Wed 10th October 2012 Dubbo

We had a very relaxing sleep, Deb’s fear of lots of noise from the bus load of 7 year olds didn’t come to fruition, thankfully! After a quiet start to the day we headed off to the Dubbo Shoyoen Sister City Gardens. They are “an authentic Japanese horticulture and architecture” gifted to the city by their sister city on Japan, Minokamo. The gardens were very peaceful and beautiful. We were very lucky to be there in time to see the cherry blossom in full bloom , was beautiful. The lake was full of very lively carp, and the garden manicured perfectly as you would expect. Attached to the Japanese Garden was a Sensory Garden, filled with plants to tantalise the senses in colour, texture and scent. Deb had a lot of fun taking numerous photos of the flowers. After the gardens we went into the city centre and took a leisurely stroll down the main street. We came across the Old Dubbo Gaol, almost hidden down an alleyway off the main street. The town seems to have swallowed it up as it grew, with building completely surrounding it now. We decided that we had both seen enough old gaols for this part of our lives and so didn’t bother going inside for a look. Dubbo has a lot of beautiful old building but to me it looks tired, and the buildings put up in the 70’s/80’s need a bit of love to wake them up. That wrapped up our day, we decided to have a relaxing afternoon, which we both spent reading and even an afternoon nap, yep, we are both officially in holiday mode. 🙂