Caitlin had an extremely restless night and
was up a couple of times, then LiAM woke up feeling really cold so I got up and
redistributed blankets and closed the windows. It was cool to see the milky way
on the other side of the sky as it had been when we went to bed, it really
showed how much the earth rotates throughout the night.
Millie was up early and snuggled up outside
in a blanket. It was 17 degrees which feels so cold to us! I was chilly but ok
in my summer pyjamas. We had breakfast and started to get ready to move on.
Millie and I went for a walk to the toilets and then down to the river, meeting
some dogs on the way (one of them licked her all over her face). Caitlin had a
bit of a sleep in, and woke feeling not a lot better than when she’d gone to
bed. She had a banana for breakfast then curled up in a chair until I packed
the chairs, then she curled up in her seat in the car. We saw several more cows
wandering around the campsite, including some younger ones.
We were all packed and ready to leave by
just after 9.30. Heading along the highway we had more varied terrain
throughout the day. More rocky hills, escarpments on either side (at the same
time or separately), and at times, wide, flat plains with no hills at all. Some
areas had no grass, just sparse trees, others had lots of greenish grass and
only the occasional tree. We saw new trees too, some tall, thin, feathery ones,
and shorter trees with lots of branches – it looked like there’d been fire
through here not too long ago, as a lot of those trees had no leaves, or if
they did, the leaves were fluffy looking, and all over the branches, like new
post-fire growth. The termite mounds were different here too, more like large boulders than tall structures.
We stopped in Halls Creek for petrol
(getting straight to the petrol pump, once we’d navigated past the very long
line for the diesel pump). I was glad we hadn’t attempted to stay in town, it
didn’t look like a place I wanted to linger, although the visitors centre and a
couple of the buildings around there looked quite lovely.
We stopped for lunch at Ngumbie Cliffs rest
area, which was recommended to us by our neighbours last night. This rest area
was perched on the top of some rocky cliffs, with views in every direction –
back the way we came across the top of this escarpment, or across the plains at
the bottom of the cliffs. They weren’t very high, but quite pretty, and there was
valley just below the rest area with ghost gums and lots of greenery, we could
see where the water would flow in the wet before it spread out across the
plain.
We ate some lunch and had a bit of a play,
and were there for about an hour and a half. We could have stayed the night –
lots of people were already setting up – but there was no shade at all (unless
we camped right up against the day use picnic tables) and there were still a few
hours of daylight left, so we moved on. I would have liked to free camp again,
but Caitlin was very keen to stay somewhere with a shower. Millie also wanted a
shower, and a pool too if possible. We reached Fitzroy Crossing just after
3.30, so figured we might as well stay in a caravan park here (the next free
camp, with toilets (and no shower) was another 80km or so down the road and
that would be taking us too close to sunset). Two of the 3 parks in town had
terrible reviews, and didn’t have pools, so we decided to stay at the fancier
caravan park. It cost more than I wanted to pay for a one night stop in a small
town ($49 – although we also get a 5% discount at the local IGA) but it was
worth it to make sure Caitlin was comfortable and for me to be less worried
about being robbed. (The other 2 parks had lots of reports of burglaries, and
they were both over $40 a night anyway).
We checked in and set up in the large
unpowered camping area, in the shade, and hopefully with shade in the morning
as well. (The map we got here helpfully showed where sunrise and sunset would
be). We wandered over to the pool – Tony took the kids first and I met them
there a bit later, and found Caitlin sitting on a step in the deep end, shivering
uncontrollably. I helped her get out and we wrapped her in towels, then I had a
quick swim to cool down and played with Millie for a few minutes, then took the
girls back over to have a nice warm shower. LiAM got out as well, and managed
to get his clothes and have his shower before I’d finished organizing towels
and clothes for the 3 of us girls. The showers were fantastic, and helped
Caitlin warm up a little.
Tony was watching the Collingwood v Carlton
game on his phone (Collingwood won, hooray!), and I started to get dinner ready. We had leftovers, and
instant mashed potato, and bacon (and Millie had cereal as well). Caitlin had
barely eaten all day, or much the day before either, and I made her a plate of
food and suggested she try to eat what she could – suddenly she realised she
was starving and ate quite a bit of her dinner. She’d stopped shivering by now
and started to feel quite a bit better. Her thumb is still hurting but the
swelling and bruising is continuing to go down.
LiAM didn’t feel well after dinner and had
another shower to help himself feel better. He came back and went straight to
bed. The girls hurried in to bed as well, after patting and talking to some
nearby dogs, and we were able to read a few chapters of Inheritance while
everyone was still awake, then we all crashed.
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