The rain and cold have continued to follow us... or we have folllowed it, from Broken Hill to Dubbo. The areas are so green now due to all the rain and we have seen lots of puddles of water everywhere along our route. As well as the water, we have seen lots of emus, goats and kangaroos - almost hitting one big one with the car (phew!).

After arriving in Dubbo, the centre of western NSW, the rain stopped and we were left with heavy dew and then a couple of crisp, clear, sunny blue-sky days! Wonderful!

Dubbo has a well-known zoo, the Taronga Western Plains Zoo, so we thought we'd spend a few days to explore the town. The Zoo pass is valid for 2 days, so on our first day, the weather was still overcast and cold, so we arrived later and spent a few hours driving around and walking to see the animals and any feeding displays as well.

The animals are all in fenced-off areas which are meant to resemble their natural habitat as much as possible. It's great to be able to see the animals at your own leisure and view them as naturally as possible in a 'zoo' environment. Our favourites were the family of lions - Dad, Mum & 3 cubs (6 months old), frollicking around like a 'normal' family! The Siamang monkeys were funny too, as well as the Ring-tailed Lemur (they all have 26 rings on their tails!) The Gallapagos Tortoise moved quite quickly when they knew food was coming and could even stand up tall when touched under their legs (apparently the finch pecks under their legs and when they lift up, they eat the parasites from under them!) - amazing!

The following day, clear and sunny, we arrived early at the zoo and hired a couple of pushbikes to explore more, as well as see some of the talks and feeds we missed the previous day. We had a really fun time.

Today, Sunday, we attended the Dubbo Baptist church which had a great family service - a very vibrant church community, as well as a walk through the botanical gardens.

Getting closer to home now.........!