Been a very interesting couple of days since we left Dubbo yesterday morning. First stop was the CSIRO Radio Telescope in Parkes, otherwise known as “The Dish”. My first visit to the Dish was back in 1974, which was only 2 years after the Apollo program had finished and we all know how big a part the Dish played in that program for NASA. I took the girls to see it in 2007 and now 13 years later I return with Susan. Even now on my 3rd visit and 36 years after my first visit the Dish reminds me so much of the time as a 10 year old I watched the moon landing and the impact it had on my life. I still have the scrapbooks I made from newspaper articles after 50 years. It’s probably why the movie The Dish, is one of my Favorites!

We didn’t stop in Parkes but drove thru the town centre, it looked a nice enough town, maybe on another trip we’ll manage to see more. From Parkes it was onto Orange where we stopped and had lunch. Never had red wine on tap before but I did in Orange and I have to say it was pretty good, a local Shiraz, slightly chilled. Plenty of wineries in the area and based on what I had it would be good to taste more. Orange really impressed us, it was a fabulous looking town, well treed and very clean, obviously the locals take pride in their town. We’ll definitely have Orange on our itinerary on our next trip north.

Then onto Bathurst, whilst its more known for the car race, it’s the first town settled in inland Australia after the first fleets settlement in Sydney. We’ve only been here for two days but its impressed us, Bathurst has a good mixture of history and modern city infrastructure. Some of the original houses of early settlers are magnificent and they have very unique stories themselves, although to long to detail here. We also managed to visit Ben Chifley’s house, unfortunately not many Australians know Ben’s story. Some of his decisions as our Prime Minister post WW2 has laid the foundation of our country and its posterity, particularly for the baby boomers! As Molly used to say, do yourself a favour and read about Ben Chifley, you won’t be disappointed!

Of course a stay in Bathurst would not be complete without a lap of the Mount Panorama racing circuit. We did that today, both in daylight and at night. It’s scary enough coming over Skyline and down thru the Esses in daylight but at nighttime it’s extraordinary. Really enjoyed our time here and I hope our time in the Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands after that are just as enjoyable.