Griffith to Dubbo - well, Parkes, really.

Not the best night's sleep, can't really recommend the Acacia motel, mainly because of the highway noise and the hot and cold shower, and the not particularly jolly staff. Still, made an early start after breakfast at a bakery on the main shopping street; that I can recommend, great coffee, and while we didn't have pastries per se they looked as good as I've ever seen. If it wasn't 400k's in the wrong direction I'd go there again tomorrow.

We headed directly east from Griffith, then north, stopping at West Wyalong for a mediocre coffee. Zipped through Forbes, stopping only briefly, then straight through Parkes, then on to the Radio Telescope, about 26km north of the town. "The Dish" cafe at the telescope served a delicious red wine and beef pie, and also a fine chicken, avocado and spring onion sandwitch on thick, tasty bread.

Here are a bunch of photos taken at the dish.

The dish is moved quite regularly to focus on different areas of the sky.

We had a beautiful day for it, clear blue skies by the afternoon.

Remember you can click on these pictures to make them larger.

After Parkes Observatory, we continued north, and found accomodation in Dubbo. Once again, we stuffed ourselves at the RSL. The motel seems much quieter, and the staff much happier and more helpful this time.

So, not only did we make it to Parkes, we even got as far as Dubbo!