Last Town Before Nowhere

So, we have been in Birdsville for a full 2 weeks and things have been going well so far. The caravan park has been busier than we expected, which is keeping us out of trouble! Our cleaning partners, Barb and Steve have left the park though, so now it’s just Dave and I here. It makes it a little more boring, so we do miss them! We spend about 4-6 hours a day cleaning, laundry, making beds, etc. It’s not mentally hard, but it’s keeping us moving physically, which is nice. Now that school holidays are coming to an end, the work should start to slow down a bit…but we’ll see.

So, with the rest of our days we have been exploring Birdsville and surrounding area. Before Barb and Steve left, they took us on a drive out into the desert. We got to see an old cemetery in the city, as well as this form of tree (a Waddi tree) which only grows in 100-120 sq km in Australia. It’s pretty rare and apparently very durable. You have to cut the tree while it’s still alive, because if you try to wait until its dead then it essentially turns to rock, it is so hard! They also took us over to the Birdsville Race Track, where the famous Birdsville horse races happen the first weekend in September every year. Then Steve took us to a small sand dune nearby where we watched the sunset – there are some pretty spectacular sunsets here in the outback! And the stars….wow! You can see so many stars here, with all different constellations also. There is a woman in town (the police officers wife, Sandra) who runs a star show with a telescope every once and a while, so that is definitely on our list of things to do while we’re here. Another day, Dave and I rented bicycles and went for a ride. We made a few stops – a local Aboriginal area, as well as Pelican Point. There is a ton of birdlife around Birdsville: pelicans, corellas, Australian ravens, galaws, butcher birds, etc. We’ve also seen a feral cat that likes to hang around the caravan park, and a goanna walking around. No scary snakes, scorpions or spiders….yet :/

 We have also been frequenting the gym here a few times a week. It is hilarious trying to use their few pieces of equipment to put together a full program. But the workouts are definitely better than either of us could have imagined here in Birdsville. And the best part is that the gym is air conditioned! It also has a huge TV and Wii unit – we’re trying to hunt down the hand held devices so we can try playing Wii cricket while we’re here.

 The weather has been so variable while we’ve been here, you never know what you’re going to wake up to. We have had some days around 23-24 degrees and others over 40 degrees. The evenings can actually be pretty cool also. The last two nights have dropped down to about 10-12 degrees. And the wind can be insane! We’ve had a couple of days when the wind has been over 50 km/h causing huge sand storms and wreaking havoc all over the caravan park. The last few days have been beautiful though – 25 degrees with a light breeze, and nice and cool at night for sleeping! We’re enjoying these days while we’ve got them because before you know it, it’ll be 35+ degrees almost every day…eek!

 We’ve also seen and done a few other random things. Dave has eaten a Kangaroo pie at the local bakery (I stuck with a chocolate milkshake). And we have seen this man who has 6 camels that he just walks around the town. Almost every day you can see him herd his 6 full camels from the Billabong through the town and back again. I was able to catch up to him one day – man are camels ever huge when you’re standing right next to them. I’m not sure what he does, or why he has the camels (no one around here really is) but it’s a spectacle non-the-less.

 

We’re hoping you are all doing well and starting to get excited for Thanksgiving!

We’ll be in touch again soon

xoxo