Day 7: St George to Charleville
It is a pretty uninspiring drive from St George to Mitchell, first driving through cotton fields, some a which appear to owned by Cubbie Station, then through scrubland, cattle stations and a some sheep grazing. Along the road the drovers are moving cattle North, apparently to Roma for the coming cattle sales. With all of the rain, the shoulders of the road are very sloppy in some areas as a result of the cattle. We saw few cars and trucks, a good amount of road kill, had to slow down to let an echidna cross the road but otherwise uneventful.
A bit over 200 km from St George we reached Mitchell, a decent town with good facilities. We bought some fresh bread, parked near a park and had lunch in the van before moving on to Charleville. Once again, not the most interesting road you could travel on, and in bit under 200km we arrive in Charleville. It as an around 3 pm, we need fuel and to find our caravan park.
We are staying at the appropriately named Charleville Bush Caravan Park. Google maps leads us into some one's farm where we eventually get some true directions to the park.
It is off the main highway, discretely signposted, but with a reasonable access road where you arrive at the office. There was no one there when we arrive, but the owner Matt quickly arrived in his 4WD, and booked us in whilst venting his spleen about Albo and how he was destroying small business. Like everywhere we have been so far, caravan bookings have collapsed with cancellations well outstripping new bookings.
The park is actually very good, all powered sites are drive through, and despite all of the rain, the sites are relatively dry. Overall it is 40 acres with big plans by the new owner to expand (pre Albo). It is a very natural setting and would appeal to many. Amenities are also more than adequate.
Matt's specialty, which is "compulsory" is the sundowners get together around the fireplace, which he jokingly says, if you don't turn up you will be fined. He did put on a good fire which did attract many of the current occupiers of the park. Starting at around 4.30pm, those with local knowledge were gathering, by 5 pm it was looking like a good gathering and we carried our chairs across to join them .
The fire building is a ritual that Matt has obviously been working on for years. He showed us videos of his many "bush TV" creations, some of them quite outstanding. But we could only judge him on todays performance, which was pretty impressive.
After an enjoyable hour or so around the campfire, we headed back to our van for dinner, as tomorrow we have another reasonable drive to Blackall where we plan to stay for 2 nights.
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