A good weekend

While Sydney was arresting comedians (The Chasers War on Everything guys who pulled a hillarious stunt which proved that the only thing the police were interested in was arresting protesters) and the police were pushing over female photographers (*mental note* must look for that on Youtube), we went inland to visit an Aussie Icon landmark that I've wanted to see ever since we moved here. No, not the big banana though that would be cool to see. No, we went to Parkes to see the Radio Telescope!

It's not sad I tell you, since the film "The Dish" (which is an excellent movie and well worth a watch) the Radio Telescope at Parkes has turned into a major tourist attraction. They say it is the most beautiful radio telescope and they don't lie, there is something about it that is beautiful. It is also HUGE!
Parkes Radio Telescope aka The Dish

After nosing around the visitor center for a while and enjoying a refreshing cup of tea in the Dish Cafe we decided that we would head for Dubbo and go to the Western Plains Zoo.
I've been to Taronga Zoo in Sydney four times now and I absolutely love it there and as the two Zoo's are affiliated I was sure that I was going to enjoy an afternoon at a different Zoo. And different it is! Unlike Taronga which has high fencing around the animals, Western Plains was designed to be a type of Safari Park and as such is built quite uniquely by having the animals below road height. A bit hard to explain, but basically you can drive your car, hire a bike or walk around the 6km circuit. We opted for walking. When you stop to view the animals you find that you are higher than them because of the banking that surrounds them. They are still fenced in but it isn't in your face and they seem to have much more room to roam about. I liked it! It was nice to have a walk too as we had spent an hour in the car getting to the Zoo plus the day before we had made the four and a half hour journey in country.

On the Sunday we detored to a lovely old town called Forbes. A truly stunning place that is very clean and tidy with some beautiful old architecture. It was due to the older buildings that Forbes was chosen rather than Parkes for the Town shots in "The Dish". As it was a Sunday there wasn't much open so after a few snaps with the camera we headed back home.
Forbes Town Hall

Forbes Post Office

Although we were going to head to Adelaide for the Weekend, I was glad that we opted to see more of the NSW countryside. We haven't pushed adelaide of the list, just postponed the trip. We're now looking at combining it with a trip to Melbourne to catch up with friends there before we leave. I'm looking forward to it :-)