Kingfisher Travels

Monday 10th May Drove to Cunnamulla, visited the Cunnamulla fella and was provided a detailed explanation of the Artesian basin and Yowah nuts, then a quick look at some silo art.                   The plan was to stay at the Warrego Riverside Tourist Park on a grassy site next to the river, but we were advised it was in overflow mode thus no grassy sites available and obviously very busy.  There are a few things happening up this way over the next week, so we presume this is not normal ?? So we set off to stay at Charlotte Plains to again enjoy the Artesian bore 41 degree water for a couple of days.         Rissoles and mash for dinner followed by Robyen and James’ first taste of cooked marshmellows on the fire.     Tuesday 11th May Relaxing day… Dip in the Artesian bore.            ...

Friday 7th May After waking up to this…     And considering, what felt like, a long day yesterday and what we would need to endure reference distances and the significant (550km’s) amount of gravel road travel to achieve our original plan to check out Birdsville, we decided to change the pace a little and slow down and head in an alternate direction.  Yet to be determined Step one - spend another night on “The Lake” at Quilpie, to start to relax and enjoy. Step Two – wander around the lake…   Step Three – a trip into Quilpie for brunch…   Step Four – decide on where to go, while dinner was cooking…   With the decision being to head east towards Charleville for a couple of days then start trekking down to Bourke slowly.     Saturday 8th May Another great sunrise, looking out the caravan window!   And on to the “Evening Star” Farm stay Caravan Park just outside Charleville.  A quick check ov...

Tuesday 4th May Awoke to rain and a chilly day.  Not the best for our day in Lightning Ridge.  Lucky we already spent half of yesterday touring the town and a mine.  Completed the last self drive tour in the drizzle then went to the Opal shops in town, nothing taking our fancy. Afterwards, weather slightly improved so we went for a dip in the Artesian Bore pool… 41 degrees and it certainly felt it.  Followed by a roast dinner.   Wednesday 5th May Packed up and gone by 9am towards Charlotte Plains.  First stop Hebel Hotel and a group travel shot.   Arriving at Charlotte Plains around 3pm and straight into the  hot Artesian filled baths along their aqueduct system next to the 24/7 running bore coming up at around 41 degrees.   Dinner – Steak, potatoes in their Jackets & corn.  Fantastic sunset and fire.     Thursday 6th May After tossing up whether to stay another night or not we even...

Sunday 2nd May We departed late morning for the all day drive to Nindigully Hotel.    Van towed well with no issues… except for me leaving a half can of drink on the van table at lunch, only realising 20kms down the road.  Yes I had to clean up throughout the van .  Arrived at Nindigully Pub just on dusk, driving into a fading sunset.   Could not believe the amount of vans parked along the river and around the pub… must have been 150.  Maybe because it was a long weekend or maybe just the amount of travellers – we shall see as we continue on.  Anyway a drink or two at the pub along with a meal.  The place has expanded somewhat since our last visit here in 2008.     Monday 3rd May Next day, morning cuppa in the sunshine on the banks of Moonie RIver.     Then we headed off to visit Thallon, where we just had to get a photo at the Francis Hotel!     Surprisingly we find another ho...

We are off on another adventure, this time in luxury!  We have donned a caravan for our travels.  We have a rough outline of where we will go and a bit over 3 months to cover it.  Below is a quick snapshot of the plan. We meet up with Robyen and James (Tracey’s sister) at Lightning Ridge for the first couple of weeks, heading out to Birdsville to show them the outback first hand, it is James’s 50th birthday trip (admittedly COVID might have altered the timing slightly ).  Then down to outback NSW  leaving Robyen and James to journey back home.  We then meet up with our regular travel buddies Kate and Paul at Mildura before heading West.  Eyre Peninsula, Nullarbor, Kalgoorlie, Perth, Margaret River, Albany, Esperance and back home probably via Broken Hill. To add to our collection of fantastic hardcopy trip books I hope to be able to record our trip using the blog and if I can manage to work the permissions out, feel free to leave us some comments ...