I love Quilpie. We have always had a good time here. We are staying at the Channel Country Tourist Park, where everyone is friendly, the facilities are very clean and there is a good Camp Kitchen, which we have used every day. There is a large communal campfire, where Ian and Eleanor put on meals every night, for a moderate charge. Our pork spit roast and camp oven beef where delicious, accompanied by Ian’s ‘secret’ potatoes and pumpkin, peas, carrot and gravy, followed by bread and butter pudding. Ian said that if he told me his secret, he’d have to kill me! Every night they have put on a very good meal, but we prefer to have our main course at lunch time.
After dinner, entertainment is provided. When we had the roast, we saw the film on Tom Cruse, the first mailman to deliver mail along the Birdsville Track and on another night, we saw The Filling of Lake Eyre. There was a Seekers Concert another night, but we gave in to the warmth of the van!
We went for a walk along the Bulloo River, a pretty area, but could be improved by disallowing vehicles into the area and provision of a walking path. We considered having a picnic lunch there, but decided on our site at the caravan park instead. The Bulloo system covers 600 kms and ends up draining into an ephemeral wetland, near the Queensland/NSW border.
Last night, Peter, the manager of the park, arranged a barefoot bowls night at the local bowling club. We put our names down, hoping that the night wouldn’t be too cold, and we were lucky that we had the warmest night so far. We had a great night. Russ and I were split up, but we both really enjoyed the company of our teammates. We didn’t actually have to go barefoot, as long as we didn’t have chunky soles on our shoes. I want to get back to bowls again now.
On Monday, we are travelling on the road from Quilpie to Longreach, but we will probably stop at Bladensburg National Park, probably without 3G reception.