472kms / 8 ¾ hrs

Today marks week 9 and we have done 16,000 kms

We were on the road by 6:30am and it was a bit chilly at 13 degrees. It's the first time in ages that I have had to put a jumper on. We saw some great wildlife including lot's of kangaroo's bouncing along the road and also across the road (no close calls as they stayed away from the car). The kids loved seeing them bouncing along. We saw about 12 camels which I was very excited about (no photo though as know where to pull over) a large bird in a paddock which we have seen before but we're not sure what it is (it's a similar size to a brolga), we saw an emu, goats and cows.

We refuelled in Jericho and then continued onto Emerald. We went to the tourist information centre and saw the 'big easel' (a 25 mtr re-creation of one of Vincent Van Gogh's vibrant 'sunflower' paintings) and had lunch in a nice shady spot. We refuelled and bought some alcohol then we continued on our drive. We drove through Blackwater and saw the giant dozers working on the coal stockpiles (which looked like big piles of black sand) and we were lucky enough to see a huge coal loader filling a 100 carriage coal train.

We arrived at our campsite around 3:15pm and the kids were very excited to wake-up to our spot right next to the park. They spent a couple of hours playing in the park while Rog cooked a yummy vegetable stir fry. We were lucky enough to enjoy a hot shower and then the kids watched a DVD before bed.