Feb 27 to 29  Dubbo is located in the heart of NSW and is an important regional centre for road, rail and air transport. It is ideally located amidst a multitude of other exciting regional attractions. From the Parkes CSIRO Radio Telescope (better known as movie star ‘The Dish’), to one of the largest stalagmites in the Southern Hemisphere at Wellington Caves, as well as oranges, limes and aeroplanes at Narromine and the largest POW Breakout in Australian history in Cowra – all are within a short driving distance.

Perhaps the best known local attraction is the zoo. The zoo has car routes that meander through the large park with parking areas where you can leave your vehicle and walk to nearby enclosures. Altogether a unique and pleasant experience.

        

Feb 27  A 1 night stop at Cobar on our way to Dubbo. Mining commenced in Cobar in the 1870’s and today the town is an important source of copper, lead, silver, zinc and gold. Note the oiled sand greens at the local golf club.

  

Feb 22 to 26  Broken Hill is known as the edge of the outback and we can confirm this to be the case. Broken Hill is also the ‘BH’ in the big Australian, BHP, the company being formed because of the immense silver deposits found here in the 1800’s. On the way we pass a tribute to R M Williams the founder of the famous bush outfitter. In Broken Hill we visit the home of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the impressive Broken Hill Sculptures. On a visit to a local museum, imagine our surprise to be asked to be photographed by the local newspaper.

                       

A much bigger surprise happened the following day when we went to Silverton, famous as the place where many Aussie films have been made such as Prescilla, Mad Max and A Town Like Alice. We went into the local museum and the girl behind the counter asked us if we were the same people that were on the front page of the local newspaper – definitely a slow news day !!

        

We play a round at the Broken Hill Golf Course and meet some of the local friendly emus. (Bob wins the par comp with an unprecedented +8).

  

Feb 19 to 22  We reluctantly begin our long return trip to the Sunshine Coast by heading north from Adelaide to Port Broughton, a small community on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf for a spot of fishing – nothing major to report there ! One interesting stop on the way was to visit a very small town  – named Dublin !!

  

Feb 5 to 19  West Beach is about 10 kms west of Adelaide, near the airport and close to Glenelg (Adelaide’s version of Melbourne’s St Kilda). We book into this large but very comfortable caravan park for a well-earned rest from the road – a 2 weeks stay.

     

Feb 6 – Bob’s birthday – Siobhan arranges a trip to a romantic Italian restaurant in Adelaide.

  

We take it easy for the rest of the stay in Adelaide but still manage visits to the McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills wine regions, Victor Harbour, Port Adelaide a couple of games of golf at Adelaide Shores and West Lakes and finally travel to see where the mighty Murray Darling River finally meets the ocean. Bob also has a couple of games of squash at the local Glenelg club and also went to the Adelaide Oval to watch the one-day game between Australia and India. A final treat was a visit to the Festival Theatre to see Ronan Keating and Sharon Corr (of The Corrs fame) – a truly fantastic show.

           

Feb 3,4  Tanunda lies at the heart of the famous Barossa Valley, one of Australia’s premier wine growing areas, about 2 hours north east of Adelaide. Having visited many and varied wine growing areas on our travels and having sampled much those areas have to offer, we have decided not to visit any more wineries or cellar doors. Why ? Two reasons : we are yet to sample a wine that we do not feel obliged to purchase (at inflated prices at the cellar door), and : buying wine at large retailers is much cheaper !!

     

The Whispering Wall is the damn wall for the Barossa Valley dam at Williamstown. It is so called because one person can literally whisper something close to the wall at one end and it can be heard clearly more than 100 metres away at the other end of the wall.

  

The famous restauranteur, Maggi Beer is based in the Baroosa and we visit her farm and watch a cooking demonstration. That evening we have dinner at a beautiful Asian restaurant in town. After dinner imagine our surprise when we stop for a final glass of wine at another wine bar and there she is herself, Maggie Beer. See if you can spot her in the background behind Siobhan.