Day Four – Charleville to Longreach

One brief excursion in the middle of the night and by 6 it was time to think about getting up. After considerable thought, the idea was dismissed and only resurfaced at dawn, an hour later. I went over to have a shower and dress, while Lynn had breakfast. I had breakfast and started to pack while Lynn showered and dressed, then we broke camp, more efficiently than before but still not expertly. We left the camp at 8:40 with a temperature of 8°C. It’s getting warmer, but not as quick as we’d like, or had been led to believe. We headed off north along the Matilda Way, then diverted to go through Augathella. Here we saw the giant meat ants – one example was a few metres long and I have the photograph to prove it. Augathella was a nice neat town, but fairly small. As we left, the sky became more overcast and the temperature was going down. We stopped in Tambo and had a very nice pie (Lynn) and pie and chips (me). We also shared a table with a nice couple from Albury who gave a thumbs up to Lawn Hill and Adel Grove. As we headed off from there, the weather took a turn for the worse and started to rain. As a result, by the time we arrived at Blackall, we just had a look from ARTIE and continued on. The town is a lot bigger and has many more facilities than I expected. We arrived at Barcaldine and it was now pouring. A brief toilet stop, a very quick look at the Tree of Knowledge and we called into the Visitor’s Centre. We had seen the caravan parks at Barcaldine full to overflowing (probably because the floodways were looking as if they would soon also become overflowing) and I got the list of accommodation at Longreach. Our consensus decision is that if the ground will be soft and it will be raining, tenting is not an option. So I rang up the same place I had stayed in last year and we got a twin room for a not excessive cost. We left Barcaldine and passed wildlife and cattle looking very miserable in the rain. The surrounding paddocks looked as if they had already been waterlogged and al the culverts, drains, creeks and rivers looked set to rise, so our decision had been vindicated. We arrived in Longreach just after 5:30 and booked in. We parked ARTIE outside the unit, unpacked what we needed and had a light tea. Lynn checked all her messages, I sent out my texts (yes, Spotty was right, we are at Longreach and we’re going to be here two nights) and then wrote up my blog – but haven’t posted it yet). After catching up on the news, it was off to bed and sleep as soon as possible.