Day Three – Bourke to Charleville

A few hours later when it was time to get up, neither of us had had a satisfactory night’s sleep. I was warm enough despite the cold, but Lynn had cold feet (no, not that sort – her feet were really cold!). I got up and had a shower and dressed, then had a cup of tea at the camp kitchen and came back to find Lynn packing up. We managed to get the tent down quickly enough, but folding the fly had both of use baffled – so we packed it separately. We had noted the time it took to inflate the mattresses, so we didn’t deflate them, just put them on top of everything else. They fitted! We said goodbye to Bourke, leaving around 8 and with the temperature hovering around 6°C. We headed straight up to Barringun and tossed up whether to call into the pub or the Bush Tucker Inn. The Inn won as there were some people already there. I got a drink, Lynn got a souvenir. We continued on to Cunnamulla and had a look in the Visitor Centre, but decided we’d only spend a little time there. A quick look at the Cunnamulla Fella, a walk along the street which culminated in disappointment at the bakery running out of pies and an unsuccessful visit for Lynn to the bank. Thing looked up when we saw the pub’s lunch specials (hamburger and chips for $10) and got even better when we chatted with a couple who mentioned there was a good and quiet camp at Charleville. Lynn then had success at the post office (and so did I), so we headed off to Charleville. We arrived at Charleville just after 3, found the campground and booked in. We selected a site and put up the tent (found the tent peg hammer, so placed it in the tent bag), then put the mattresses and some other stuff in and headed off to the Visitor Information Centre. From the information we decided to do the Bilby Experience at 5 and then visit the Historic House the next morning. The Bilby Experience was good, with a show, a talk and then watching young bilbies dance around and forage in a small display area adjacent to the railway station. On the way back to the camp we did some grocery shopping (the shops were open late) and Lynn bought some bed socks. Back at the camp we unloaded the rest of what we needed, then prepared cheese and ham jaffles. There was a fire pit, so we had the jaffle irons on the colas at the edge. While cooking, then eating, we chatted to others – two couples from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, then two couples from Henty and Table Top, and finally two couples from Melbourne (one from Cowes, but that’s near enough). One of the couples had the lady attending Sunshine North Tech at the same time as I taught at Sunshine West High. The other couple had a daughter who works at Manor Lakes P-12, so there was a lot to chat about. By 8 we headed off to try to get to sleep – as it was quiet and we were tired, by not long after 9:30 we were asleep.