As per previous posts last year matt will post in italics and no capitals, and Sal in standard boring upright font....
A slower start for the day, and Matt did an engine bay check of 'Bridget' and discovered that the thermo fans had fallen down, as the shroud and brackets had given up (most likely snapped yesterday, after some very bumpy sections on the road to St George). So 'Mattgyver' kicked into gear and used the fencing wire he had, and wired the fans and shroud back into place. So far this repair is holding in place.
this shall be termed "the first amendment" .the fan, in it's own uneducated wisdom, saw the engine underneath it and thought " ive had enough of trying to cool this engine by blowing on this radiator, im going down there to blow on the engine itself". now this is admirable in that the fan is trying to better itself and try new things, and i'm all for using parts in ways that the designers never intended, but the poor fan didn't account for its power cable that wouldn't let it get to the engine. so it hung itself half way down and blew around un-tethered willy nilly. so i placed the fan back in it's designated spot, and wired it in with the fencing wire, tapping it on the head,saying "that's not going anywhere" .
onward and upward.
From Mitchell, we headed via Morven, to Augathella for morning tea and a stroll around town. The football club mascot is a 'meat ant!' (A carnivorous ant, useful cleaning up animal carcasses, or football opponents ).i'm sure the football team have never been call meat heads... Reading the history of the town and how it came to be, was very interesting; with a couple literally travelling and deciding let's stop here and start a shop in the mid 1800's and they had hoped that maybe a town could become of it, and they were right. As we left town, I looked down a dirt road, off the main road, and spied a dingo, just casually standing the in the middle of this side road, a sign we were in the outback for sure!
Next stop was Tambo, home to the famous 'Tambo Teddies', a store that the locals run and where they make these famous teddy bears. Being Sunday, the shop was closed sadly. This town also runs chicken racing events daily, yes you read correctly, they race chickens. Cant afford horses. I spied a green rooster strutting its stuff behind the pub that hosts the event, clearly the leader of the green racing team!! As we drove today, I did notice that the further north we headed, the greener the grasses became, and there was more of it. It was lovely to see this area look like this, as we have mostly seen this region in drought. Hopefully, there is enough feed on the ground to last through Winter and beyond.
From Tambo, we continued heading northwest and just before we reached the town of Barcaldine, we turned down a 13km dirt road and headed on the station property of 'Lara Springs'. The dirt road was a little cut up from recent rain, and Matt had to criss-cross the road to find the firmest parts and avoid the patches of black dirt, notorious for being slippery and dangerous, and swallowing heavy vehicles in deep bogs. We eventually made it to the camping ground, and booked in. This campground has been created by the property owners, and was set by the waters of the Lara Springs wetlands. There are water sports activities, bikes and playgrounds, amongst the facilities, but the best part of this location, was the hot Artesian pool. We were able to soak again in the mineral waters, this time they were unchlorinated, and contained little fish, that liked to find the wounds and peeling skin of the soaking humans, and nibble it off. Poor Brenda was under attack the whole time, but it was still a pleasant way to relax after the 550km long drive.
We then later sat under the stars and enjoyed a yummy pasta dinner by the campfire. I reclined my camp chair and watched the satellites whizzing on by and the stars twinkle and sparkle, meanwhile, the drone of frog song is in the background. A great end to the day.
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