1. – 10. April

We decided to have a look at the Aerobatics in Parkes – a flying event held over the Easter Weekend. But unfortunately it was not so good as there was no commentary or big screens. The planes took off (the small planes make more noise than a jumbo jet when starting the engine), did some things in the air and landed again. It was helpful if you’ve played some PC games then you could recognise some manoeuvres but for me it was just a small dot in the air. Just a little note: it was not raining we had beautiful sunshine but a lot of grasshoppers in the air.

Just 100km west of Parkes is a nice free camping area – Gum Bend Lake.  This is a really good camping area with lots of space, hot showers and electricity. But it’s a funny place as well – the lake is hand-made and has to be filled with the river water so it hasn’t been filled for over five years when they had a speed-boat event. You can do the 3km walk around the lake, watch sunsets or the eagles soaring in the sky.

Utes in the Paddock is a crazy place. You’ve to get some km off the highway and you’re finding several Utes in the open in some kind of art display. There are probably 10 cars all painted different. Sometimes it was quite hard to recognize the Ute when it was standing upright more looking like a bottle or showing Dame Edna in the dunny or being a robotic-kangaroo…

There are several free camping areas (all offering showers and electricity) so we had a hard choice where to stay so we made the best and stayed at all doing some kind of circle. Lake Cargelligo is not far away and it’s a natural lake and now filled by 40% so the first guys are out and about doing waterskiing.  Then we headed to Temora to have a look at the aviation museum which has several Spitfire, Tiger Moth, a Canberra on display. All airplanes are still used and in the air especially at flight weekends. You definite could smell and see the oil leaking of the bearings. One area was dedicated to the Emergency Exit Seat – it had one on display and was showing how the seat was developed and evolved over the years (it’s already in its 15th or so generation).

 Let see when we talk again.

Cheers, Tom and Anja