The weatherman got it right today. None of this “43% chance of rain”; today was forecast to be windy and dusty and guess what? It was windy and dusty.
Possibly even very windy and very dusty.
So windy in fact that we rolled the awning in before heading out for the day just in case it tore off the van and disappeared.
It was one of those funny days where the wind was so cold that unless you put on several layers you froze, but as soon as you got out of the wind you couldn’t get those layers off fast enough!
Ok, so just to give you fair warning, there will be some audience participation required for today’s post. Specifically, a quiz. A bit like Where’s Wally, but … different.
I’ve completely lost track of days, but according to my watch today is Friday. If I’d been at work today I would have been … nope, it doesn’t matter.
Today was a pretty relaxed day in Thargomindah. Remember yesterday that I said we are here for 3 days? Well, that has now changed. One of the great things about being on holiday is that plans can change, things can be fluid, we can break some rules.
It’s a safe assumption that every day starts with ablutions, breakfast and coffee … so I’ll stop telling you that every day.
We started the day with a walking tour. Someone had told us that for $10 you can get a card that gives you entry to a number of the historical things to see in Thargomindah, so we purchased our $10 cards yesterday for $12.50 (don’t know, so don’t ask) and did the walk today.
Maybe not the smartest move to be out walking down wide open streets on a very windy and dusty day, but that was the choice that we made.
We are staying at the Explorer’s Caravan Park, which is a pretty little council-run park at the end of town.
Our first stop for the day was the Old Jail, which is almost next door to the caravan park.
Remember that I spoke earlier about breaking the rules … ? This was right across the road from the Police Station!
After the old jail, we had a nice wander down the Main Street of Thargomindah. As you would expect, everything is close in a small town like this.
One of the things that I love about these small towns is that they have very wide main streets and – on some streets – rear-in angle parking. I expect that the width of the main street is a throwback from the days of bullock teams, as the streets are wide enough to be able to turn a whole bullock team around in the one move.
Some of you may recall that I worked for Telstra in a previous life, and when I started my apprenticeship it was still Telecom Australia. This was renamed to Telstra in 1993-1995 … yet things do not change quickly in Thargomindah …
Also along the main street of Thargomindah are a number of buildings showing art work paintings.
We walked up a couple of streets and across a couple of streets and we had a look at the 2nd historical attraction – the old hospital.
We wandered back to the Main Street and went in search of coffee, finally tracking down a place called “Coffee on Dowling” … which is closed until further notice. Just a word of warning – if you are in Thargomindah, your coffee options are limited. Very Limited 🙁
We headed back to the van via the IGA after picking up some essentials, and made our own coffee.
After lunch we took Elsie out for a spin to the old powerhouse, the 3rd and final local historical attraction.
Here is a fun fact: outside the old powerhouse are the British flag, the French flag, and the Australian flag. Why?
Because Thargomindah was the third place in the world to have electric power supplied to homes, after London and Paris. The electric power here was generated by hot water coming out of an artesian bore under high pressure, which was used to turn a turbine, which generates electricity.
This blog may be many things, but we try to make it informative.
We also swung past the old cemetery to have a look (if you are interested in looking at old cemeteries), and it was … disappointing. Or maybe empty is a better word? But at least we can say we stopped and saw it.
We decided to take a spin out to Lake Bindegolly National Park – about 40km before Thargomindah – to have a look at the lake. It is one of the “must do” things when you are here.
We (foolishly) followed Google Maps directions and overshot the turnoff to the National Park by about 3km, so we turned back to find that the turnoff doesn’t actually exist. So instead of following good old reliable Google Maps, we decided to follow our instinct instead and kept heading out of town until we found the real turnoff to the National Park.
Now remember right back at the beginning that I said there would be a quiz? Here it is: Can you spot the lake in any of the photos above?
Nope, I didn’t think so. Maybe a glimpse of a sliver of water waaaaaaay off in the distance in one of them, but really not anything worthy of being called a “lake”.
It was a nice drive anyway, and on the way back we were rewarded with all manner of wildlife wandering aimlessly across the road into town.
We got some photos of the Bulloo River heading back to the caravan park for the night …
… and we were rewarded with another spectacular sunset.
Now I also mentioned at the start that our plans had changed. Originally we planned to stay 3 nights in Thargomindah (population 270), but other things that we would like to see require some significant driving to get to some very small places – Hungerford (population 23, and a distance of 147km away), or Noccundra (population 3, and a distance of 130km away).
Both of those require the best part of a day’s driving each, so we decided to save them for the next time we are in Thargomindah. We have decided to hitch up Ernie (that’s the new caravan’s name, BTW) and head instead up to Quilpie (population 595) for the next three nights.
We will be staying at the Channel Country Tourist Park and Spas. They have artesian spas at the park so we will be taking a dip or two.
And after that we will turn east and start the run for home. Sigh 🙁 But that is still a week away and I will worry about that later …
Ciao