Day 31- Undara to Charters Towers

Super organised packup this morning. We had sandwiches made the night before and everything ready to go so we were packed up and on the road by 9:30. Tim even had time to gather some wild tomatoes from the bushes scattered around the place. We'll eat them with cheese and crackers later :)
We did not fill up out here.... they have diesel but at 159.5 a litre visitors clearly only use it in an emergency. The last bloke put a whole 5.65L in which would have got him to the cross roads but not to another petrol station.

As hoped we had time for a quick stop at Kalkani Crater. Mum and i high-tailed it up the side of the hill while the guys waited with the kids at the picnic area. The crater was not what i expected. I assumed that inside the volcano area it would look different somehow to the surrounding vegetation. Maybe more arid or with fewer trees or something. Not sure why i thought that seeing as the volcano has not been doing anything for a while now so the trees had time to grow! LOL!
But the view from the rim to the surrounding countryside was rather special. The sky is just the most incredible shade of blue out here.

Back down the track quick smart and in the truck for the long haul to Charters Towers. 380km which is the biggest day for us so far. It's probably a good thing that the boys are both a little unwell at the moment so happy to sleep more. Darcy slept almost the whole way which was a big relief cos it is a long hot monontonous drive with some rather average roads and some rather large road trains.

We stopped at Bluewater Springs for lunch. It has a population of 2! And we had wondered how the 'town' could have a caravan park, petrol station, cafe, and somekind of pub cos it offered alcohol as well with just two people. Well, we found out! The town is just the roadhouse and that's it. The roadhouse has petrol and serves a good variety of meals and some pretty decently priced drinks all over the counter. And you can park your van in the backyard if you want to stop over. We met half the population of Bluewater Springs when he made our burgers.

From there it was just over an hour to Charters Towers. We drove past the free camp about 30 odd km out of Charters at Flinders Creek and it looked really nice. But we have lots we want to see and do in town so have opted for the Big 4 caravan park. I have to say first impressions of the place are pretty good!