Tottenham

Another hot one today, with a hot wind as well. But that’s ok; its summer in Australia and that’s what happens.

I slept really well in my swag, and had the top open all night with just the netting between me and the stars. There's actually quite a bit of room in it, surprisingly.

We were on course for leaving Dubbo nice and early and were almost packed when along comes somebody who wants to talk bikes. He was a nice old fella though, and the subsequent spent 45 mins was pleasant enough, albeit that we could have been getting on. But its at time like that I have to consciously think that there is no rush, we don’t have to be anywhere in particular by any time and its just part of the whole travelling thing.

But when we did finally get away, we were straight onto country roads that took us through grassland, much greener and tree lined than yesterday, with more horses than cattle or sheep. And goannas, walking straight across the road and up the nearest tree.

Sadly, there was quite a bit of road kill too, dead roos and snakes, particularly in one place where they must have been hit by the same truck. It absolutely stunk,  and the smell seemed to follow us for severals kms.

We headed down to Parkes and the huge dish. Its actually a parabolic dish used for radio astronomy and was used by NASA for the moon landings and its surreal, looming out of the surrounding fields  like a weird bit of installation art. 

It's on the go the whole time, listening for radio waves emitted from stars and other stuff. You have to turn off phones and videos because they create radio interference, which narks the scientists. And top fact of the day ( the one I liked the best ) is that the power received from strong cosmic radio sources is only about a hundredth of a millionth of a millionth of a watt. No I didn’t know what that meant either until I read that if you want to heat water at this power rate, it  would take about 70000 years to heat one drop by one degree celcius. Can't see that catching on somehow.

It takes just 15 minutes for the thing to rotate 360º and they do pick up stuff, but I wasnt that impressed as I heard nothing at all, no martians, no approaching UFOs, no pigs in space, just a van load of Koreans arguing over whether the Neil Armstrong dish was better than the Buzz Aldrin fare.

And there was me thinking hot dog was their thing....

After the dish, we rode on to Tottenham, the centre of NSW. 

Yes, its really called Tottenham and no, its nothing like its namesake in north London, fortunately for it. Its a nice little  half a horse country village where the biggest thing to have happened ever it would seem, is the mouse plague of 1983 that caused problems for the hotel, Hotel Tottenham.

And what a find the campsite was. Spotlessly clean with toiletries provided, a full on kitchen and TV lounge and nobody else staying there, just a toad and his mate.

These little places are great, lurking as they do in the most unlikely of locations. We actually got a cabin  for a equivalent of about £20.00.