MONDAY 14 MARCH      CHARLEVILLE

Slept in, as best we could. The park was not yet crowded at nights, so there was not a great deal of departing morning noise to disturb us. We were too early for the mass exodus north!

After breakfast, walked into town and browsed about. John bought some new bathers, because he’d forgotten to pack any. Also bought a new brush squeegee long handled windscreen cleaning gizmo, because John realized he’d left ours behind at the caravan park in Griffith.

He’d also forgotten to pack the little step ladder from home, that we usually carried – but we were not buying another one of those! It probably would not have fitted anywhere, anyway.

It was a hot day – shades of what was to come.

John took Truck to refuel – $1.15cpl.

At the park, we met a couple who had been caretaking Kingfisher Camp, near Doomadgee, through the Wet season. They had not been very happy there. It had been too humid for them. They had left earlier than they were supposed to, because they were scared they might get shut off in there by Cyclone Ingrid, which hit the Cape York coast four days ago, as a Category 5. So they had skedaddled, once it was clear that it was heading west. As things eventuated, the cyclone did not swing to the SW in the Gulf, as had been thought possible, but headed on west and was now grazing the coast around Darwin.

We were pleased the cyclone had done that – had been watching it rather anxiously. Less water dumped in the Gulf country meant easier access to Adels for us – and earlier access to Pungalina.

The caretaking couple had a number of complaints about their time at KFC. It sounded like they really didn’t think through the remoteness of the place before taking on the role.