The first adventure during Dani’s long school summer holidays was a trip to Lightning Ridge via Dubbo. Here is the first part of that trip…

Sydney to Dubbo

Much of this first part of the route is a well-trodden one for Dani and myself. Through the Blue Mountains to Lithgow and then head northwest to Dubbo for our first port of call. We have 3 nights booked there so we should get to see a few things.

En-route to Dubbo we passed through the town of Mudgee. The plan is to stop there at some point for a weekend trip. For now, it was a brief glimpse. The town of over 12000, sits in the path of the broad Cudgegong River valley which makes it extremely fertile ground for farming and more significantly in this area, vine growing and wine making. Definitely worth another trip then…

Dubbo

Dubbo is basically an agricultural centre on the banks of the Macquarrie river some 420km northwest of Sydney. With a population of around 40,000 people, it is big enough to spend a couple of days but there are not many tourist attractions.

The main two tourist spots are the Old Dubbo Gaol and the Taronga Western Plains zoo. Naturally we visited both and there will be a separate post on those two places. But first here is a sample taste (no pun intended) of the town of Dubbo.

Dubbo in general…

As always on these short visits, shortly after you have just scratched the surface it’s time to leave. Dubbo is a pleasant little town with some decent bars. One in particular had an excellent range of ales which change regularly. The Monkey Bar sits behind the main thoroughfare facing the river. Naturally I sampled a few of their wares.

Another popular watering hole was an old bank building that has been converted into a bar.

Around the town there are more examples of large mural artwork. This seems to be a common theme everywhere we have been. That Banksy bloke would love it here..

The old fire station still looks almost new and even though it has not been converted into anything it is not open to the public. Really not sure what they are planning to do with it…

Also because it is that time of year Dani got to meet “Santa”. Although reluctantly it seems. Playing Santa looks hot work in this part part of the world.

Bowling

Still a very popular pastime in Australia the bowling club in Dubbo caught the eye of a young seven-year-old. Dani was fascinated by it and wanted to try it out. He would have to wait a few more days however as we needed to head off shortly after he had taken a keen interest in the sport (or is it a game?). Having tried ten-pin bowling he now wanted to try this “outdoor version” – although they are clearly completely different games. The seed however was already firmly planted.

More on the Old Dubbo Gaol and Zoo in the next post…