Day 6: Charleville
All day - no driving

After another chilly evening (and needing to take kids to the toilet a couple of times during the night), we had a lazy start to the day. Kids slept in until after 7am, which can in part be attributed to the late night they'd had last night at the bilby sanctuary. This was a nice change from the pre 6am starts.

After enjoying some down time around camp, we headed to the Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Base, where we took a self guided tour. The displays included historical medical instruments and medicine chests, and old radio equipment, which the kids loved playing with for quite some time. They absorbed the information in their own way, and in no time were role playing RFDS scenarios, taking turns being the doctor or the nurse or the pilot or the radio operator. Their imaginations were running wild.

After, we stopped in town to pick up some more supplies. The kids stumbled upon the Charleville library, which was open (and air conditioned) and staffed by a lovely welcoming librarian who was more than happy for he kids to kill some time reading books while the mums went to the supermarket. They had a great little corner with bean bags and toys and the kids had a ball.

We had lunch back at "camp", and had a lazy afternoon which included kids running through the sprinkler to cool off. The kids also continued with their flying doctor game, and there were numerous calls to remote stations for broken legs, cut fingers, babies with bad coughs, and other ailments. Even Ms3 had a full grasp on the "game"

After an early dinner we headed to the Cosmos Observatory. About 15years ago, an astronomy enthusiast and a supportive local Council put their heads together and dreamed up an observatory as a tourist attraction - given the broad horizons and no "city lights" detracting from the viewing. After seeking state and federal funding, and holding MANY chook raffles, they saw their idea realised, and the observatory is now a popular attraction. It's an open air observatory, where a roof protects the telescopes when they're not in use, but retracts for night sky viewing. While it was amazing to look at "galaxies far, far away", we probably missed our timing a bit - the moon doesn't rise until late tonight, and no planets are up for viewing until much later again. We did however see the space station fly over - no telescope required.

Another warm day means that kids (and adults) are fatigued and an early night is in order.

Tomorrow we are going to aim
to get to Longreach, but that will be a 500km day, so we will play it by ear. We have half "de-camped" tonight in the hope of getting an early start. Getting to Longreach will depend on how many toddler toilet stops are required, and We will decide when we get to Barcaldine whether the last 100kms to Longreach are achievable or just that stretch too far.