Leaving the rains behind.

We have experienced some of the wettest days so today drove nearly 500km to reach dry land!  We’re set up now in Blackall - and have things out to dry - shoes, socks, towels, mats .... everything was saturated and it’s nice to be dry underfoot and see some sunshine! After Cobar, we had a comfortable trip to Bourke but from Bourke to Cunnamulla it was awful! We’ve not seen so much  rain - nor have we seen so many smiling faces!! We all hope these are the drought breaking rains they’ve been desperately waiting for. The paddocks and roads were awash and lucky it wasn’t a busy highway with lots of trucks - it was pretty slow travelling.

Once at Cunnamulla (where they had 100mm) we struggled to find a place to stay and settled finally on this lovely park we stayed at years ago on the Warrego River - however this time it was under water - we gave up trying to keep our feet dry and just waded through puddles - it rained the whole time we were setting up and unfortunately for Dennis, it became a bit of a drama when he managed to get a little bogged!! However, the Mitsubishi came to the rescue and pulled the rig back enough to enable Dennis to unhitch and get the car out then rehook and get in position. (The Mitsubishi was a little too powerful and pulled the new van into the bush 😳)

 All this was happening in the rain so a hot shower was very welcome then the boys took us out to the local pub for a nice meal as cooking outside was impossible.

    

Not much tennis happening here at the tennis courts! And it was great to see the artist at work on the water tower in Cunnamulla. 

We were still undetermined which route we would take but the rains and road closures made up our minds for us. All roads to the west were closed so we couldn’t go to Thargomindah or Quilpie but instead had to come north to Charleville, Tambo and now Blackall. This is the same route we took years ago on our trip to Cape York - we never imagined we would be on this route as we were wanting to be much further west in more outback territory - but we can’t control the weather! This time we had a look around Charleville and what a lovely old town it is.

Just out of Charleville we stopped to see the memorial to the terrible truck accident in 2014 - we remember hearing about that and hearing of the detours that were in place for ages. 

As we headed north we were immediately struck by the greenness and how lovely to see paddock feed - plus a few brolgas and later some cattle. Charleville had 30mm in this rain then they were lucky to get some from the remnants from the cyclones. So 5 years ago it was dry so great to see it lush now. We will head from here Longreach and Mt Isa way - all Tops and I want is a laundry!! 

How we wish we could send some of this rain down south - did Kerang get .2mm?  

We aren’t sure of our next movements but no doubt wherever we are, we’ll be very happy 😊😊. 

Till the next chapter, love from the travellers ❌❌❌