24. – 31. March

Arriving in Dubbo we organised the appointment with the chiropractor which was a big surprise for a friend as she is working in Dubbo since January. We didn’t go to the Western Plains Zoo or the Old Goal as we’ve visited these attraction on earlier visits. We had a look at Traintasia instead. This is a little workshop dedicated to miniature  railway – you can buy the building material or just watch their scene. Of course we had. They built five different scenes a little mountain village with a small railway connection; a bigger town with dancers and waiters; a Luna Park with screaming kids; a city with churches and even a house fire plus a snowfield with working skilift.

We camped in the Goobang National Park which is between Dubbo and Parkes. This National Park has two campgrounds which are connected by a 4WD track. The track starts as a slippery sandy road and then it becomes gravel and stones up to rocks. It goes up and down the hills. There were even several tracks closed so we couldn’t go the most direct way between the camp grounds. The campgrounds are quite different – one is much larger and has a picnic shelter but you’ve to carry your tent inside. In this National Park over 200 different kind of animals (some like a little mouse only in this area) should live but we saw only some kangaroos, emus and of course the birds, ants and mosquitoes.

 

 

Finally we arrived in Forbes to have a look at the fireman’s state championship. They tested themselves in partic11 different simulations but we just watched 2. One was ‘how quickly can they extinct a fire using the suction pump if no town water is available’. The fastest team needed 25 seconds. To get to this fire they had to connect two hoses and run around 50m. Several towns offer such training places which are connected to the town water and have drains to recycle the water. There should be 40 within NSW. This time they had teams from Tweed Heads, Bourke, Bega… participate. As I’ve taken some pictures I was even allowed to step up the referee tower and got some background information.

We had a look at the McFeeters car museum in Forbes – a private museum showing over 60 cars from 1910 onwards. Firstly we were guided through the exhibition to get the background information and then we had a closer look to take pictures. They had several Rolls Royce on display some with the black and some with the red  RR sign as well some with the Emily in different positions. The colour of the RR sign was changed after the founder Rolls and Royce were dead. Then they had a Japanese funeral car – I don’t know how this car could get exported but it arrived well at the exhibition. If you  look from the outside at the car you think it belongs to a festival and if you just have a look at the inside you think you’re standing in a church. A Barbie car and bicycle were shown – this car had the doors bolted together so you have to jump into the car and it was painted in pink and yellow. Most cars are in roadworthy conditions except the rubber car. One car was completely made off plastic and is a left-hand drive vehicle. This car is a prototype from KIA and the only one not destroyed. The car was‘produced’ for the American market but were never launched.

Cheers, Tom and Anja