Quarks, pulsars and a slice of Africa

OK, time for another catch up.

Yesterday was day 5 and we left Forbes headed for Dubbo, calling in at the radio telescope at Parkes. But before leaving Forbes, we had to call into the local cemetary and see the graves of Ben Hall, Kate Kelly and Rebecca Shields (grand neice of Captain Cook).

The radio telescope is a MIGHTY structure ('The Dish" as it is affectionately known, is 64m in diameter) and is operated by the CSIRO and any number of scientist from Australia and abroad are conducting experiments with it. On the day we visited, I think there were about 5 scheduled experiments to happen, each of them looking at a different part of the sky. As such, we got to see the dish move around, which was quite amazing to see.

Because you can't actually go inside the telescope, there is a visitors centre set up right next to it with a range of static displays and a 20 minute 3D movie. Mark was hesitant about whether Tom would sit still and watch, but in fact, he was enthralled by it (maybe it was the 3D effect and he got to wear those really cool glasses ...not!). It was Biddy that I had to contain after the first 5 minutes, but then she fell asleep in her pram, so all was good!

OK. Now time for a bit of a bitch. We decided to grab something to eat at the on site cafe as we were already 20kms Dubbo side of Parkes and we didn't have stuff out and ready at hand in the van. Plus, the menu seemed suitable for the kids. So while Mark was out looking at the telescope with the kids, I ordered a caeser salad for me, a burger for Mark and 2 mini pizzas for the kids. Minutes ticked by. Still more minutes. Half an hour disappeared. The kids became a bit raucous, so the waitress bought out coloured pencils and paper. Other customers came and went and still our food hadn't turned up. So, with the clock nearing 50 minutes, and the kids being very good, I went up as asked how much longer, only to be told that the order hadn't even been processed because it was lost! Oh for God's sake! I mean, what did they think we were doing sitting there? Now, I can completely understand that sometimes the occasional order goes missing. But I can't understand how this can happen when there were only 3 tables occupied in the cafe and only 2 or 3 other customers came for takeaway!

So there was much running around behind the scenes and very quickly our meals came out. Too quickly. Part of our order was missing and when I went to cut the kids pizzas up, they were stone cold in the middle. So back they went and I asked for my money back on them, because by this time, the kids were beyond hungry and had picked at mine and Mark's. The manager tried to make amends by sending out some other food, but the kids didn't want it. We did get an icecream for Tom and Biddy's milk for free though. A bit too little too late.

So while Mark took Biddy back to the ute, I took Tom into the gift shop because he had found a dinosaur poster (of course!). Just as I got to the head of the queue, the phone lines went down and they announced that there was no credit card facilities. Grrr. I asked if they had a manual swipey thing and no. Great. Now Tom is at me to get the poster and I have no cash because I spent it all on our ill-fated lunch. After a trip back to the ute to deposit Tom and check out what coinage could be scraped up, I return to find that they can take my credit card details and book it up to my visa later on.

So whilst the grandeur of the radio telescope was fantastic, it was all marred somewhat by the other poor experiences that I had. But rest assured, the telescope is impressive.

So in the car and onto Dubbo. Because of all the mucking around over lunch, we lobbed into town around 4pm. A quick visit to the tourist information centre to pick up town maps, what's on, and various attractions, before setting up camp at the Parklands Big 4 Caravan Park. Now, as we are here for 3 nights, I will reserve my wrap up of this park until our last night. However, I will say that the fact that there is a jumping pillow about double the size of the one at Forbes has been an instant hit with both Tom and Biddy, despite the fact that there are numerous kids here that also think the jumping pillow is a bit of a winner.


Day 6
Mark has woken with a really badly infected eye. It was so badly junked up, that he couldn't open it when he woke up and I had to bathe it clean. It is so swollen that it has bruised and it looks like he has been in a fight. We think that he has caught some congunctivitis off Biddy as she had a bad eye a couple of days ago, but nothing like this. If it keeps up, he might need to see a doctor at one of the next towns, to get some antibiotics. Blurgh, it is really the worst eye infection I have ever seen.

Today we tackled the Open Range Zoo. Wow. This is great and the kids had a ball. So did Mark and I for that fact. We got there at around 10am and left at about 3.15pm. Whilst I'm sure that others have spent much more time there than we did, this was quite enough time for my two explorers as they walked a great deal of the 6km. And that is a looooooong way for a 4yo and 21mth old. We took our own car in and parked it and looked at exhibits and then moved on to the next exhibit. But because the car parks are quite close together, what ended up happening was that we all visited the first exhibit and then while Mark or I walked the kids to the next one, the other would go back and move the car up to the next point. This may seem to be a waste of time, but it worked quite well.

Tom was totally taken by the picture of the otter silhouette sign on the park map (he'd been studying it for a day already) and was absolutely convinced that the otter was a lizard, and continued to tell us that he was going to see an animal that lived under the ground. When we finally made it to the otter exhibit, the damn things were in hiding and we never saw one!! However, there were plenty of pictures around, so Tom got to see that otters were really nothing like lizard at all.

My favourite animal would have to to be the maned wolf. These are really beautiful creatures, although I'm sure that I would make an easy meal for them if given the chance! They sort of look like overgrown foxes but with REALLY long legs. They did stink though! Overall, the great thing about the zoo is that you almost feel like you are in with the animals, because what usually seperated you from them was a deep ditch and an electric fence running thousands of volts (no doubt). But if you stood back from the ditch or the fence, it was almost like you were in the same paddock as them. And in the case of the Galapagos Tortoise, Tom did end up in the same enclosure as them!

While Mark was inside the tortoise house looking at one, Tom appears around the back of the exhibt IN WITH THE TORTOISE. Because the barrier fences are very low (I could have easily have stepped over it), he simply jumped over it, ran past a number of other tortoises and surprises his dad by being in there with them all - "Ta Da"! Mark couldn't believe it. I could. Wish he got a photo of it though.

All in all, a great day out. The kids are exhausted - as we all are.

Oh, and I'll post some photos soon. Perhaps, I'll make a final trip post (when we get back home) of all the relevant pictures.