Wednesday

Up and a quick breakfast before packing up. Ken came over and met Martin this morning and we had another talk. After we were hitched up I went over to have a shower and Ken explained they had a leak under their sink and Barry (the park owner) was going to fix it. After an initially cold morning it was warming to a nice day so it's lucky they found the leak where they did.

We head on down to Bedourie about 3 hours south of Boulia. There are very few changes in the scenery today. Wide open plains with very few trees. As we drive there are a number of flood plain signs and we cannot imagine how much water it would take to flood this area - it has to be at least 70kms in every direction of flat, level ground.

About halfway there are a few hills starting to appear and in the distance we can see a rest stop on top of a small hill on the left. Martin then notices another structure on a much higher hill on the right that appears to be another rest area/lookout. As we pass the lower hill there is a lovely view of the flat plains ahead. We decide that we'll take a drive up to the lookout so take a turn at the sign. As we turn in there is another sign saying no trucks, buses, caravans or trailers. Although Martin doesn't think the hill is that steep, I'm concerned that the sign mentions both caravans and trailers so we decide not to take the risk as we are travelling alone.

As we near Bedourie we pass the airfield and this one actually has an airport. In town we stop and the. Information Centre to pay our camping fees and for $50 get a key to to artesian spa pool that is next to the caravan park. (The $50 is refundable when we return the key). We choose our site in full sun to charge the batteries and set up for the next 3 days. As we set up we noticed a van that was nicely positioned under a tree with the car still hooked up. The only problem though was that the car was parked halfway up the levy bank.

After lunch I change into swimmers and walk up to the pool. There is a lovely big pool and a toddler pool (both cold) and a smaller pool with the heated artesian water. I firstly get into the cold pool as it' quite a hot day. There are already 4 people in the pool but it is like ice. I can only get in up to my calfs and after a few minutes I can feel my legs going numb so I walk over to the heated pool.

This one is heavenly. The water is warm - I'd estimate 37-38° and was so relaxing. Another lady who we had seen at both Mt Isa (on the Hard Times tour) and Boulia (in the pub) joined me. It turns out Marg had stayed in the same parks as we had in those towns and is also headed to the races. Her husband and the other couple (Chris and Shirley) joined us and by the end of the spa we had arranged to have happy hour this afternoon.

After the hot spa Marg and I went back to the cold pool and this time I got right in and even dove under. Then back to camp to dry off and change before heading over the Shirley and Chris' van for happy hour. As we talked it turns out Chris was the one who had been parked halfway up the bank but Shirley had encouraged him to move. They also went up to that lookout that we passed (with their van on). We talked till 7pm before heading back to our van to get dinner ready.