Sunday - 15th July

We packed up at Lorne Station and left Lightning Ridge, stopping on the way out at the John Murray Studio to buy a couple of prints and the Sunday Market to buy some opal chips as souvenirs of our visit.  Heading north towards Roma, we stopped at Dirranbandi for a huge mixed grill at the pub before continuing on through St. George to overnight at Surat.  We passed a posse of drovers driving a large herd of cattle along the road; had to slow down a bit as they were wandering all over. We overnighted at the excellent camp beside the river just over the bridge on the way out of Surat.  The amenities were good including piles of firewood for the barbeques and firepits. It's a great place for an overnighter.  We bought some worms at the general store and tried a bit of fishing but it got very cold and we decided to pack it in and warm ourselves round the fire that another camper had started.  The worms were given to a very tame magpie and kookaburra that sat outside our van door.

Monday - 16th July

We rose fairly early this morning and it was bitterly cold.  It was warmer in the fridge than it was I the van.  We fired up our little Coleman gas heater to warm the place up while we had very hot showers.  A quick pack up and we headed north towards Roma a thriving town where  able to buy an extension aerial for our Telstra Turbo Card.  It really boost the signal.  We then set off east for Charleville stopping on the way at Morven for lunch.  The quantity of road kill was  amazing; it seemed that there was an ex-kangaroo every 20 metres.  Our first choice of park was full and we were directed to the Cobb and Co. park not far away were we got a good site with all amenities.  Spent the afternoon reading and soaking up some sun.

Tuesday - 17th July

A little warmer this morning, but not much.  We headed out for "High Tea" at Myendetta Homestead.  This is a homestead built in 1910 and virtually unchanged since then.  It had all the mod-cons for the time, electricity generator powered by bore water pressure, cunningly designed to provide plenty of cooling breezes in the summer (it was a little cold in there today).  It remains in the family of the original builder and is still a working homestead.  Our tea in the lady of the houses drawing room was welcome.  The resident ghost led us on a tour of the house and ancillary buildings and the poultry runs where the house sheep, which drinks only from a tap, greeted us.  Later we did a driving tour of the surrounding area and a walking tour of the town including the museum located in the old wooden National Bank building in Alfred Street.  Lots of antiques, bric-a-brac and ancient treasures.  The curator played us some music from an old 78 record on an Edison phonograph then entertained us with some selections on an autoharp.  Back at the camp more and more vans were crowding in and it was like an old village with little laneways for access.  In the evening Jude surfed the internet and I rugged up warm and went to the observatory at the Cosmos Centre to view the stars  Well worth a visit, lots of meteors and the view through their powerful telescopes is tremendous.