APEC Weekend trip to Dubbo

Friday morning we took off for our first trip to the "bush" outside of Sydney. First we drove about 30 minutes from our flat to the countryside home of Edna and Alan Watson. Edna is a half blooded Aborigine and they own a "mom and pop" souvenier shop out of their garage. Alan carves bowls, snakes, boomerangs and didgeriedoos out of wood; Edna is a painter and decorates them or does her own Aborigine paintings.

After our visit there we drove into the Blue Mountains, so named because there is often a blue mist over them formed from the Eucalyptus trees. On the way we passed Richmond Air Force Base which is an Australian base with a US presence. There on the tarmac was Air Force One as big as life. President Bush flew into Richmond to attend the APEC meeting.We travelled through the Blue Mountains passing the ZigZag Railroad station. This is a steam engine train ride into the mountains. The seniors will be riding it in October. They also have certain Saturdays when they run a Thomas engine and also a Harry Potter train with everyone dressed up as wizards. The Saturday we are going won't be either one of those.

We stopped off at Walls Lookout to view Pierces Pass.

We arrived at Dubbo around 4 pm and went straight to the Jedda Boomerang shop to see their boomerangs. Haemish, who owns the shop is supposed to be an expert in boomerangs. The shop was closed but after waiting about 30 minutes he returned. We enjoyed seeing his place. It was different, that's for sure.





This Sulpher-crested Cockatoo was in a cage at the Jedda Boomerang shop. Kids: This is a hint to one of the birds in the newsletter!

He got way excited when you rattled his cage!

We travelled with two other couples and because we joined the group late we could not stay in Dubbo. Everything was booked so we had to stay in Narromine, 30 minutes away. This was our Motor Inn - comparable to a Motel 8. The people were very nice.



On Saturday we spent the day at the Great Western Zoo in Dubbo. It has over 1000 animals, they are in their natural state and most are not caged but are out in the open. See if you can identify these animals! I am posting our favorites.
Kids: see if you can identify the ones that are in the newsletter! One of the pictures was not at the Zoo but was at the Aquarium.

Camel




Sleeping Hippo










Otter









Echidna

Petting Susy, the wombat.

Cheetah












Koala Bear





After church we drove home via the Blue Mountains, stopping at Katoomba, a quaint town where the Three Sisters rock formation can be seen. We had a great weekend!