A New Adventure Begins

After three busy days at work for me and the boys playing caravan home improvements, on the Thursday we headed off on another adventure.

This time we had a little convoy heading west.

Along the way we decided to visit the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope, affectionately known as "The Dish".  Google Maps showed two routes to the dish from Parkes, so we took the closest one intending to do a loop and we were surprised to see no signs.  We travelled along and missed a turn, once again not signposted.  Once back on the correct road we realised why it wasn't signposted.  Yep, a gravel road.  Not to worry, it really emphasised that The Dish is in a sheep paddock in the middle of no where.

On arrival there were lots of signs to turn off your phones.

The visitors centre had lots of interesting information.  This console was created for the movie "The Dish" and is rather close to the original design.

It was interesting to read the facts and fiction panel about the movie.

By then it was lunch time.  We always enjoy seeing Apostle Birds when we venture west.  These ones were rather tame and Mick had one eating out of his hand.

As we drove out of the car park we noticed a sign on the road we had come in on.  I had to laugh.  It was really quite a good road.

The scenery around Parkes was lovely, with wide open spaces.  However, everything is looking very dry.  Normally there would be lots of wheat crops planted by now, but hardly any this year.

You always know when you are approaching a country town by the proliferation of billboards.

Back on our travels we headed through the village of Bogan Gate.

And, finally to our destination for the day - Trundle, for the Abba Festival that would be happening on the weekend.  We attended last year and had a ball, so we weren't going to miss it this year.