I set my alarm very early to see the sunrise. We lay in bed and watched the the giraffes silhouetted as the sky slowly changed colour.

About 5.30 I rugged up, grabbed an instant coffee and went to sit outside. It was fun watching the animals around each other. The rhinos were not surprisingly the bosses. When they went to the giraffes area the giraffes quietly wandered off. The ostrich ran away in panic any time the rhinos came close. The zebras seemed to like hanging around the giraffes. When I asked our your guide later he said it’s because giraffes can see danger so far away and lot of animals like to be near them.

6.30am the lodge opened for coffee so we went and got coffee and hot chocolate and watched the animals some more. Our tour was at 7.30. I had a quick shower and another instant coffee before the tour. I won’t say I was hiding the 3rd coffee but I was being discreet. Chris knows I have a coffee addiction but not the extent. Not discreet enough because I heard are you having ANOTHER coffee?

The stay included a morning behind the scenes tour including the elephant morning wash. 

Breakfast was included and we were handed a menu with a nice selection of food and drinks. I thought because it was included it might be average, but no it was really good. The feta and sour dough so good. I took no photos so take my word for it.

I had the best chai latte I’ve ever had. So creamy and delicious.

We made the decision to skip the free zoo entry day. We had seen a lot on the tours and I was keen to get to Lightening Ridge. 

It’s a 350km drive from Dubbo to Lightening Ridge. On the drive along the Newell Highway through Dubbo we passed a McDonalds. Chris knows I like Macca’s coffee and asked if I was ready for another one. What a good hubby being supportive of my habit but I declined. Four before 10 is enough even for me.

Chris said Dubbo seemed nice. I pointed out we hadn’t actually seen the town just the highway on the outskirts – but he said it’s green. So there you go official review of Dubbo. It’s nice. Green.

The first town out of Dubbo was Gilgrandra. I googled it. It is the home of the Australian call coo-ee. As in when you are lost. There was a display at the Cultural Centre / Information Centre so we decided to stop. Turned out it was also another nice Information Centre.  You’ll be glad to know Chris was impressed with their toilets.

There was an area for caravan parking. Chris pulled up. I said you should go right forward so others can pull in behind you. Rather than be appreciative of my guidance – it seems guidance from the co pilot is only required after the car has stopped. Or actually not at all.

We learned about the history of the famous coo-ee march – men marching over 300 miles to recruit soldiers for WW1. Reading between the lines must have been enormous pressure in the small towns for the young men to sign up.

Gilgandra is also the windmill town so we did a 2km walk into town to see some of the reclaimed windmills on the windmill river walk.

Then mucked around getting tacky photos against a wall mural. Which is nothing against the mural, which was great.

At that point Chris said it’s 12.00.

What!!!  How is it 12? We are 2km from the car and at real risk of missing being at Lightening Ridge at sunset at the rate we were going.

We power walk back to to the car. I am mentally calculating how many stops we can still have. Do we need to eat? Why did we spend so long taking tacky mural photos when Lightening Ridge is calling??

It made me reflect on the purpose of a road trip. It’s a taster of a lot of places. If you want to get anywhere on a road trip prioritization is required… I said this to Chris. He said well you want to actually taste the taster.

We didn’t stop and got to Lightening Ridge late afternoon. Stopped at the Information Office first. I loved the piped music walking into the office I felt like I had stepped back in time. I’ve decided you can tell a lot about a town by its mini golf and Information Centre.

Information Centre people are so helpful! I know that’s their job but they are so helpful.  We came out with a plan for our 18ish hours in Lightening Ridge.

We headed out on a famous Lightening Ridge car door drive.  There are car door drives routes to follow – each route follows a trail of coloured car doors (ie the red car door trail, the yellow…). The Information Centre has the maps. We chose the green door because it ended in the best sunset location. The light was divine as we took the short trip there. There were other people arriving and lining their cars up with their utes pointing towards the sunset. People were pulling their chairs out. I took photos then we sat down with our drinks and cheese to watch the sun going down. Fantastic.

We headed almost straight off after that to the bore bath right near our caravan park. Speaking of caravan park we are staying at a Big 4 and I booked an ensuite site. Never have I had so much luxury camping and do I feel guilty? Not one bit.

Anyway the bore bath is really big circle mineral pool bath. The water which is normally 43 degrees was cooler due to the wind. Perfect soaking temperature. It’s heated naturally from the artesian bore. It was quite deep I could just touch the bottom on tippy toes. It was dark by the time we got there at 7.15 and people were coming and going pretty regularly. Combination of visitors and locals. It didn’t seem crowded and people were quiet and enjoying the soak. The stars were coming out and it was so relaxing. Our skin felt so soft and smooth.

Someone walked up to ask us about the water temperature and walked away all excited when we said perfect. Chris said I love being able to answer questions from people who haven’t been here before. ‘ ‘Now that you’re an expert?’ lol.

The baths are open 24 hours and free. Not supervised. I can’t imagine that ever happening in Melbourne.

Chris is sound asleep now in bed it’s 9.10 big day!