Day 16
Depart St George, Qld ~9.30am
Arrive Gunnedah, NSW ~4.30pm
435 kms

"lost" an hour crossing the border as we switched over to daylight saving time.

Stops
- Mungindi for morning tea
- Moree for lunch

After almost blowing away last night we woke up to an unseasonably chilly morning. We quickly realised that it had been snowing up and down the higher tableland areas of the eastern parts of NSW, and realised it was the same weather system affecting us. The good thing was that the wind helped dry the tent out from our wet Carnarvon pack up morning.

After breakfast, and picking up the first decent coffee in over two weeks, we hit the road.

The area around St George was thriving as a result of a healthy cotton industry. There was water in all the irrigation channels and it seemed like harvesting had probably happened fairly recently. The cotton growing areas extended south through Moree and to Narrabri, in the black soils.

We stopped for lunch in Moree and kids rated the park we stopped at as the best of he holiday. There was a rather large "rocket" which had a couple of fairly adventurous slippery dips attached. All of the kids loved the slide - including Ms3 who increasingly is showing a bit of a "no fear" attitude to life.

We pulled into Gunnedah - our stop for the night - and the prospect of temps dropping to 1 deg overnight, together with morning frosts, and the risk of the dry tent becoming wet again, we cheated and booked into a cheap motel for the last night of our trip. The kids have never been so excited - they hadn't slept on a bed for over 2 weeks.

Over dinner at the local Chinese, we reflected on our whirlwind adventure into the outback and return. The kids are having trouble picking their favourite "thing" from the trip. There are many highlights - the fireworks in Brisbane, the bilbies and star gazing in Charleville, the Stockmans Hall of Fame in Longreach, the dinosaurs of Winton, the natural delights of Carnarvon Gorge National Park, and all the other attractions along the way.

But now it's time for home, and back to the real world. One more day of travel - Gunnedah to Newcastle - about 310kms. All going well, we'll be home early afternoon.

It's been fun. Time to plan the next adventure.