Western Plains Zoo (Dubbo)

While we were in Germany it was interesting to note that alot of people have travelled around the world as tourists, but have hardly seen their "back yard" of local destinations. For example when we visited Prague, a very popular tourist destination in the Czech Republic, about 5 hours by train from where we were living, we were suprised that hardly any of the locals had been there. Typical comment: "Never been there, but I've heard it's nice". But it's also the same for us. When Germans told us that they've been to Australia, they talk about all these places we've never been to!

Now that we've got Owen, we'll probably do a lot more local travel than we did before, and in May we did just that. So where could we go that is 5 hours away from Sydney? We chose Dubbo.

On our way there, we stopped at a few towns. At one of them, Owen discovered Autumn leaves. Since this time, whenever he sees a leaf on the ground, he'll want to bend down, pick it up, show it to you, and tell you "LEAF!".


You get stiff sitting in the car for so long, so while we were at this particular park, Nathan decided to get some exercise. Owen was delighted!



Because we got into Dubbo so late, the easiest thing to do was get a takeaway dinner. As a result, Owen had his first taste of pizza and lasagna. Country towns are not renowned for their food. This was the worst Italian food we have ever tasted!


The main attraction at Dubbo is the Western Plains Zoo. It's quite a large zoo, and they've made an effort to avoid obtrusive fences.


Instead, they use water, hills and low fences to keep the people away from the animals (or is it to keep the animals from the people?).



They had a few life sized animal sculptures around, which made for some good photos.



There is the real thing...



But actually, Owen wasn't that interested in the live animals. He'd take notice for a few seconds, and then be much more amused by the other kids running around.



One of the really close encounters was feeding a Giraffe from a high platform. As you can see HERE, Owen was a bit scared, and was pretty keen to eat the carrot himself!

Finally, another video. We stayed in a motel in Dubbo, and because it was a strange place, Owen kept crying in the night. To avoid complaints from our neighbours (the walls are very thin), we let Owen sleep in our bed. Owen must have liked the idea of using the "big" things, and so when he got this chance, he couldn't resist.