Dubbo

On Friday, May 17, 2013 at 8:30 am, Hectie and I departed Sydney on our great Australian trip to find fun running spots all over the country! Our first stop…Dubbo, NSW…the home to the Taronga Western Plains Zoo and the Western Plains Cultural Centre.

From Sydney, we drove west beyond the sandstone cliffs of the Blue Mountains, a place I truly love. Then we continued through the agricultural plains, past the Big Gold Panner, through vineyards of Orange and kept driving along the Mitchell Highway all the way to Dubbo.

We arrived around 3 pm and decided to visit the zoo. The zoo is located on the outskirts of town. It is an open range zoo and perfect way to stretch your legs and see some cool animals. For the runners, there is a cycle way known as the Tracker Riley Cycleway that runs 3 km from the zoo along the Macquarie River to the Lions Park (which is close to the main part of Dubbo). You can continue past the park along the red crushed gravel path for a longer run.

Lemur at the zoo.

Note: Dubbo is a major administrative and shopping centre for the central west NSW. You won't find another sizeable town through the endless flat plains and outback NSW until Broken Hill.

Another attraction is the Old Dubbo Gaol on Macquarie Street. The prison was built in the 1870s and housed and hanged many notorious outlaws. There is also an exhibit about Tracker Riley in case you want to learn more about him. See http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/aboriginal-trackers.

After the zoo, Hectie and I settled in at the Tallarook Motel, located at 17 Stonehaven Avenue. The motel is seated across from the Lions Park, which is perfect for families and runners and runners with families. The rooms are quite spacious with full kitchen and strong free Internet connection.

We decided to skip an evening run, because we both were excited to be connected to the Internet and it was getting dark. We had dinner at Sticks and Stones Woodfire Pizza and shared a new spring pizza (vegetarian) and a Caesar salad. I tried a Johnny Q Moscato, which was chilled to perfection! I now understand the true meaning of that expression.

After a well slept night, we were up at 6 am on Saturday and out for a run along the Macquarie River. The trail system in the area near the motel is perfect and safe for runners. Hectic ran a quick 5km and I decided to run a little longer making it 8km (taking in part of the Tracker Riley Cycleway).

Lions Park in front of the Tallarook Motel.

Drove 413 kilometers, 6.5 hours.

Ran 8 kilometers (Saturday 18 May).

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