With binoculars out and checking out what was around this morning - I was very excited to spot 6x wild pigs on the opposite bank of the lake - all scurrying away from the shore as an old farm vehicle on the adjoining property trundled down towards the lake.
Our friend "Bruce" (the emu) also came down to see us this morning!
We cooked toasted sandwiches for breakfast, over the coals of the fire, and had a leisurely pack up this morning.
On the way back out to the main road we saw a couple of Brolgas - which took flight as we approached.
We had set off about 10.00am heading for Thargomindah via Toompine - with a plan to probably camp at the Toompine Hotel overnight. This was to be only a short hop today (76km)- but we had been told this is a great spot and we thought a Saturday night there might be fun.
Unfortunately we did not get far out of town (approx 7- 10 km) when we had a truck speed past us throwing up a rock, the size of a cricket ball, that broke the windscreen.
We had an impact area on the passenger side the size of a golf ball and almost all the way through the windscreen with many large cracks radiating from it.
Ruth had small shards of glass all over her and we were noth relieved that the rock had not come all the way through as it would surely have caused some injury.
There was nothing else to do but turn around making our way slowly back into town.
Let me paint the scene -
A small outback town on a Saturday morning and it has no windscreen refit or repair service.
So Moores spent a good hour & half on the phone to Suncorp Insurance trying to work out a plan of action.
Ruth sitting in the local coffee shop writing this blog.
It seems Roma is the closet service centre with Obrien's Glass and that is almost 500 km away. Understandably they were not keen on the idea of Suncorp request to have them send a truck to Quilpie to fix it!
The Insurance company considers the car is undriveable as both layers of glass have been broken in the windscreen and after much toing & froing the plan is for the local RACQ towing contractor to put the car on his tow truck and take it to Charleville - just a short (Ha Ha!!) 211 km away. He was busy a fair way out of town, at Thargomindah, and could not take us until tomorrow.
The up side of this story is that Moores upgraded to car insurance before we left on this holiday and we are covered for absolutely everything and sundry to the max.
This means the towing, accommodation here and in Charleville, the replacement windscreen & other sundry costs like food in Charleville are covered.
We have booked into the Caravan park here in Quilpie for tonight and tomorrow (Sunday) we go in the tow truck, to Charleville, with the ute. We are booked into a Hotel there for just he one night at this stage - hoping all will be fixed on Monday for us.
The caravan park is happy for us to leave the camper with them (which is great) and they are also going to put our fridge out the back of the office on 240volt power for us whilst we are gone.
We had planned to go to Charleville anyway after heading down to Thargomindah and Cunamulla area - so we will just be doing it in reverse now.
The other upside is being here again in the caravan park for a night I have washed absolutely all sheets and clothes and given the kitchen area of the tvan a good clean up.
However I am not looking forward to a 2 - 3 hour trip in the tow truck tomorrow. There are no hire cars in Quilpie.
We booked in for the big spit roast and baked veges dinner put on at the caravan park tonight. This was a great meal for $17 each and they also had entertainment in the form of the resident country and western singer who is pretty good, as well as a local bush poet who was excellent.
The meal and entertainment area is set around a huge communal fire which sets the scene and provides a nice comfy warm zone for the evening.
We enjoyed chatting later with 2x couples, travelling together,who we had previously met at the free camp at Cooper Creek. They are passing through here just for an overnight stay tonight and we enjoyed this evening with them.
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