A real bed for a change!

Parkes Radio Telescope

Our latest and best caravan park so far

The photo above shows our current situation.  Looks dire I know, but we’re really in clover; parked in a friend’s shed (yes it’s big enough to take the motorhome) on a property in Oberon, central western New South Wales, with electricity to run the heater, and a house with underfloor heating which we’re going to be staying in for the next few nights.  They’ve just returned, themselves, from Tasmania and we all stayed in our respective vans last night because the house heating takes 24 hours to warm the whole house.  It’ll be novel to sleep in a “real” bed again for a couple of nights.  We’re here until our mail catches up to us (thanks Favourite Daughter), as it contains our registration sticker. 

I start to wonder about the wisdom of travelling south in Winter, even if Spring is only just around the corner.  The weather for the last few days has been dire; cold, drizzly, windy and even sleet in Orange! Not exactly conducive to getting out and walking the cities we’ve passed through, or their beautiful parks and gardens.  We were prepared to stay in Orange for a few days, but ended up in the Canobolas Caravan Park, high on a hill, buffeted by winds and rain, reading and just trying to keep warm.  We discovered a wonderful café (Patmos Garden Café) at the Botanical Gardens.  We had driven there expecting an afternoon stroll through the gardens (probably not really advisable in terms of flowering plants at this time of year) and as it started drizzling, we headed for the café.  We had inadvertently discovered a gem –a genuine Greek café run by genuine Greeks!!  The coffee (or hot chocolate in Ray’s case) was excellent, as were the cakes.  Unfortunately the afternoon was too inclement to see the gardens so we headed for the caravan park and warmth.  The next morning, after some sleet overnight, we decided that Orange was out of the question, but breakfast at the Patmos might be a good thing.  Right!  Lovely bacon and egg on Turkish bread with hot coffee/chocolate.  It really hit the spot.  Good food, good service, and a warm welcome.

The last decent weather we had was at Parkes.  It was quite a sight driving through the beautiful countryside (and it is beautiful out here, despite the weather) and coming across the Parkes Radio Telescope, in the middle of nowhere.  It is a 64 metre diameter parabolic dish, operated by CSIRO, and used for radio astronomy.  We spent a couple of very interesting hours there browsing the history and watching the Dish rotate.  The telescope was built in 1961 but has been upgraded many times over the years and is now ten thousand times more sensitive than when it was commissioned.  The moving part of the telescope above the concrete tower weighs more than two Boeing 747s, and has to be “parked” when the wind exceeds 35km an hour.    It takes 15 minutes for a full rotation, and is almost balletic as it does.  A fascinating couple of hours.

From there to Orange, to Oberon.  Here we sit waiting for Australia Post to find us, with a warm (literally) welcome from friends Rob and Connie.  We shared our pasta last night, they are sharing their Tasmania pork tonight and who knows what tomorrow will bring. 

Sally and Ray