We left the prettiest campground ever at 9.30am and headed up the Mitchell towards Tambo, 400km North.
Apparently it was "dodge the wildlife on the road day" again, which meant we had to drive much slower than usual.
But that was ok, cos we were lucky enough to be driving across the drought stricken Australian outback as it experienced the first rain in years. What an amazingly special experience. It got us to reflect on what this amazing trip has meant for us and how incredibly humbled we feel to have experienced so many amazing extremes: We have seen the Todd River in Alice Springs running for the first time in years, sweated in the searing 41 degree heat near Uluru, we got stuck in knee deep mud in the middle of the Central Australian desert, marvelled at Lake Eyre in its life giving sea-like beauty. We have frozen our butts off in the Victorian High Country, shot the Alpine rapids on a blow up flamingo, witnessed the breaking of the two decade long drought in Queensland, among other things. We are a pair of very lucky happy campers.
As we drove, we celebrated by eating leftover cold pizza and listening to Powderfinger. Life was good. Very very good.
About 40km south of Charleville, the road was completely flooded. It didn't look too deep but regardless, we stopped and Laura prepared to get out and walk through it to check for any subsidence and/or sinkholes.
Just then, a huge touring caravan roared past us and headed straight into the flood without even slowing down! Bloody idiots! So we just watched them go through it and luckily they were fine. Not what they should've done at all, but it did serve as a guide for us!
So we went through slowly but steadily, following their line and it was fine.
After that the drive was pretty uneventful, as the rain clouds cleared and secrete rewarded with blue skies and 24 degrees!
We did see a very odd looking couple leg of birds; one tried to fly into us from the roadside while the other stalked away extremely slowly as we bore down on him, with his neck all fluffed out and his beak pouting upwards. We later discovered them to be Australian Bustards which are very rarely seen as they are seriously nomadic and follow the rain around the country.
Apparently they used to be prevalent until Captain Cook declared them to be "the tastiest bird he'd had since leaving home" and now their numbers are vastly decreased. How lucky to see not one but two and doubly lucky we didn't smoosh either of them either!
We stopped for fuel just outside Tambo at the most beautiful rest stop with a lake and a bird hide.
As we drive into Tambo proper, we were charmed by the pretty cottages and shops lining the lovely main street. It was clear they really cared about their town.
We set up camp at Tambo Mill; again we were the only ones there so we got the puck of the best spots and went for one under a Queensland Bottle Tree.
We took the pooches for a stroll around town and Laura visited the Tambo Teddy Shop before doing laundry and then going across the road for a beer and a countery at the Tambo Tavern. Yummo!
Later on, a family arrived late in the afternoon with three young boys and a box trailer literally full of toys. We couldn't help but rubberneck as they proceeded to unpack a virtual toy shop and spread it out all across the campsite. There were dozens of boogie boards in every size and Colpie imaginable, inflatable boats, a full size table soccer game, balls, buckets of tennis racquets and tennis balls, a badminton set, tether tennis.. Just to name a few! And underneath the mountains of computed plastic, they unearthed two tiny dome tents! But it didn't stop there. They continued to drag literally a whole kitchen's worth of indoor tables, chairs, a cooking stove, stacks of pots and pans and box after box of crockery and three Eskys. It was quite remarkable! We came to the conclusion they were probably relocating and following the main moving van to their new place. Still, it looked like they were setting up house on the nature strip! Luckily for them the rain managed to hold off anyway!
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