April 11th & 12th, 2012- Bailey's Bar Caravan Park- Charleville

Wednesday we travelled the short 100KM North to Charleville arriving at Bailey's Bar Caravan Park sharp at 10AM. The road was narrow and bumpy again. Apparently NSW doesn't have the monopoly on poor highways! The Host Julian was a jovial fellow with a good sense of humour. Got us settled in on a couple of nice grassy sites. This is a Top Tourist park which is lovely and clean. During the busy season they do a number of special dinners and activities during the week. Would be a great place to stay for a week or so to relax.

Had morning tea before the girls got into the laundry. Lovely clear sunny day so won't take long to dry out the washing. We did a bit of touring after lunch. A wildlife farm we were looking forward to seeing was closed because of flood damage. The Observatory and the Bilby exhibit were both a tad expensive to our way of thinking so we gave them a miss. The Cosmos Centre (Visitor Centre/Observatory) is lovely and new with lots of helpful staff. Stephen reckons the Observatory tours could be a lot cheaper with a couple less staff.

We did a tour of the downtown and picked up a few things for my computer/mobile which have broken down over the last couple of days. Girls did a bit of window shopping as well. The streets are all lovely and very wide. Carol discovered through her reading that it was so bullock teams could perform U Turns in the old days. Too bad more towns haven't allowed for the U Turning Bullock teams as it sure makes for nice driving. Stopped at the Rainmaking Cannons/Bugles on our way home. These guns were to be shot into the sky to induce rain during the droughts of the early 1900s. They never worked but are still an interesting part of the local history.

Thursday was a relax and cleanup day. Did a bit of grocery shopping in the morning and made sure we were topped up with Diesel. Early afternoon was spent cleaning the car and caravan. Sandra was busy cooking and I caught up on another few stays with our photos and Blog. Charleville is a very nice little town but we would have been happier if the tourist things were either open or priced more reasonably. We are off again tomorrow heading North towards Longreach. Talk to you soon!