We did enjoy our stay in Thargomindah - one of the nicest little towns you’d come across. I did neglect to say that they were the 3rd place in the world - behind London and Paris, to have hydro electric town lighting. Quite an achievement! We stayed at the Quilpie caravan park as we were unable to camp out at the Lake farmstay due to wet conditions. We were quite comfortable there and had I packed our swim wear, we could have enjoyed an artesian spa bath!! Quilpie is a little larger town with more facilities including 2 supermarkets, a bakery, a chemist, several coffee shops, museums, schools and of course a pub! We were able to catch up on some washing - even our smelly fire coats - stock up our supplies and enjoy a coffee too. St Finnigins Catholic Church has beautiful opal altar which we were able to admire - the colours were beautiful.
I had planned to seek my fortune looking for opals at the fossicking area just out of town, but thought I’d not have much success so saved myself the disappointment! I may try further down the track if we get to Opalton!
We climbed Baldy Hill lookout where we had a good view of the surrounding area.
From Quilpie we travelled along the Diamantina developmental road through lots of channel country where there was quite a lot of water still lying around. We crossed the Cooper creek just out of Windorah and it’s quite a wide expanse of river here. Some enthusiast even had a house boat there.
We had a picnic lunch at Windorah (which isn’t very big at all) and saw this solar set up which looks like the one at Bridgewater. This one seems to be operational though and supplies power to the town.
We are now at Jundah, another small town on the Thompson River. The Thompson and Barcoo merge south of here to create the Cooper Creek! We’ve now seen the Cooper creek at Innaminicka, on the Birdsville Track and at Windorah. Of course this creek, when flowing, runs into Lake Eyre.
We are unsure how long we’ll be here as the tour we’d planned to do in the nearby Welford National Park won’t happen as the park is closed - and with rains forecast we may have to move onto Winton via Longreach as that road is sealed! So the rains are great for everyone except outback travellers! However, with no time restraints and no set itinerary, we can work around what ever turns up. Meanwhile, we are enjoying warm weather here (about 30 degrees) so the shorts and T shirts are out again.
We trust everyone is keeping safe and we are still thinking of you with the restrictions. All the areas we have been to are quite COVID conscious with hand sanitisers at every location, a register to record details in case tracing needs to occur, and social distancing is always followed. Fortunately, wherever we’ve been, we’ve not come into contact with many people so I think we’re pretty safe.
Take care, love from Marg & Darryl ❌❌❌
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