Days 1 & 2

Sydney to Bourke
Well we knew we had a big day for the first day as we were heading to Bourke for the first night. We pretty much spent most of the day in the car and on the way we experienced all four seasons. We had rain from the Blue Mountains to nearly Dubbo where the clouds started to part and the sun shone through. Almost able to take the jumpers off as the sun was warming up through the windows. Got to Nyngan to fill up with fuel and as I stepped out of the car a big black cloud started to pour down, followed by hail and a cold wind. Sheesh, and this is the first day. Anyway, about half way between Nyngan and Bourke the sun was setting and giving us some lovely colours in the clouds that were now breaking up. And this is when the wildlife started to show themselves. In that last hour we spotted kangaroos, goats and pigs on the side of the road. Luckily we didn't have too far to go. Got to Bourke about 6.30pm and booked into our cabin at Kidmans Camp and settled in, but it was certainly getting cold outside. Fortunately our cabin was air conditioned and after putting Chantelle to sleep around 8.45pm we sat down to watch the swans beat Geelong only by 6 points. The temperature got down to an overnight low of 2 degrees.

 
Bourke to Charleville
Woke to a lovely but chilly morning but no frosts or ice on the windscreen like we are getting in Sydney. Quick pack up and a walk to see what other things are in the park and there is a lovely pool area that would be great if only it was about 20 degrees warmer. We knew the Darling River was near by so we took a quick drive down a dirt track to check it out. To our surprise there was a paddle steamer there which does 1 hour tours and was due to leave in 5 minutes. We made a quick decision to jump on board and the fact that we were going to be their only passengers meant they weren't going to leave without us.

The boat was only 11 years old and was a replica of an original and the captain gave us personal guided tour of the river.
We went under the old bridge which was built so that it raises in the middle during floods to allow paddle steamers to continue along the river.

It's now only used as a walkway due to a new bridge built.

Once finished we hit the road as we had to head to Charleville. Along the way we spotted a lot of emus roaming the open spaces. A few roos also around and one decided to cross the road just as we were passing it. Luckily it thought better of things and made a bee line to cross right behind me.
 

Lunch was had in Cunnamulla where just about everything had shut the time we got there at 1.30pm. A little different to the big smoke we left behind the day before.

Got to Charleville and headed just out of town to the Evening Star tourist park.
Property owners have decided to branch out and have setup camping and caravan facilities and done a really good job. They had the large camp fire going by 4.30 plenty of room given to set up. We visited the fire while our veggies cooked in the camper in the dreampot and our chops cooked on the wood fire bbq. While there the owner played Chantelle a few tunes on his harmonica which she sang along to (Twinkle twinkle little star and Chantelle requested row row row your boat). It's really cold hear tonight too. We would definitely stay here again as the hospitality was great and had a good feel about it whilst being not too close to the town.