Days 50, 51, 52 & 53: 'Charlotte Plains' station stay

Day 50:
It was a beautiful fine day when we woke up - yippee!!! - with not a cloud in sight.

After a relaxed pack up this morning we headed into Boulders Cafe in Cunnamulla for coffee to wait for a call from Robyn at 'Charlotte Plains'
By 10.00am we had not heard from her so I called again a few times - without success and left a message for her again (she had recommended to me to call several times as she was not always a near the phone and she has no mobile coverage).
By 11.00 we still had not heard from her so we decided to head off and call again along the way. However we quickly lost mobile coverage and that was not going to be possible.

About 30km out of Cunnamulla we reached the first turn off for the property and sat contemplating whether we should just go in any way. We also tried to get her on the UHF radio (it stated the UHF Channel on the sign at the turn off from the highway). We also had no success raising her on the radio.

We decided to go to the next turn off into the property - another 10km up the highway. Here we stopped again contemplating whether we should just go in anyway and also trying to raise Robyn on the radio.
The road in here did not look so inviting so we resigned ourselves to just go on to St George today.
Lucky for us I moved a few metres and tried to raise her on the radio again and was this time successful.

Robyn advised the first turn-off from Cunnamulla was ok but she had not checked the second one and expected that it could be boggy. So back we went the 10km to the first turn and travelled the 20km into the homestead.

We saw heaps of kangaroos and emu and a couple of Brolga along this road.
And we did collect a fair bit of mud!!

We had no problems with the road in and when we arrived Robyn was not hard to locate at the homestead - despite the sign at the gate to come to the house and "Call very loudly"

She is a lovely lady and we chatted for a short time and then headed off, with mud map in hand, for the "bore-head" campsite - another 10 km into the property.

We arrived to a magic sight with the hot bore water flowing out of 3x elevated pipes into the bore drains at the campsite.

There were only 2x other campers at this site and we were able to select a spot overlooking the bore and quite a bit away from the others.
There is also heaps of firewood here as well which meant we could do all our cooking in the camp oven and boiling the billy for cups of tea.

We were "stoked" with this campsite and before the night was out were planning to stay 3x nights (we had originally planned to stay only 2)

After setting up camp, lunch and building a fire - we donned our swimwear and headed over to fill up the "old bathtubs" with water from the bore.

It was soooo!!! hot and you had to ease yourself into the bath - but it was just lovely when you got in. I had a glass of "red" to top of the experience - whilst lazing in the waters.

Tonight we had a camp oven dinner and enjoyed relaxing by the fire.

Day 51:

This morning we awoke to a perfect day - with the steam rising off the bore drain in the coolness of the morning

Stoked up the fire for a cup of tea and cooked brekkie.
Then we headed over to the bathtubs again - and enjoyed another relaxing & soothing wallow in the hot bore water.

I decided to take advantage of the hot water and the weather to do some washing

- and with the only job of the day completed we set off for a walk along one of the bore drains (we figured if we followed the bore drain we could not get lost). It was a lovely walk and we saw many birds and roos and emus - and of course cattle.
We even saw a couple of turtles in the bore drain and also a dead feral pig.

Back again we lunched and enjoyed sitting around relaxing and also another sunset soak in the bore. We also spent part of the afternoon chatting with the other campers.

Tonight we had a camp oven dinner again and enjoyed relaxing by the fire. Gosh this lifestyle is tough!!!!

Day 52:

This morning we awoke to another perfect day in paradise!!!

Stoked up the fire for a cup of tea and cooked porridge.
Another load of hand washing was my only job of the day and that was over by 9am.

By this morning we had already decided we would stay a 4th night - as we were feeling just so relaxed and loved this campsite.
You just got to love a campsite with a "Single Seater" long-drop dunny!!!

Not sure why you may need more than a "Single Seater" - interesting!!

