Parkes Tour 16th to 21st March 2025 - courtesy of Barbara Crossman

With a very early start, on Sunday 16th March, 42 Probus members headed off to explore the region around Parkes.  After a delightful morning tea, at the appropriately named Freudian Sip at Leura, and a sumptuous lunch at Lithgow, we journeyed on arriving in Parkes late afternoon.  Our wonderful coach driver, Michael, had a wealth of knowledge about the places we visited with lots of funny jokes along the way.

On Monday we drove out to Forbes and a tour guide joined us on the coach with all the history and information on the area including Ben Hall the bushranger, Lachlan Vintage Village and McFeeters Motor Museum.  We then drove to see the amazing sculptures along the Lachlan Valley Way as well as the incredible 'Utes in the Paddock' art piece.

We spent the day in Parkes at Henry Parkes Museum, the Parkes Antique Motor Museum and the Elvis Museum (with its replica of the gates into Gracelands) on Tuesday. The war memorial was a highlight with a beautiful view down to Parkes township.  We saw 'Elvis' statues and murals before heading out to 'The Dish' that put on a display, and we were lucky enough to see it move slowly to a near-vertical position.

On Wednesday we saw murals in Eugowra, then travelled on to Cowra to the Japanese Gardens and POW camp remains, followed by a visit to Grenfell with its painted murals on water tanks and silos.

Dinner was at 6.30pm with everyone dressing up and looking fantastic for our Elvis trivia night which was amazing to see.  Special mention to our Elvis’s in full Elvis costumes - Peter Norman, Margaret Hegarty, Margaret Dellow, Bob Husband, Pamela Webster and with our very own Priscilla – Jenny Chandler.  An amazing night.

On Thursday we headed off to Dubbo Zoo on a very hot day.  After lunch at the zoo, we visited the RFDS and had an interesting talk and enjoyed looking at all the exhibits.  Sadly, our last dinner was Thursday night, and we asked the cook, her staff, and all the motel staff Janelle, Gareth and Mel to come out so we could thank them for the amazing meals we had had and the wonderful service by them all.   All our meals over the 6 days were absolutely superb.

We headed home on Friday morning and arrived at Westleigh just after 4pm.