Mainland Meanderings 4

One doesn't stay in Dubbo without visiting the Western Plains Zoo, and we were fortunate to be able to spend several hours driving and walking around the animal enclosures. Unlike other zoos, most of the animals are surrounded by moats and fences are minimal - except for the lions - and it is possible to get up quite close to them (and a telephoto lens helps too...).

Meerkat

Eland

Zebra

Giraffe

Hippopotamus

White Rhinoceros

Asian Elephant

Cheetah - we watched her being fed but she was too quick to photograph in action

Bongo -  the largest, most colourful, and most sociable of the African forest antelopes

Persian Onager - the fastest member of the horse family native to Northern Iran

From Dubbo we drove to Orange for a night before continuing on to Canberra via Cowra where we visited the beautiful Japanese Garden & Cultural Centre. This five hectare lot is the largest Japanese garden in the southern hemisphere and was designed by world-renowned Japanese garden architect Mr Ken Nakajima. Stage 1 opened in 1979.

As well as the gardens there is a bonsai house, two lookouts, a wisteria pergola, an arbour, a typical Edo cottage and a wonderful gallery. The trees are alive with birds and the ponds are home to koi and a great number of resident ducks.

Back on the road, we stopped briefly in Boorowa at the Marsden Street General for the best hummingbird cake ever! 

Once in Canberra, we visited the National Museum. Unfortunately there were only two permanent exhibitions and one temporary exhibition as everything is being renovated, but we particularly enjoyed 'Decoded', 75 years of the Australian Signals Directorate including foreign intelligence and cyber security.

The Entrance to the National Museum

From the Decoded exhibition

from the Australian historical exhibition

Cockington Green Gardens contains outdoor model buildings and scenes from around the world, and two wonderful doll houses in Victorian style.

The Ukraine miniature

We were curious about the CSIRO Discovery Centre so we drove up and spent a couple of hours there. It was a fascinating look at all the work CSIRO has done over the decades including inventions like WIFI, Aerogard, Softly washing liquid, extended wear contact lenses and plastic bank notes; work with livestock farmers to increase productivity and sustainability; research to support Australia's wildlife; everything from artificial intelligence to biodiversity to vaccines to emissions - they seem to have a hand in it all! 

We visited one of the largest and most extensive shopping centres we've seen, the Canberra Centre right in the CBD. And then we called in at Canberra's IKEA store and were completely blown away by the size.

Penny's long time friend Hilary and husband Graeme moved to Murrumbateman 15 months ago to live on the vineyard and winery owned by their daughter and husband: McKellar Ridge Wines. It had been 10 years since we'd last seen them so it was wonderful to catch up for a wine tasting (absolutely divine wines) and a delicious afternoon tea. Penny was finally able to meet her namesake, one of Hilary's six beautiful hens - we named one of ours Hilary many years ago.

The Royal Australian Mint is a recommended visit so we headed across town and spent a good hour learning about the history of coinage in Australia, the introduction of decimal currency and the actual factory production of our national coins. Fascinating. What we didn't realise is that the Mint has recently produced an uncirculated $1 coin for an issue called 'Dinosaurs Downunder' along with a special exhibition.

Factory floor

Two years ago (before our early return home because of COVID) we discovered the National Arboretum. A return visit was on our agenda this time and we began with a wander through Australia's best collection of bonsai (Japanese) and penjing (Chinese). 

On our last visit all the trees were green; this time many displayed a rainbow of autumn colours - just spectacular. We lunched at Ginger, a restaurant with fabulous views and even better food and wine.

Inside the Arboretum Village

Beautiful bonsais

Reluctantly we leave Canberra for the long drive home via Echuca.

💓

On 8 May we very sadly lost our beautiful Henrietta. She had recently turned ten years old and was the only survivor of our original four girls. We miss her so very much. Rest in peace lovely girl.