It turns out that our next stop wasn’t Cunnamulla, it was Byrock. This is because as we were driving along Mitchell Highway, minding our own business, when the net that held our stuff down to the roof rack decided to die on us and we lost the guitar, (luckily it was the cheap, nylon-string one) which we never found and the little keyboard which we saw come off and managed to save. We had to turn around and drive back to Dubbo for a new net and then continue our journey, which lost us like, an hour and a half and we were already running late.

We aimed to get to Bourke, about two hours out of Cunnamulla, by the end of the day. But we decided to stay at a caravan park in the tiny town of Byrock, another hour from Bourke, instead because it was such a good price.

Byrock consists of a few houses and a pub/caravan park. That’s it. There was a black and white kelpie out the front of the pub to greet us. The pub itself was pretty cool, all traditional looking with a wooden bar and bottles of alcohol on the shelves behind it. The ground was red and the trees and bushes were scrawny. It feels like we’re really out in the outback now!

Sam and I grabbed our bikes and rode along the bush walk. We got ourselves lost and had to rely on the sound of the barking dogs to find our way back to the park. Everything looked the same!

This morning I woke up a lot warmer than yesterday, we could put the heater on last night and the caravan had thawed from cold Canberra by then. I actually got too hot during the night and had to take off my jumper!

We hit the road around 9:30 and headed straight for Bourke where we topped up on petrol and pointed our headlights northward for Cunnamulla. We plan to stay in Charleville tonight , simply passing through Cunnamulla and and having a quick peek at the “Cunnamulla Fella”, which is a statue of a man written about in a traditional, outback song which bears the same name as the statue. The song has been sung by the famous Slim Dusty and the statue was erected….

Right now we are driving along an endlessly straight road through semi-arid bushland. The closer we get to central Queensland, the redder the dirt gets and the scrawny, low bushes and scarce trees line the side of the road. It’s not the nicest day and the sky is covered in a layer of cloud, so I’m glad I’m in the warm car.

In Byrock we had one bar of 3G internet connection and out in the bush between that towns we don’t get any. Hopefully tonight I will be able to jump on Skype while we’re in Charleville but until then I am cut off from the outside world…ah well…!

I also have been unable to get into my email for some, unknown reason so bear with me if you have sent me something. I really want to know how exams are going at school and how all those who are reading this are get along. Sorry for my lack of communication!

Next post will (fingers crossed) be from Charleville and beyond. Let’s pray we don’t have any more setbacks (or lost luggage) along the way!