Senior Citizens Dubbo Holiday

We went on a Countrylink 3 day holiday to Dubbo, 400km from Sydney heading out to the central west. The journey was over 6 hours by train. However, the train trip was much more enjoyable than by plane and I was able to do some reading, knitting (I'm making a jacket for Jake) and just listening to the music on Tony's ipod while watching the scenery go by.

Dubbo has a population of 40,000 people and has all the usual chain stores. Two of our major roads the Mitchell (to Victoria) and Newell (to Queensland)Highways meet up in the city. They are very keen on their sport and there is always some sporting event going on.

On arrival we were picked up at the station by a mini bus and taken to our motel which was very comfortable and clean. We then went out to explore the town and went to the Coffee Bean for a cup of coffee which ended up costing us $11 for 2 cups. Tony's had misheard the waitress and thought she said $11 but actually she had said $7 and accepted the $4 as a tip.

Our driver, Don.

We had dinner at the RSL and went back to the motel for a good nights rest as we had a big day coming up.

We were picked up at 9.00am and joined the other 20 people on the mini bus for our visit to Taronga Western Plains Zoo. My vision of the zoo was lions roaming around and monkeys jumping on your car .....but it was not that way at all. They did have much larger and more inhabitable enclosures than the city zoo but I could not help being a bit disappointed. I think I was expecting more of a Safari.

As usual it was siesta time for a lot of the animals but we did get to see some of them being fed.

First we have the meekats.

Morning Tea at the zoo.

We had lunch overlooking the monkey island.

Our day at the zoo finished at 5.00pm.

St Bridget's Church was around the corner from our motel so I went to the 6pm mass. The church was only 17 years old and already they are in the process of redoing the whole roof as it leaking. Apparently something was done incorrectly in the first place. The old church is still there but boarded up, I don't know if it is heritage listed but it looked sad and unwanted.

Tony had set his sights on a nice steak for dinner so we went off to the Steakhouse our driver had recommended. Steaks were about $32 so it cost us a bit for dinner that night but it was worth it. Its hard to get a good steak.

Sunday we were taken to the Shoryoen Japanese Gardens; Old Dubbo Gaol; a young couples property about 10km out of town who were breeding African birds and Alpaca's; Terra -Mun-Gah, an Aboriginal Heritage site; lunch at a bakery; then packed on the train to go home.