Day 32 Monday 9th August 2010

Unidentified glorious songbirds at the campsite this morning

Hello from Charleville (population 5500),
The camping crew are becoming a well oiled machine with a record quick getaway this morning aided by the fact it was warm and there was no dew to deal with. We zoomed northwards the 170km to Cunnamulla (population 1500) arriving about lunchtime and proceeded to try and find a decent coffee shop but ended with one of those auto bean machine jobs that have the powdered milk. I took them black and we added our own milk which just made them cold. Honestly you go to NSW and put your clock forward 30 minutes. When you go to Queensland you probably need to put it back ... 40 years (just kidding Barnaby).
We had our eye on a free camp spot about 70 km before Charleville but it didn't really grab us so we continued to Charleville where we are located tonight. The campground in town looked a bit sardine like so we came to this one about 8km out. It has been raining today and was raining when we set up but mercifully stopped as soon as i put my rain coat on. It's a nice park with good facilities although they were out of powered sites so the sun better shine otherwise i will be charging my battery in the camp kitchen! As I type this under the car awning sitting at the table it is raining quite steadily but at least it is warm rain! Apparently they had 80mm a couple of weeks back and yesterday it was freezing overnight. However for now it is warm. The other item of interest is some really large grasshoppers flapping around and hitting the tent like tennis balls. One actually landed on my chest which was a surprise. They are freaking Susan out and she has retired to the tent. I told her they are twice as big further north so I am thinking she will be buying a bus ticket home tomorrow. Speaking of further north i had it in my mind we were getting closer to Mount Isa. The signpost at the entrance to Charleville saying it was 1163km was a bit sobering. We will stay here for at least two nights and continue northwards.

Cheers Simon