Blackall Qld June 2, 2016

Blackall Qld June 2, 2016

Heading north toward Blackall today and the road is hard work. It’s one of those roads that looks ok but the surface is uneven giving a bumpy, thump ride. You feel like you've been in the Wild Mouse ride at Luna Park for two hours. At Tambo (20km) we just had to stop and walk around a bit. I have to say though, those Tamboeans know how to have fun: 

Nope, not much happening here.. Tambo Qld

An unexpectedly nice little park in downtown Tambo, Qld

I said there wasn't much happening! Teddy Bears in Tambo Qld

A hundred km further up you reach Blackall, home to the amazing wool scour which we toured last time, and as it turns out, also home to a full sized thermal pool and spa run by the council. The pool is 36C and the spa 32C. Seeing as the local water supply comes out of the Artesian Basin at 40+, their biggest problem, and for the whole town, is how to get the cold water to actually be cold.After a few laps and a bit of splashing about, we relaxed with an ice-cream before returning to camp and a bit of a rest.

Blackall, QLD

A short run of 300k up from Charleville is Blackall, where we put up for the night. Having got in early enough we had time to take in the tour of the old wool scour, steam driven and operational until 1978.

A really quiet, peaceful place, there was extensive grassed areas with old 'junk' to poke around in and of course 'the tour'. We started with the artesian bore, the boilers, the steam engine and then the scour workings themselves. The old bloke was in our top ten of worst ever guides, Judy named him the real historic bore on the property. Good one.

The old caravan took my fancy, just like the first ones the old man built except this one was clad with aluminium What a novelty, why didn't dad think of that?

Wandered about a bit, took the obligatory snap of the the one-and-only 'black stump', checked out the free camp with about 30 vans already settled in and then returned back to our park.

OMG, they've got some fossil who calls himself a country singer. Awful, horrible. Every song sounded the same as the last, and every song sound like it was stolen from someone else. Thank god it stopped at 6:20pm, it was enough to put you right off your tucker. At the end they announced that if we were lucky enough to be here tomorrow, that they would be doing it all again, and again and again. Until the end of August. I had this vision of all the vans hooking up and bailing out at first light. I know we will be.

Snap of the day:

Judy. Blackall Wool Scour. Blackall, QLD