There looked to be some fog around the airfield this morning which we thought may affect aircraft operations, but as we were readying the van for departure, a small plane landed. A couple of small vans had arrived a little earlier and in a very quick exercise, they transferred some freight. It was interesting to note that they used a transparent "roller door" on the side of the plane and hint to the aircraft's alternative use was the "SKYDIVE" sign on its rear.

It's been many years since we visited the CSIRO radio telescope just North of Parkes. In fact it was probably before it gained its nickname of "The Dish" when in 2000 an Australian film of that name was released. It tells a somewhat fictionalised story of the Parkes Observatory's role in relaying live television of man's first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

But it made an ideal spot to stop for a lunch break and we enjoyed a light lunch in the Dish Cafe which has a great outlook to the facility, particularly as it was repositioned to its new search direction, which can be seen here.

We noted that the flags were at half-mast and this was because today was Tim Fischer's state funeral. The service was held at Albury after Tim's coffin had been transported to the Albury Railway Station on a heritage train in recognition of his love for trains.

We arrived in Narromine just after 2pm which would have allowed us a few hours to see a couple of the attractions the town has to offer, however while setting the van up at the caravan park we found the lock on the van door had broken. After a few minutes of head scratching as to how we'd be able to get in, we worked out that we could unlock the door by using our awning rafter to operate the internal handle through the tunnel boot and bedside cupboard doors. 

Unfortunately the handyman work to make the door operable again meant we didn't get to see any of Narromine's tourist attractions, but we were entertained by the various park pets which include an alpaca and turkeys.

We purchased some lamb chump chops from the local butcher to have with steamed vegetables for dinner. Dessert was banana with ice-cream and a cup of tea with the last of the muffins.