Parkes 10 September 2015

Drove past hundreds of acres of bright yellow Rape flowers – it made an amazing sight. It carpeted the rolling hills and we felt like we were driving past a giant Christo wrapping. Stopped at Peak Hill for coffee. We haven’t visited this town for over 10 years, but little has changed since our last visit.

It was once a prosperous gold mining town, with about 30 shops along the main street. It currently has about 5 shops left, however the locals are now using some of the empty shops as art galleries, craft shops and junk shops – at least it makes the town feel more alive! Drove onto the Parkes Radio Telescope. We remembered it from the movie The Dish, where it played an essential role in broadcasting the first moon mission in 1969. It has an enormous dish, 64 m across and can be seen for miles across the sheep paddocks.

Camped at Parkes for the night, which is probably most well-known for the Elvis festival it has every January.