I really need to start tonight’s post by going back a couple of days just for context.
Two nights ago, we were at Charlotte Plains Station, remember? Tuesday night – grumpy lady, dead tree, vague instructions, bathtubs with artesian water, campfire, no mobile reception, no Google, no TV reception …. so we missed the Masterchef grand finale.
Fast forward to Wednesday night and we were free camping in Eulo and once again we had phone reception, access to the intergoogle, and 10Play catch-up TV. So after the Bogans went inside out of the rain, we played catch-up to see who won Masterchef.
We heard the Bogans cheering every so often, so I assume that they were watching the State of Origin, but because we weren’t watching it, we couldn’t tell who they were cheering for. Probably NSW. They seemed like those kind of people.
You may also recall that the forecast for today (Thursday) is 43% chance of rain. We watched the end of Masterchef, then the end of State of Origin, then – exhausted – I tried to get to the land of nod as I listened to the rain falling steadily on the van.
For reasons that I won’t discuss here, I needed to use earplugs last night and ended up having a terrible sleep. Not the fault of the earplugs, but probably more from the rain and that it was much warmer than we had been experiencing.
And because NSW won the State of Origin.
I woke this morning wondering if the Bogans and their giant Kermit caravan was just a bad dream, by alas they were still there and all stomping around in the mud.
Clearly that gene pool needs a little more chlorine.
So this morning we did all of the usual stuff. Showered, had coffee and breakfast.
During breakfast, I thought that it would be nice to put on some music, so I found a Spotify playlist called “happy morning music to wake up to” (and yes, it was written just like that).
Now I know that the English teachers among you will be horrified at that poorly constructed sentence, and the unforgivable sin of finishing a sentence with a preposition. I too was horrified. But it was a nice playlist anyway, with music of the genre that we enjoy.
And then the Spotify Gods had another laugh at me, with one of the first songs in the playlist “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone”. 43% chance of rain today. Very funny.
We hadn’t unhooked the van from the car last night, so because everything was still hooked up and connected, we just headed back into Eulo.
The morning went something like this:
- 9.30am – leave campsite
- 9.31am – arrive Eulo Main Street to look around
- 9.33am – finish looking around and head off to the mud baths – this morning’s adventure
Today we went to the Eulo Artesian Mud Baths for some mud bath therapy. Once you have soaked in the hot muddy water for 30 minutes or so …
… then you get out and apply this other mud all over yourself, and then when that’s dry you get back into the hot bath for another 30 minutes.
Clearly I hadn’t reaped all of the benefits of the mud at that point.
But all in all, a very relaxing experience. I’m not quite sure why, but after soaking in the mineral water for 30 minutes or so, you feel very heavy, and sleepy, and … ahh 🙂
The mud bath people had this boat in their front garden. I’m not sure if it is a garden ornament, if it is for sale, or they just haven’t used it in a while …
… but that reminds me that I need to sell my boat when I get home.
Remember I said that the forecast for today is 43% chance of rain? Well as we were leaving the mud baths and heading off to Thargomindah, this is what 43% chance of rain looks like …
Even the weather gods were making fun of us, but I’m OK that it’s not raining.
Now the trip from Eulo to Thargomindah is uneventful. I mean seriously un-e-vent-ful.
Naturally you would hope for a McDonalds drive through on the way, or maybe a road house, or a petrol station, or …? Nothing between Eulo and Thargomindah. No towns, no McDonalds, no fuel. Nothing. Zip.
The only thing we saw was turnoffs to other – presumably more exciting – places, and funny road signs.
And road signs to Thargomindah, just to remind you that this is a one-way road to one place only.
There were also a number of hand-painted signs that warned “Unfenced road: Beware of black cattle on the road”. I wasn’t sure if that is another way of saying “help yourself to some free steak”, but I suspect not.
As you can see, the roads are pretty good. Flat, fast, not particularly wide, but oncoming traffic slows down and allows you to pass safely. We are still seeing quite a number of vans coming towards us, although that has slowed to a comparative trickle since leaving St George.
We found ourselves in that strange place again today where there is no mobile coverage, no internet, and Spotify keeps throwing “American Pie” and “Piano Man” at you on repeat, because it can’t stream any other songs.
Without access to the internet, we find that we need to engage each other in conversation, so we have started a competition where we are tracking how many of various things we have seen so far:
- Other Supreme vans: 8
- Echidnas: 2
- Dead kangaroos: too many to count
- Emus: about 8 or 9
- Black cattle on the road: 2
- Unicorns: 0
We stopped about 40km before Thargomindah in a truck rest area for a bite of lunch, and I took the opportunity to get the drone out and take some more pictures.
I think that we sat at that rest stop for around 30 minutes, and only one other vehicle went past in the entire time we were there.
We arrived into Thargomindah at around 2.00pm to a glorious 24 degrees, checked into the caravan park, then went for a quick spin down to the Visitor Information Centre and fill up with fuel.
I paid a new record high of $1.65/litre today for diesel, but then we are in Thargomindah – one of the most western townships in south-western Queensland. And unleaded is still cheaper here than at home. Go figure!
Just before dinner we were rewarded with another spectacular sunset.
We discovered on arriving in Thargomindah that there is the Channel Country Music Muster happening in the rodeo grounds here on 17th to 18th July … so we may (or may not) partake. We will see.
We are here for three nights now, so expect to hear some more about this beautiful part of the world. Thargomindah is one of those places that I have always wanted to come to, so I hope that you are enjoying it as much as we are.
Ciao