Night at the Zoo
Not everything about Australia has been of the once in a lifetime nature, but our trip out to Dubbo really was special. We set off on a stormy Friday night, to drive up and over the Blue Mountains. We stopped briefly for pizza and to admire the views in Blackheath, but not for too long, as it was cold. Not quite freezing, but cold enough if you're 1000 metres high and you've left your heavy duty fleeces and jumpers in England. After driving through torrential rain in pitch black, we arrived in Orange, where we checked into our first hotel, the Canobolas Hotel. As everyone knows, hotels in Australia are really pubs with some rooms attached for the license, and this one was no exception - an excellent thirties art-deco pub/restaurant with echoing corridors of empty rooms overhead, seemingly untouched since the war. But they did serve a very nice steak.
The next morning we explored Orange, including a short visit to their adventure playground. This was fun, even if Helen did have slight qualms about the snake that was spotted there. We reassured oursleves that no self-respecting snake would be out and about in the near freezing temperatures of Orange that morning.
We drove on into the West, leaving coastal Australia behind and starting to see the first vestiges of the outback. Everywhere was starting to get large, with vast skies and sweeps of land appearing before us, with straight roads with no other cars or houses for miles. We took a look at Parkes Observatory, having primed ourselves by watching The Dish the week before, where the children really were excited to learn about the moon landing and the vital part that Parkes played in Neil Armstrong's first step. Honest.
Saturday evening we arrived at Dubbo Zoo, where we were to spend the night - in tents. This had seemed a good idea when we'd booked the trip and the sun was still shining. A group of happy campers were admitted to the zoo after closing time and we were then briefed on the dangers of sleeping outside in a zoo that keeps its fences to a minimum and what to do in the event of an animal escape. After being allocated our tents we had dinner, followed by a 'classroom session' where we got to handle snakes, lizards etc. (lovely). The best bit of the evening was a night time walk through the zoo, seeing nocturnal animals being lively. Our favouite was the wombat. Back finally to a camp fire and hot chocolate - no singing thank goodness. After a cold, not very comfortable night, we had to be ready by 6am for our dawn walk. this was very impressive, seeing the animals waking up and hearing the dawn chorus of gibbons and lemurs and seeing behind the scenes at the zoo. Helen finally got warm about 11am and we spent the day being regular tourists at the zoo. And you know, even the tigers get steak in Australia.
