First stop this morning was at the Agrestic Grocer on the outskirts of Orange. A fabulous rustic shop selling lots of amazing local produce!! Produce was quite pricey but was worth the experience of browsing.
On the road to Molong, look out for Yuranigh’s Aboriginal Grave Historic site. It is out in the middle of a paddock, a few kms off the highway. Was wonderful to see that they had honoured this Indigenous man who was the very much valued assistant to Thomas Mitchell.
In Molong, we popped into the Yarn Market Craft Cottage and bought more knitted goods (Kev – !!!)
Jen bought a stylish ear muff !!! and I bought a teapot cosy (to add to the collection…lol). We did walk the little main street but many of the shops were closed or empty.
From Molong we drove on the Henry Parkes Way to Parkes. We checked out the café scene and ended up at the Paragon Café. It was absolutely packed with weird bric a brac and the old style café booths. But the meals were yummy and super cheap. Our large schnitzel meal cost $8.
After a quick explore of the main street we headed to the Parkes Observatory (about a 20 minute drive on the road to Dubbo). This is well worth a visit.
Of special note:
- FREE admission
- the multitude of signs warning of snakes in the gardens ( didn’t explore the gardens, needless to say)
- whisper dishes out the front (definitely worth experimenting with)
- the DISH (we watched The Dish movie several nights later …was great to see inside the Dish….I had forgotten how funny and quirky this movie is!!!)
Next stop was Peak Hill Open Cut Experience which is about 400m from Peak Hill town centre. Impressive look into an open cut mine. There is a circuit walk you can do around the open mine with 5 x viewing platforms. However some of the platforms are closed so we only walked partway around the mine.
Onwards to Dubbo.
Jenny and I decided to check out the Dubbo Gaol (located in the middle of main street!!!!). Of special note was the largest collection of hangman knots!!! and the padded cells with the original padding. The Gaol was in operation until the 60s which was quite disturbing given the distinct lack of heating in the cells.
Stayed on a friend’s farm for 2 nights (on the outskirts of Dubbo). This was a great way to learn about living in Dubbo and farm life. The sunsets were spectacular!!!
