Day 2 will see us drive through driving rain from Wagga Wagga North to Dubbo via Parkes and the dish.

A New Course

The rain continues to fall throughout the night and as we pack up Coco and prepare to depart the sleepy farm. We say thanks to Emma for the stay and chart our new route. We are now resigned to take it day by day and today we head to Dubbo. Its hard not to let go the iconic Barossa, Lake Eyre and Cooper Pedy, but this is what adventure is all about. Should we be able to cross the borders our new route adds 1000s of kms and means we will have no rest days before we hit Alice Springs in the red centre of Australia.

Stomping in Muddy Puddles

We pass the reigns to Google maps and are enlivened by some of the most creative routes the app could present us, small little floodways connect quaint little farms, the frequent water over the road tests the seals on the van as the aggressive tyres spray mud and floodwater up Coco’s apron.

Apparently we didn’t plan so well for water that comes up and a few of the windows let water in from the bottom sides, but nothing too drastic. Coco eats dust from the dirt roads taking a pounding as from a sand blaster, the result is a creative paint-stripped look on her normally beaming maw, while the sides and back remain untouched.

The Dish

Coming into Parkes the huge Radio-telescope can be seen in the distance, there is something about space which captures our imaginations. One of the most advanced scientific instruments in Australia seems in contrast yet strangely at peace with its dark skied surroundings.

The visitor centre is a great experience, a 3D movie explains the A-Z of telescopes and helps our befuddled brains as we try to grasp the concept that the further we see the further back in time we observe, theoretically back to the ancient origins of our universe.

Space-time is a bit of a trip and despite the well described animations of size comparison its still hard to grasp the infinitely huge numbers at play as soon as we move outside our galaxy and anything possible to depict in 2D. As we drive around what seems like a huge country, we will soon learn how small our land really is and gain a new perspective on our place in it.