12 September – Saturday
Very cold night – about 4 degrees at 6.00 am and 24 degrees at 8.30 am! Very clear and hot today with the temperature reaching at least 30 degrees and the humidity only 6%.
As we hadn’t unhitched the caravan yesterday, it didn’t take long to pack up this morning as we headed for Charleville. The road was good apart from a couple of bumpy patches and we did pass a number of road trains. We have found the road train drivers to be very courteous and always pull well over, as we do also, of course. Cars pulling camper trailers are generally the most discourteous, never slowing or pulling over – they don’t worry about how many stones they toss around!
A bit of live wildlife today, all of the feathered variety - brolgas, bustards and emus. There was still plenty of kangaroo and wild pig roadkill to keep the crows and kites happy, as well.
We called into Augathella for a break beside the Warrego River – another upside down river. The information sign told us that Warrego is the Aboriginal word for dry, sandy river! Augathella is a small country town with a number of murals decorating buildings. A big mural of Smiley made us think that perhaps this is the area in which the Smiley film was set.
As we continued to Charleville, the black soil grass downs suddenly gave way to beautiful red dirt and mallee scrub.
Charleville is about the same size as Longreach, or perhaps a little bit bigger, and we have booked into the Bailey Bar Caravan Park. Mmmmm. Very friendly owners, we have a nice shady site with its own personal herb garden, fairly cramped, a lady with a very loud, coarse voice and who loves loud country and western music in a caravan opposite, and lots and lots of small, snarly, yapping dogs. We have had so many dogs around us lately!
This afternoon we just did a recce of the town, looked at the Vortex Rain Guns which were supposed to save the town from drought in 1902, visited the information centre and booked into the Observatory for tomorrow night and the Bilby Experience on Monday night. Tomorrow is National Bilby Day and every other year there has been a market, parade and fireworks in Charleville to celebrate – this year they are having a fun run!!!
Very cold night – about 4 degrees at 6.00 am and 24 degrees at 8.30 am! Very clear and hot today with the temperature reaching at least 30 degrees and the humidity only 6%.
As we hadn’t unhitched the caravan yesterday, it didn’t take long to pack up this morning as we headed for Charleville. The road was good apart from a couple of bumpy patches and we did pass a number of road trains. We have found the road train drivers to be very courteous and always pull well over, as we do also, of course. Cars pulling camper trailers are generally the most discourteous, never slowing or pulling over – they don’t worry about how many stones they toss around!
A bit of live wildlife today, all of the feathered variety - brolgas, bustards and emus. There was still plenty of kangaroo and wild pig roadkill to keep the crows and kites happy, as well.
We called into Augathella for a break beside the Warrego River – another upside down river. The information sign told us that Warrego is the Aboriginal word for dry, sandy river! Augathella is a small country town with a number of murals decorating buildings. A big mural of Smiley made us think that perhaps this is the area in which the Smiley film was set.
As we continued to Charleville, the black soil grass downs suddenly gave way to beautiful red dirt and mallee scrub.
Charleville is about the same size as Longreach, or perhaps a little bit bigger, and we have booked into the Bailey Bar Caravan Park. Mmmmm. Very friendly owners, we have a nice shady site with its own personal herb garden, fairly cramped, a lady with a very loud, coarse voice and who loves loud country and western music in a caravan opposite, and lots and lots of small, snarly, yapping dogs. We have had so many dogs around us lately!
This afternoon we just did a recce of the town, looked at the Vortex Rain Guns which were supposed to save the town from drought in 1902, visited the information centre and booked into the Observatory for tomorrow night and the Bilby Experience on Monday night. Tomorrow is National Bilby Day and every other year there has been a market, parade and fireworks in Charleville to celebrate – this year they are having a fun run!!!
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