied the telescope’s design for the satellite tracking dishes of its Deep Space Network.
Martin the Dish or is it Martin and the Dish ???
Broken Hill was our next stop.
Like many “outback” towns, Broken Hill was built on precious metals, having once had the world’s richest deposits of lead, zinc and silver. Although now depleted somewhat, mining still yields around two million tonnes annually. Sheep farming is now one of the principal industries in the area, Broken Hill has encouraged its widespread artistic credentials and is promoting itself as a tourism destination. Population of Broken Hill is now 18,856 it has declined over the years.
The reason I wanted to visit Broken Hill was for the art galleries, the International Sculpture Symposium, and to visit a mine, we were not disappointed.
The Highlight for me was the International Sculpture Symposium. Twelve impressive stone sculptures are situated on a hill located in The Living Desert Reserve in about 10km north of Broken Hill. The sculptures were carved in 1993 by artists from around the world, under the direction of organiser and artist Lawrence Beck. The best time for photographing sculptures is around sunset and sunrise. But really the sculptures look fantastic at that time, it is a very peaceful place and really show how amazing the Australian Desert can look and feel. The arrangement of the stones define a special flow from the Pinnacles Hills to Fred Hollows resting place in Bourke, It is said to be a Present for Fred Hollows in the Afterlife. Below are pictures of a few of my favourite ones.
Pro Hart Gallery
It was great to Visit Pro-Harts Gallery, I love that his work really portrays the Australian Landscape and the life he had in Broke hill, he was a family man and raised 5 children, he worked in the mines and said his painting kept him sane after long day’s underground. As we could not take photo’s of his pictures we took one of his hand painted cars.
Daydream Mine
Is no longer a working mine, it is situated 33km from Broken hill. The mine was discovered in 1881 and close in 1963. Silver was mined here. The couple that run the mine tours are great, Boss and Cookie have a wealth of knowledge about the mine and the surrounding area they are very down to earth and friendly, on the tour we went down —– feet it really helped understand the working conditions that the miners had, not something I could do for a living. After the tour Cookie has freshly main Devonshire tea ready for everyone, nothing like freshly made home cooked scones. This is well worth a visit.
On to Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy is situated in the Outback of South Australia, 846km north of Adelaide and 685km south of Alice Spring. Coober Pedy is the Opal Capital of the world. The first opal was discovered in 1915 Coober Pedy produces 85% of the world’s opal.
We came to Coober Pedy to see the Opal mines, underground living, and the Breakaways. Again we were not disappointed
It is fascinating to see the underground lifestyle, many of the homes, hotels, churches and restaurants are underground. Living underground means you can escape the heat in summer and the winter cool desert nights. We stayed in a great underground motel, all the rooms are underground and have on-suites it was very clean. There is also a communal kitchen that service a continental breakfast each morning. The couple that run the hotel are very friendly and extremely helpful. It is also very reasonably priced. I would definitely recommend this place.
John’s Pizza Bar and Restaurants have great pizza a great place for dinner and coffee.
We took a tour that covered, an opal mine visit, Josephine’s Gallery, Faye’s Underground home, Underground church, Golf course, dingo fence, Opal fields, Moon plans and the Breakaways. The tour was 6 hours and it was fantastic. Adam our tour guide had a lot of local knowledge, it is really worth taking one of his tours as you learn so much more.
We bought some local aboriginal art work, we thought if we are ever going to buy aboriginal artwork this was the place to do it.
Adelaide
We had a few days in Adelaide to say goodbye to my brother and his wife. We always have a great time catching up with them.
Lady Bay Resort
Lady Bay Resort is a golf resort about an hour south of Adelaide we had a week stop here, it was very relaxing, we played golf, went to some amazing unspoilt beaches like Normanville and to visit a few wineries.
The Beach at Normanville
Lady Bay resort
McLaren Vale Wine Region
We continued on to the Victorian High Country Mt Bulli
We stayed at the Sebel resort for a week, great place the apartment we got was amazing. The weather was a lot cooler here, but it was lovely to see the autumn colours. We went on lots of walks and drove up to Mt Bulli which was freezing, the wind was howling, so we did not stay to long.
The Sebel Resort
Great friends that came to visit.
Back to Sydney
It is now time to travel back to Sydney where we take a flight to Dubai.