Today we went on a tour of the property with the owner Robyn and a couple of other campers that had pulled in last night.
We really enjoyed this tour as it was a very personal tour of the place and some of her experiences growing up there and the history of the property.

We went through the shearing shed - a small section of which is still in use today to shear the sheep on this property. In its hey day this property was running many more sheep and there is quite a large section of the shed that houses the unused shearer stands.
We also went to visit the cemetery - it was common on these bigger properties for people to be buried in a property cemetery.
Another highlight was going to the old homestead house and seeing all the memorabilia that Robyn has for visitors to view. She has a substantial collection of old magazines on display that are pretty much mint condition - don't know where they must have been stored all this time but I think if she keeps them out on display in the open they will surely now detonate - which would be such a shame.
There was just so much to take in that I quite forgot to take photos - it was just an amazing array of memorabilia of times past - with the magazines, her mothers old special occasion dresses and much more that chronicled the history of this property that was obviously once an extremely prosperous venture and was a show piece of the region.

Another swim in the bore at sunset - with new arrivals and a walk the other way this time - we saw some cute little zebra finches on our walk this time.

Another camp oven dinner - spaghetti and very spicy meatballs - this was a spectacular success!!! - very scrummy!!

Day 53:
Today consisted of bathing in the bore - and another walk along the bore drain for hour and half.
Looking after the fire and watching the cows wandering around the campsite may sound a little boring to some - but we have whiled away another day feeling like we are just so much closer to the simplicity of living this life and being so much more a part of the landscape we are absorbing here in the outback.

So So tough this life!!!!
We spotted some gorgeous 'Crimson Chat'birds on our walk today around the property.

I wanted to cook a damper tonight - but have not done for a long time and was not sure of the quantities - so i got a recipe from some of the other campers that were now here with us camping at the bore. These new arrivals are from Lake Macquarie - what a small world!!!
I added a few extras to the basic damper mix and we enjoyed a lovely damper with our leftovers tonight for dinner.

We are again impressed that the dual battery setup has lasted so well keeping the fridge running for 4 days without any charging of battery.

Very cold wind all day today - just as well it was sunny.
This was our coldest night here, and even though we had a fire to keep us warm, we were off to bed earlier tonight.

The full moon came up and was red - coming up as sunset was not yet completed.

Day 48 & Day 49: Cunnamulla

Day 48:

We are just taking it pretty easy now and were on the road to Cunnamulla this morning at 9am. It's only a short 67km drive this morning.

Arriving at morning tea time we headed into a great little cafe - 'Boulders' (even had free WiFi - but I still had trouble with uploading the blog- gggrrrr!!) for coffee and muffins.

We checked out the statue of the "Cunnamulla Fella".
Stan Coster wrote the words for the song 'Cunnamulla Fella' when he was 'ringing' in the Cunnamulla district around the 1950's. Slim Dusty later recorded the song and it has more recently been recorded by Lee Kernaghan. The Cunnamulla Fella is the larrikin in all Australians. In the 1950 and 60's, Cunnamulla was enjoying prosperity and growth due to a strong wool industry. Friday and Saturday nights saw the young ringers and shearers race to town for dancin', lovin' and fightin'. These Young blokes worked hard and tommorrow was a long way off.

Then to the information centre to ask about camping sites - but with no free camps around town we elected to stay at a fairly new caravan park right on the banks of the Warrego River just 3km out of town.
We should do some more washing any way!!!

The location of the park is very nice and we have a spot right on the river.

It is a very new park and they are setting it all up quite nicely.
They even have bautiful rose bushes out the back of the laundry surrounding the clothesline.

We sorted the washing, some fresh food shopping and exploring around town.
Then we were just settling in to an enjoyable late afternoon on the river bank - when we got caught up in conversation with a couple camped near us. It was enjoyable to chat with them - but we found it difficult to get away and we missed out on a quiet relaxing sit by the river. Bugger!!!

We did see the beautiful sunset!!

