We have arrived at Longreach

Hi everyone,

We are in Longreach having arrived here yesterday.  We have stopped here two nights so I could repack the car and camper - lots of things were just not in the right places!  We also needed to wash and Eloise has been unwell so needed to get her hot running water and a slower pace for 24 hours or so.  She is a lot better now and her cough has settled down a lot today.  We have had some big drives and have been in the car most of the last 3 days.  Tomorrow we head to Mackinlay to stay in the backyard of the Walkabout Pub for all those Croc Dundee fans.  After that we hope to get to Mt Isa and there we will stop for at least 3 days.  There is so much to see there and the main street runs for 180km's.  We have met some interesting people already and are loving being out here on the road.  We are the only family out here doing this and there are many many grey nomads in big shiny vans - we have met Lorna and Bob and passed Lorna and Bob every day for the last 3 days.  They operate off channel 18 and Mal has resisted the urge to chat.  He was keen to make contact with Cheryl and Poor Bloody Greg but I managed to wrench the radio from him before he could call them up to let them know we were going to pass.  They too love UHF 18!  People write the darndest things on their spare wheel covers.......  We were settling into our site at Bourke when a huge shiny van pulled in pulled by a white Cruiser.  As we all stared at this amazing rig, none other than Mrs Shaw, Rachel's teacher from school last year jumped down from the passenger's seat!  We had a laugh at being out the back of Bourke and seeing people you know and then had dinner together.  We said goodbye the following morning only to see them again in Charleville that night when they pulled into the same van park as us.  We gave up the next day and travelled in convoy with radio contact with them to Longreach and booked sites side by side.  Great company and lots of laughs over dinner.  Tomorrow we move on and they stay put having reached their final desination of Longreach.  I hope to post some photos in the next few days when we have a stop in Mt Isa.  It was a great 24 degrees here today but the nights are very cold and even frosty.  The girls are travelling well - they are enjoying being able to run around today and have hired a  tandem bike from the camp site to ride around this afternoon. We have seen one unmentionable slithery thing but it was behind glass on display in the office of the campsite.  Off to cook dinner before it gets dark!  Unlike some people, we don't have a big comfy van with all the home comforts!!