MONDAY 15 JULY     BOURKE TO CUNNAMULLA     272kms

I hurt my arm this morning. Was letting Couey outside, on her lead. John was out there and dog was so anxious to get out of Bus, to join him, that she exited in a great rush and dragged my arm against the door frame. The arm was grazed and bruised and there was a chunk missing out of a finger – not sure what bit did that. Guess I am learning when to take extra care, brace myself and so on.

Again, dog was not a willing traveller. After we packed up, she was tempted inside by peanut butter on a treat, then snapped at me as I got in.

Dog-related dramas aside, we were away in good time.

Must admit that I looked wistfully at Kidmans Camp as we passed by. Had always enjoyed staying there, and often managed to get some great sunset photos from the camp area.

Just like the other day, we needed to make five stops along the way, for John. We were noticing that after about two hours, the need to stop regularly seemed to ease off. But, obviously, this is yet something else medical related that will have to be checked when we are home again.

At one of the stops we took dog out for a walk on the lead. This time, she got back in Bus quite willingly. I daren’t hope that we are making progress….

The road was a bit “bouncy”, especially in the NSW part. All that increased truck traffic had not done the road any favours.

Rain had been forecast and this showed as increasing banks of black clouds to the west, as we drove. Eventually, there was some rain, but we seemed to drive out of that rain band.

So – we made it to Qld, after three weeks on the road. Guess we didn’t exactly hurry. There had been some past trips, when we were coming north to work, when we had reached this far with only two or three overnight stops. But, with Bus, it seems more appropriate to travel in a more leisurely style than we once did. Maybe getting older also has something to do with it?

Previously, we would go from Bourke to Charleville in a day, but not this time. Cunnamulla was another place we’d only ever passed through. This time, it warranted a stay.

Refuelled at the big servo at the highway junction. $1.639cpl. The Qld government subsidized diesel but you wouldn’t know it from these prices.

From the servo, headed on into town and then out the Weir Road for about 3kms, to the Warrego Riverside Tourist Park.

This place was only opened last year and we found it very pleasant indeed. The sites were drive through ones. We got the last powered site available, right on the end of the row. It was not the best site, but that served us right for not booking ahead. It cost $32.

The amenities building featured a central hallway, or breezeway, that was both laundry and camp kitchen, with the bathrooms off each side.

This park was genuinely dog friendly – the owner’s late husband had been a vet. She told us places where we could walk dog, and where she could run off lead. The emphasis was on the can-do, rather than the can’t-do, as in Bourke.

There was a nice grassy area along the river bank, and a campfire pit.

The Warrego River itself was starkly scenic.

The owner had told us our site was one of the shorter ones, and she doubted we’d be able to leave the car on the back. We unhitched it and the man on the next site, with a Winnebago, very kindly said we could park Terios on the front of his site and he would be able to back out in the morning. He had to leave very early to go into Cunnamulla. He had stripped a tyre on the way here and then been told that, at best, he’d need at least a couple of new ones. He’d bought the used motorhome in 2006 and hadn’t replaced any of the tyres that were on it. He didn’t know about age related tyre deterioration, though he was finding out the hard way. I tried to explain as best I could and advised him to get the tyre dealer to show him how to read tyre ages.

Took Couey across to the river bank area for a walk, and I took some photos.

John then took her out on one of the designated tracks where they could play ball fetch. Dog was suitably tired then, for the rest of the day.

At 5pm, took our chairs and the dog across to the camp fire area, for happy hour. We’d not long settled there, when rain began, so the gathering was abandoned.

I cooked pasta with tuna, capers and olives, for tea.

The rain became steady all through the night. Before that, we’d almost decided to stay another night here – it was our sort of place, but reserved the decision once the rain set in.