We had to organise dinner then - so by the time we had eaten everyone else had finished up for the evening round the communal fire and disappeared to their respective camps for dinner.
Seems this crowd do an early and long Happy Hour and that's it.
By 8.00 the fire was burning without out a soul there to enjoy it.

I have to say it was a pretty warm evening so we did not bother to head over and sit on our own.

I should have known it was too warm as about an hour later it started to shower on and off and as the night progressed it got heavier. By morning the place was pretty messy and muddy.

Day 49:

I did find it nice to be lulled by the sound of the rain last night and it was lovely slumbering in bed late this morning knowing that it was still showering outside and not feeling the need to get up and do anything.

Once we took a look out we decided today would be a good day to head into a cafe for breakfast.

It is raining across the region here so we decided we may as well stay put where we are for another night.

It was a tough day - cafe breakfast (very nice cafe called Boulders - and very well set up with the bonus of free wifi), couple cups of coffee whilst reading a mag, a bit of local sight seeing.
The local museum at the information centre was well worth the $10 each - with a very well presented and interesting DVD about the Great Artesian Basin and stepping into a virtual time machine to travel back to the time when the Artesian Basin was formed was great. You stepped into what was like an old lift in a mine shaft - the doors closed and then it shakes & grumbles & shudders and they have an effect make you feel as if you are descending faster and faster. A the same time there is a digital clock counting backwards at first by hours, days, years and finally millions of years and tens of millions of years. Really it was simple but very effective in creating the illusion of travelling back in time in a "time-machine".
The countdown stops at 95 millions years ago - the door opens and you walk out into a dark tunnel surrounded by the noise of dinosaurs.

Then lunch and coffee, at 'Boulders' again and reading their mags.

Off then to check out a few sites around town -

* The Hotel Cunnamulla:

* The railway station: there is apparently only 3x railway stations in Qld with a covered platform such as this one in Cunnamulla.

* The Cunnamulla mural

* The Club Boutique Hotel
Not quite what we expected for the "Club Boutique" monica

* some cute old houses around town

We returned to camp at about 2.30 - amazing how you can while away the day.
We spent the afternoon wandering outside, trying to dodge the mud, between showers of rain and taking it easy just reading.
Before we knew it 5pm had come and gone.

Earlier in the day I had phoned Robyn at 'Charlotte Plains' - the station stay we wanted to go to (about 60km out of Cunnamulla)
She will ring us in the morning after she has assessed the road into the property.
We have our "fingers crossed" with the weather - as she said the road in today is pretty awful.

We are also hoping we won't be doing a wet and muddy pack up in the morning.
I think we should have not got this close to the coast - we should have stayed out west!!!!

The weather did start to fine up before we organised dinner - but we kept it pretty simple and had canned soup for dinner with bread sopped up in it.
We also ate inside the camper for the first time as it was still pretty muddy out and we had not put up the awning.

It was still not raining when we went to bed tonight - so we are hopeful for tomorrow being fine.

Day 47: Eulo

Slow start this morning - with no real reason to rush.
Enjoyed the hot shower
We left at 9.15am (after Ruth getting caught talking 15 mins - just as we were almost in the car).

Still seeing lots of Emus and also a few Brolgas on this drive today - in this are since we got to Quilpie we have seen much less roo population. Some of the emus wanted to cross the road in right in front of us but we spotted them in advance and slowed to let them pass.

Pretty uneventful trip - except for seeing a fox today at a roadkill carcass.
That is our first one for this trip.

One funny thing was this guy (a Victorian) towing a caravan - just stopped in the middle of the road next to where we had pulled well over to let him pass and started asking about where we had come from this morning and what was the road like??

We hit downtown Eulo about 11.am,

-- stopped for the obligatory coffee at the general store -

- and then checked into the Eulo Queen Hotel campground (out back of the hotel in a nice green grassed block of land) for tonight.

Seems the only place you can get mobile coverage in Eulo is at the General Store - as the sign indicates-"Telstra Mobile Service Here".
It should have also stated "here and only here"!!

