DAY 20

DAY 20

10^th July

The dry arid lands of the outback are now resembling a delta. Looks like we are going to have rain with us for most of the week. A bit of a downer for the last part of our holiday. With more and more roads closing our options were pretty much limited to the tarred roads.

 After a hearty breakfast at the quaint Noccundra Hotel, we all decided to keep heading towards Bourke via Thargominda and Cunnamulla. A long, rainy drive on tar. A challenging day in the car for the kids. We filled up with petrol at Thargominda. It was too wet to bother trying to see the river.

There was a break in the rain as we arrived at a little town around 2pm called Eulo, a cute little opal town. We made it just in time for the hotel to scrape up some stew, damper and billy tea for lunch, yummo. Just perfect for a rainy day.The population of Eulo is 50 people and 1500 lizards. Still didn’t see a lizard though, other than the one that didn’t make it across the road just before we came in to town.

After lunch I went for a wander up the street with the kids. During my absence the others decided should keep pushing on until Bourke. I would have been happy to camp in Eulo, but the thought of a two night stop at Bourke could be good for some of the group. So it was going to be a late one. Pretty tough for the kids but they handled it quite well. Jamie and Michael have been so good on this trip! We stopped occasionally for wee breaks and to swap drivers only. A long wet drive down the Mitchell Hwy. It looked like the road was built for the purpose of roo culling... Mike finally noticing all the lumps on the side of the road. We did see lots of living emus, kangaroos, goats, dingos, pigs, sheep and cows.

We finally got to Bourke about 7pm. We had to find a spot at the caravan park and set up in the dark. Luckily it wasn’t raining, but it obviously had been as there was plenty of sloshy mud about. Then it was minor melt down night for some people. The wet and mud getting a little too much. Woops. Peter and Anthea decided to head on into town to try to find a room. It was pretty tough for them with Chelsea and all the mud and wet. Chez was also upset, thinking that everyone was blaming her L

In the end we all got set up for a 2 night stay, even managed to get some grass under our swags , so all good J We used a great camp kitchen to heat up our dinner. After the kids went to bed we joined Cheryl and Col at the big camp fire with a drink and chatted with a group of coppers that were staying for a train the trainers camp. Turned out to be a very pleasant evening. (Poor Peter and Anthea couldn’t find a room in town and ended up back at the camping ground with us. The coppers said they’d be better here anyway as it can be pretty rough in town at night. We decided just to leave them and give them some space.)

Whilst at the campfire, Stu and I had all our  bedding in the laundry driers. With the rain a pool of water got into our swag bags whilst on the roof of the car and had soaked right through wetting one side of the swag. We put a tarp over our mattress and then put the dry sheets and blankets back on.