Day 32- Charters Towers

It gets cold here overnight! We went to bed with everything open and the windows half unzipped like usual and i was pulling up the blankets and zipping things up and still snuggling in cos it was cold. It might be time to bring out the doonas! Yay!

Nice relaxed day today. We are staying here for several nights and even though there is a fair bit to do in town it is all really laid back and nothing that needs any rushing so we can have a breather.

After a slow breakfast Tim, Jordy, Darcy and i had a walk around the park and a jump on the jumping pillow and a quick play in the park. Then we headed into town - I think Charters might be a city but it's a country town city so not a shitty city :) - We drove past a few old buildings and the kind of houses that Tim loves with the massive backyards and a bit of a verandah and plenty of room for a vegie garden for me. We parked near the old Freemasons Lodge which must have been an impressive sight back in the hey-day.

Walked straight to the Tourist Info centre to get a few brochures and start the lap of the town centre and its heritage sights. Stopped for an early lunch at the Stock Exchange cafe and listened to the Calling of the Card. Again we are still early for tourist season so the lady just set it up and turned it on for us after we'd had lunch seeing as we missed the 'official' running time. Then a wander through the little mining and valueing museum there.

Had a look at the old WWII photo display at City Hall. Then down to the Folk Museum. They had some great stuff to look at but Jordy was the most impressed with the big old tractor that they let him sit on. He then sat up there for ages and yelled at us to get out of the way cos he was cutting sugarcane. They had a couple of MASSIVE bundaberg rum bottles, and some odd things like a suicide letter from a woman whose love died in the mines and she was all brokenhearted and so poisoned herself back in 1904, and and old baby humidicrib and an iron lung machine, and memorabilia from the war.

Back up the street to the World Theatre which is an impressive building. They had a photographic display of Children in the Outback that had some great shots and great little stories. This big clock tower is the post office.

Then we grabbed some groceries and Tim bought a pair of shoes (he has been trying to get a pair of sandels since we left home and it's taken this long!). Back to the van and we dragged the ice-cream machine out and Tim made orange sorbet while the rest of us had a quick dip in the pool (Darcy napped.

We sat around and had our cheese platter (those tiny tomatoes are tasty) and were amazed that it was already after 5pm! Where did the day go?!?!

Tried to have a webchat with family back home but i think our microphone must have been thrown out or left behind somewhere so we typed while they talked which was slow and really not the same so we're off to buy a microphone to try again.

Homemade steak burgers for dinner. Once again i crashed putting Darcy to bed and then dragged myself up at 10:30 for sorbet and a cup of tea and then back to sleep (with a nice snuggly doona this time.)