Karma [noun]: Good or bad luck, resulting from one’s actions.
Three things happened in quick succession this morning. Possibly four things happened this morning if I mention the weather, but technically the weather happens every day so it doesn’t really count as a thing.
Let’s get the weather out of the way first. It was cold. Like maybe 5 degrees inside the van, and unpleasantly colder outside the van. Fortunately I’d had the foresight to put the air conditioner remote beside the bed last night so I set it to tropical and hid under the doona for another hour or so until it warmed up.
If I am to be completely accurate in my reporting, I’d have to confess that I fell asleep again and didn’t wake until about 8.30am, which was embarrassingly late, but I must have been tired.
Once I got out of bed, three things happened in quick succession. You probably thought that I’d forgotten about them. I may be getting old and forgetful, but at least I’m … nope sorry, I can’t remember 🙁
Anyway the first thing that happened was that I heard old mate from site #29 – you remember old mate from #29 … sunning himself like a lizard, twice the man that I will ever be, PPE, toilet canister, crocs – he was stomping around, packing down his van, rolling his hoses, hooking up his car, and he left in a cloud of dust.
So essentially that means that there will be no more blog fodder from him.
The second thing that happened was that I was greeted by a cheery little red light on the top of my toilet … it’s time to empty my canister. And I wasn’t taking any chances 🙁
The third thing that happened was that I discovered that the blue bird of happiness had been to visit us during the night. That’s going to need a good wash …
Today was a bit of a lazy, “walk up the main street one side and come back the other side” kind of a day.
All of the museums and attractions are free entry, and most surprisingly most are open 24 hours. “Just push the door open, any time of the day or night” was the instruction we received on several occasions.
The first stop was the Rail museum …
We stopped by the visitor’s centre and had a look at the art gallery …
… the Quilpie museum, and the military museum …
… and then we stopped at the bakery for a cream donut, and then the newsagent for coffee. Yes, the newsagent. Best coffee in town we were told, and it was pretty good.
By this time we had reached the end of Brolga Street, so swapped over to the other side to stop at the Empire Cafe to get “the best toastie in town”. I had a ham, cheese and tomato toastie, and MBW had a chicken, cheese and pineapple toastie, and they were both pretty good!
We then wandered down to the Quilpie Powerhouse museum. Quilpie was the first town to have a powerhouse as a result of a government scheme to provide electricity to small towns in rural and outback Queensland, and the Quilpie powerhouse was commissioned in 1952.
We then went around to St Finbarr’s Catholic Church to have a look at the opal altar.
On the way back to the van we stopped in at the local library and bought some 2nd hand books.
Today was mostly a walking day – a great way to get out and see Quilpie and meet the beautiful people who live here. >10,000 steps and a beautiful day in outback Queensland.
This afternoon we gave Elsie a run out to the lake and then did the river walk – both locations attractions that we were told we really should do.
I’ve mentioned in an previous post that the streets are very wide in these country towns. This is the street that leads down to the caravan park. But my calculations it is about 23 metres wide!
I’ve also mentioned – yesterday I think – that you need to ensure you have plenty of fuel when going for a drive. You know that they are serious when they give you a final warning before leaving town.
Tonight we are going down to the Bulloo Racing Club because JT is in town for a community meal, and we are told that everyone is welcome. You’ll hear about that tomorrow.
Ciao