Dubbo hasn't changed much since we were last here in 1987, apart from a shiny new shopping centre and a lot of traffic calming.
We took advantage of a deal thoughtfully offered by the Zoo. "Since your so late have tickets which you can use tomorrow as well".
We took a quiet drive round the zoo to see what has changed and to orient ourselves for the early morning walk tomorrow. 6.45 am start!!!!.
Despite being up with the early birds, there was plenty of activity in the caravan park.
7 am start to the Early Morning Walk at the Zoo. Though it was only an average day they needed 14 volunteers to do the thing. Volunteers even man the gate for these events!.
We saw many animals in their night enclosures and the volunteer was informative if a little inaccurate at times.
Many birds including Apostlebirds, which abound in the cypress and casuarina forest around here, and which I'd seen as we drove from Gilgandra without being able to identify them.
The male Sumatran Tiger cubs born to Selatan at Taronga Zoo two (or is it three) years ago are now fully grown and very impressive.
We spent the day in the zoo taking in the Dingo keeper talk. I asked how to tell a Grey kangaroo from a Wallaroo. Wallaroos are more heavily built and have longer fur, but both have a wide range of colour. One day I might get the knack.
We had to wait in Dubbo for the delivery of a new heater for the Motley, so went into town to do shopping and haircuts and the like.
I sought help for my failed Zip Drive at a computer store in the shopping centre only to be told "We don't deal with Macintosh and we don't recommend Zip drives as there are better solutions.".
On the way to lunch, we came upon a computer shop where they offered to send the drive back to Iomega for repair or to sell me a new Zip SCSI Drive they just happened to have on the shelf. The deal was done and the backup is once again in order.
The new heater arrived as promised, much praise to Coast to Coast in Sydney, and the repair is complete. The weather has taken a turn towards warmer so we won't need the heater just now but we are, like all good boy scouts, prepared.
As the weather was propitious, we stayed an extra day in Dubbo to get the laundry done.