Day 40 - Leycester Rest Area to The Lake Ellendale Rest Area (478km/7hrs)

We all woke up freezing cold this morning (apparently it dropped down to 2 degrees) and I had packed the doonas away.

Today is a driving day halfway to Derby so we left the Rest area at 6:30am.

Thankfully another caravan overtook us so he had to stop for the cows to cross the road. There was plenty of notice though so we could all stop. We also had to stop for roadworks.

We filled the car at Halls Creek and continued driving.

Along the drive we saw lots of termite mounds but rather than being tall they are more short and rounded plus lots of little ones too. They are everywhere though.

We stopped at Ngumban Cliff Rest Area for morning tea and what a beautiful spot. It had such pretty views over the valley with all the contrasting colours of the red dirt and yellow grasses.

Next stop was Fitzroy Crossing to fill the car and then we continued driving until we arrived at The Lake Ellendale Rest Area around 1:30pm.

We stayed here 6 years ago and although there isn’t much water in the lake this time it’s still a beautiful spot and only a few other vans.

We walked down to the lake to look at the 7 brolgas, ducklings and another water bird.

Then the kids walked over to the friendly resident cows and gave them a pat. Millie is the friendliest cow and walks around to all the vans hoping someone will give her a carrot!

We then looked at all the beautiful black cockatoos in the boab trees and the blue kookaburra in the tree next to our caravan.

The kids had fun building a big bonfire and then it was time to get the kids bow & arrows out. It’s the first time there’ve used them and they both had pretty good aim. Josh found it easy but Bronte found it a bit harder to pull it back. They played with them for hours and Rog & I had some fun with them too.

We had dinner and enjoyed listening to all the birds as the sunset for the day.