We thought it would be fun to watch the final "State if Origin" at an outback pub. It's a nice area with good facilities (aka: hot showers) and only cost $10 for the night.

We set up, organised our lunch and then set off to walk back down to the Date farm where they make Date Wine and they also have the Artesian Mud Baths.
There was absolutely no one around the property or at the mud baths - as far as we could see. A sign on the gate just read "No Vacancy until Thursday 18th midday".
We asked back at the pub and they said that they seem to have gone away and did not tell anyone which is pretty silly as the pub is also the information centre and they have had people coming in asking to book for the mud baths and they (at the pub) had no idea that they were not available.
So today being Wednesday we are now deciding whether to hang around until lunch time tomorrow - to see if we can get in or just move on. We would be pretty disappointed to miss out on this!!

Since we were halfway out there - after we checked out the mud baths and found no one home - we walked on further out to the bridge over the Paroo River and had a bit of an explore around the banks of the river and the free camp out there.

Night before last they had quite a decent storm here and some of the area of the river side free camp is pretty sludgy still but starting to dry up. There were about 6 caravans out here.

We also wanted to go from here down to Currawinya NP - but after some discussion with locals and a family who had just came through from there (you should have seen their car and caravan - just covered in mud it was) we have decided that it is probably best left to another time - considering that the forecast for the next couple of days is for more rain in this area.

After dinner we headed into the pub to watch the decider of the "State of Origin" series. There was quite a crowd turned out for it in this little pub and it was great to see Qld the victors.

Day 46: Back to Quilpie and on to Toompine.

Nice bit of trivia on a sign as we were leaving Charleville this morning (very disappointed that we could not stop for the photo)

"Australia's longest road - The Diamantina Developmental Road at 1334 km - from Charleville to Mt Isa".

It has been quite a luxury for us for the past couple of nights to have our own (In our own room) flushing toilets and hot showers.
But I am already missing the open space and the lifestyle of being in the road - so cannot wait to get back out there!!!

We made it back to Quilpie in good time - before lunch - with no issues - only one roo crossing the road well ahead of us.
We hitched up and got on our way at about 11.30am

With fingers crossed for no more issues on the road to Thargomindah we headed off again. We were going to be very careful travelling this road - as the sides of this highway (the tar down the centre of the road) has mostly large rocks on the verges of the road.

We made it further this time thank god with no issues and were at the Toompine Hotel safely for lunch.


This is a hotel without a town and officially has a population of 2.

They offer a free camp with powers if you want, flushing toilets and hot showers.


So here we decided to stay for the night.

We had lunch in the pub and the selected a site and set up camp.
With all the goats, donkeys, alpacas and the rest of the menagerie - including a few other campers!!

Could be interesting going to the amenities if it is gun club night - as they are in the shooting range grounds!!!

About 4.00 pm a multitude of goats started appearing behind our campsite - they were queuing up along the fence around the small dam behind us. They stood around for a while as more and more started coming in. Next thing - about 45 mins later we here motor bikes and we see the cook / bar maid / owner of the pub flying by on a bike - still in her dress still with her apron on. So she now heads off along with some other young guy and they appear shortly after with a whole lot more goats they have herded up and a couple of donkeys.
She apparently has about 180 goats (many appear to be pregnant) - she locks them up every night as they have had trouble with dingoes, foxes and wild dogs getting the goats.

Interesting that a town with population = 2 has a "progress association". -----


It is a pretty quiet evening and we end up playing scrabble in the tvan before bed as we did not have a fire and it was getting quite cool.

Tomorrow we plan to go just down the road - not far south to Eulo (160km) and hopefully go to the Artesian Mud baths. I have been trying to ring them to book in as the people camped next to us tonight have been there and report - "It was magic"
We had tried to ring this place a few times the afternoon but no one was answering.
Yes in the middle of nowhere with only a pub we had pretty good phone coverage.