We started the day at the Artesian Hot Springs which is only 200m down the road from where we are staying. The Great Artesian Basin covers 22% of Australia and this particular bore goes down 1km.They have one big one which is fairly hot and this runs into a smaller shallow pool which is a little cooler. This was great for the kids so we spent most of the time there. We then went back to camp for a swim in the camp pool. It is heated so was also really nice ...

Driving on to Lightning Ridge today, we stopped around halfway at Narrabri. We went to Australia's Telescope Compact Array. It was well set up for tourists with good information around and it was all free and self guided. Playing with the whispering dishes were fun, where two dishes face each other about 50m apart and if you stand in the right position and whisper, the sound comes out clearly for the person at the other end. The compact array is where they use ...

It was a nice drive north as we heading into Coonabarabran where we would be spending New Year's Eve. It was a bigger town than I expected but they still didn't have anything on for the night such as fireworks. We checked out the Crystal Kingdom which was free to look around at their mineral and gemstone collection. It was a good collection and a nice lady in store. We then went back for a swim in the caravan park pool. There is only about 3 people camping...

We went back to the zoo this morning in time for the first talk and feed show.There was quite a line up for tickets so I think it worked out well for us to arrive around lunch yesterday as we walked straight up to the ticket desk. Also because it is a one way track for the majority of visitors (those in cars and buggies) all the crowds were gone by the time we started. We did arrive a little too late yesterday at 1pm, ideally it would be best to arrive about 12 a...

We arrived later than I had wanted but we still managed to drop off the camper at Terramungamine Reserve (to make sure we got a spot) and got to the zoo at 1. The plan was to see a section of the zoo and some shows to make it easier tomorrow. The boys rode their bikes around whilst Matt and I walked. We saw quite a few animals in the time we were there and my favourite were the white-handed gibbons swinging around the ropes. We watched the Galapagos Tor...