Outback Queensland road trip: Day 3 To Charleville via Mitchell

 

By the numbers

825kms from Tweed Heads 

3 hours driving

1 Artesian basin

3 Bilby’s

 

The morning came and it decided to have a little extra in the cool department with Roma. The temperature had reached zero degrees and I was happy to be in a room that had heat so I wasn’t too cold. We had to pack the car to be on our way to Charleville. Since we were right on the main road, we could hear the trucks going past at all hours. That would mean some interrupted sleep, but once we are gone from there it should hopefully be quieter.  We had decided instead of winging the entire trip that booking things might be the way to go instead. When we left the trip told us that we would be in Charlebille by lunchtime and we were happy with that.

 

The roads opened up and there was not much in the way of traffic going in the same direction as us, but trucks and caravans going in the other direction towards Roma. Part way to our destination we stopped in the town of Mitchell, where we needed a pit stop. The town has a. artesian spa located at the information centre and we went for a wander to have a look. It was pretty busy in the morning and we didn’t try it out. Instead we ended up in the local museum about the area that told stories about the buildings and people of the area including the local bushranger who was in the area. We both found it interesting looking around and there were some things that I had not seen like a charcoal type fridge and a tar vat used for roadworks.

 

By the time we left Mitchell behind us the trip indicator said that we would be in town by 1pm and I kept an eye out for anything interesting as I could see signs that said the roads we wanted to take were open. When we arrived in Charleville we found we were too early to get into our accommodation, but could get the key, then come back after 2pm. We headed into the town and found there were plenty of empty shops and a hotel we were looking at, which was the put wasn’t serving anymore, but had on street parking. The whole area was really quiet and I thought it was unusual. Mum had been here some years earlier and it had been more lively then. We found a bakery for lunch and a pie, but there were no fingerbuns at all.

 

Once we got settled in the room, we went to something that had been booked the day before and that was the Bilby experience about bringing the animal back from the brink of extinction and the blokes who helped save the species. There is still plenty of work to be done including predator free habitats and education programs like at the train station in Charleville. There were people doing it on a tour group that is in town. We got to see the Bilby in their enclosure doing their thing. After that we went to have a look at IGA and then went out for dinner after we had a little rest in the room. I started looking at accommodation further on in the week to break up the long drives into smaller ones. We are staying in Euromanga and from there at Windorah that is then a 3 hour journey to Longreach instead of something silly like 7 hours. Will really be on the edge of civilisation then and sealed roads.