July 22

Today we passed through some quite hilly country between Emerald and Alpha after which we were back to the flat plains and basically straight roads. Once passed Alpha, we discovered we were back in triple road train territory, by law only doubles go any further east.

On the way here we were delighted by the flowering plants along the roadside. There is a very beautiful wattle with long flowers as opposed to the more common ball shaped wattle flowers. They look spectacular when bunched with lots of bushes together. We also discovered two grevilleas we hadn’t seen before. In a few places the wattle and grevilleas were mixed in together on the side of the road producing a stunning and colourful display.

After being disappointed with Emerald as a town, Barcaldine is totally the opposite. It’s only a small place, less than 2000 people but just oozes community pride and co-operation. A sign at the entrance announces it is an RV friendly town and it certainly presents that way. The main street is WIDE with centre parking in addition to the parallel parking on the kerb. Special parking areas have been set aside for long vehicles.

At the risk of sounding like a developing alcoholic, we were impressed by the architecture of the six, that’s right six, hotels in the main street. They all have heritage plates outside detailing their history.

The caravan park is excellent – only $20 per night and FREE wireless internet as long as you have your own laptop. This afternoon the park put on a Billy Tea and Damper session around a campfire. Tom Lockie, a local, provided the entertainment (and the damper cooked in a camp oven). He gave us a lot of background about the town (eg five bores have been sunk to provide the town with water, two are capped and kept in reserve in case anything happens to the three actually in use; there’s 33000 times more water in the Great Artesian Basin than in Sydney Harbour). He related lots of humorous stories and jokes as well as a couple of poems. He also conducts tours (7.30 am – 6.00 pm) which includes lunch and morning and afternoon tea for $125 a head. If things had been a little different we would have loved to have done his tour – another time perhaps!

It’s raining lightly at the moment – hope we don’t spring a leak!

Tara’s 18 tomorrow! Bloody hell, where’ve the years gone?