To The Dish

John and I made the most out of our Labour Day weekend and headed west! We rented a car and drove to the itty bitty little town of Parkes, NSW. We made it all in one piece which is surprising as the GPS died and I was having panic attacks as we were driving over the mountains. Nothing like a sheer drop off and driving on the other side of the road to make things a bit nerve wracking. And the "Stop, revive, survive" and the Driver Revivers really helped remind us do so. And we made it!

As soon as we checked in we headed to The Dish. For those of you who do not watch random Australian movies, it a radio telescope in the middle of a sheep paddock that transmitted the images of man walking on the moon to the TV. There was a really good movie on it and this was our inspiration for the entire trip. It is so strange driving up to it, because you can see it from very far away and there is nothing else around it except sheep. I know what everyone is thinking and yes, John and I are complete nerds. It was actually really amazing and The Dish actually started moving once we got there. It really was cool!

The next day we left the motel at 5am to head an hour north to the town of Dubbo to an open range zoo. We go there early to do a behind the scenes tour and then spent most of the day wandering through the zoo. They are well known for their Rhino breeding program and are increasing the numbers of rhinos all over the world. The Siamang monkeys were the best part and kept making these crazy noises and striking supermodel poses. The birds really did not like John and a magpie dive bombed him twice. So we thought it would be a good time to leave.

Halfway between Parkes and Dubbo is Peak Hill, a town with an old open cut gold mine. So of course we stopped and hiked to the top of the mine. The view was spectacular! I think we could see the Dish from there. After the hike, for $2, I panned for gold. I found 4 specks and am thinking about quitting my job and taking this up full time.

After we made it back to the motel, we ate at the only place open on Sunday night, Pizza Hut. It is universal. The next day we headed back to Sydney and went through the whole thing again with me freaking out. Again, amazing John didn't leave me in the mountains.

Overall, it was a really fun trip. We now we can drive (it only took us 8 months to get the nerve) so we will head out to more places soon.