Wanting to get away early to obtain fuel, the alarm was set for 6:30am, however, we did press the snooze button once before getting up to an overcast morning.
Last night had been comfortable with blankets thrown off a couple of times. As we were free camping, we used the onboard facilities, so no time was wasted walking to amenities blocks.
We had expected our group to depart around 9:00am but much to our surprise, the first left at 8:20am followed a minute or two later by another member of the group. We were told yesterday that vehicles had to queue for fuel from a petrol station at the end of town, but we were aware of a second location that we did not see yesterday. We left just before 8:40am and were fortunate to get quick access to the fuel pump shortly after we arrived there. Another member of our group came in immediately after we had refuelled and vacated the driveway.
With a slight tail wind, we started to head south. Friends call us on the UHF and learning that they were only minutes behind us, we slowed until they caught up. The road south was not great with a lot of dips. Soon we would find out that the road after our first stop at Tambo was worse.
We stopped at Tambo for morning tea before returning to the highway with the next intended stop being Augathella. This is where the road got worse with a lot of dips that caused the car and caravan to bounce.
At Augathella we stopped for a quick break as well as taking pictures of the street art and a painted silo. Leaving Augathella, we indicate that one of our group who was travelling quicker could pass us after leaving the town. The spot picked was at the turn-off point to Charleville and in the process of pulling over, we missed the turnoff and started to head towards Morven. We had to travel about 5 kilometers before we were able to turn around. Later we would learn that two other members of the group missed the turnoff and travelled about an extra 60k’s via Morven to Charleville.
Expecting to take 30 minutes to catch-up with friends who had turned correctly, we were surprised and grateful to learn that one couple had stopped and waited for us to catch-up.
The trip through to Charleville went without further incidents and we parted company with our friends at the turn-off for our campsite as they continued to refuel. It didn’t take long to travel the 8k’s to the Evening Star Caravan Park where we had booked for 2 nights. It was during this drive that we noticed it had rained, not much, but it had rained. This was the first real rain that our group had encountered since the third day of this trip.
The operators of the caravan park had located us all together and we went through our normal setup procedure quickly. He did notice that a cover on one of the waste pipes was gone so we quickly drove into Charleville to locate a hardware store to purchase a small amount of fly screen. Next stop was the IGA for some fruit and salad and a chicken for our evening meal. When we were in the IGA, we received a call asking if we still wanted to see the sun through a telescope. Someone had cancelled a booking, so we quickly headed to the tourist information centre at the Charleville Railway Station where we learnt that we had a booking for four on the next day. We paid one of our group who had paid for the tickets.
Returning to the caravan park, we learnt that a happy hour was to be held at 5:00pm where a damper and musical entertainment would occur. With one of our members having lung issues and the fact that we would be sitting facing the sun, we decided to hold a separate happy hour specifically for our group.
We held our happy hour with one couple missing. Later we learnt that they had taken the opportunity for a hosted “pub crawl”. One of the group did wander over to the camp kitchen and returned with a plate of damper. The music continued for a while as did the enormous campfire that had been lit in the area of the camp kitchen.
We had chicken for tea.
We have no television, no internet through our normal carrier (the park does have satellite internet, and we have access to that) and limited telephone service. We are out in the bush and away from the lights of Charleville. There is no sound of aircraft, just the occasional sound of a speeding car on the road used to access the park. There is the sound of birds and we have access to a clear unpolluted by light, dark night sky. Even the moon comes up late so we can see all the stars. Is this heaven as it is a perfect bush setting?
We were happy to go to bed relatively early to enjoy the forecast overnight temperature of 15 degrees which should provide the ingredients for a good sleep.