Posts Tagged With: cunnamulla

We love it here at the Warrego Riverside Tourist Park at Cunnamulla and aren’t in any hurry to leave, so we have been procrastinating about our departure date and where we’ll actually go from here.

Mornings have been a little chilly but every day has turned out to be a beautiful sunny day in the mid-twenties.  Very easy to get used to!

We have spent a lot of time just walking around the caravan park.  It’s a very big area and some new sites have been added since we were last here.  The twin impacts of drought and rain are apparent in various places, but there are very clear warnings as to where campers can and can’t go.  There is plenty of space for all types of campers from powered sites and other unpowered sites suitable for caravans and motorhomes, and larger sites available for camper trailers, tents, etc.  It looks as though the owners are preparing to add some more camping sites and possibly some cabins as well.

Reception building and some of the roses

Views around the caravan park

Throughout the grounds are gardens, watered from the river, with herbs, fruit and veggies available to campers to pick as required.  There are also roses and other flowering plants, windbreak type bushes and trees, and some well-established larger trees as well.  I actually picked some lemons to have with our fish dinner the other night.

Views of the Warrego River

Lemon tree outside our backdoor

Happy Hours happen every night in a fabulous fire pit down by the river.  The park makes sure that there is plenty of wood to go on the fire each night and there are usually several willing volunteers to play with fire during the night.  From around 4.00pm campers can be seen heading off with their chairs and baskets of goodies and a good time is definitely had by all.

Views of the fire pit

The Camp Kitchen is in one end of a huge shed which has some protection on most sides.  There are BBQs, microwave, toaster, sinks, etc, plus tables and chairs and a very eclectic collection of memorabilia and artifacts.  There is a beautiful old combustion stove that Ann would have liked to have brought home with us.

Views of the Camp Kitchen

On Sunday night there was a busker at Happy Hour and he was pretty good too!  At 6.30pm we moved across to a catered 3 course meal in the Camp Kitchen, for a very reasonable price.  Apparently there were 42 diners on the night.  The meal was delicious – pumpkin soup with or without cream; hot silverside with a selection of vegies; and individual sticky date puddings with caramel sauce and ice-cream.  YUM !  We had a great time with our next door neighbours from Mannum in SA and another couple from Kilsyth.  After dinner we wandered back to Bertha for a hot coffee, as beverages weren’t included on the menu.  These dinners happen on Sunday and Wednesday nights, with the menu changing based on what produce is available.

On Monday we packed up Bertha and headed off to explore Cunnamulla for a while.  We had a number of places to go, including IGA (who had restocked since Saturday), the bakery, the newsagent, a gift shop, and the hardware store for some gas fittings for our portable BBQ. We didn’t get quite everything on the shopping list but let’s just say that we made a decent contribution to the economy of Cunnamulla!  There are some fine old heritage buildings in town, and the unforgettable ‘Cunnamulla Fella” statue.  We were intrigued by a couple of signs on one garden bed: one sign asked people not to pick the roses, and the other asked people not to dig for worms.  An interesting combination of prohibited activities in a very prominent area of the town!

Views around Cunnamulla

Views around Cunnamulla

Views around Cunnamulla

We have also spent time under the awning resting and reading, and some time on the computer catching up with paperwork (boring but it still needs to be done where-ever we are).

Enjoying the sun

At this stage we plan on heading off tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, but we’ll check the weather first and then decide what we do.  It will be very difficult to leave this beautiful place when the weather is only going to get colder and wetter the closer we get to home.

Still living the dream!

It rained quite heavily overnight and the red dirt in the camping area was looking a bit messy.  The skies were looking quite overcast so we decided somewhat reluctantly that we should find somewhere else to stay for the next few nights rather than stay on (or maybe in) red mud.  Ann made some calls and was able to find us a site (the last one apparently) and the Warrego Riverside Tourist Park in Cunnamulla (thanks for the suggestion Wendy).

Red mud at Wyandra Camping Grounds

There was constant drizzle as I did a quick pack-up of Bertha and filled the water tank and emptied the black water tank.  We said our farewells to Wyandra and headed back down the Mitchell Highway to Cunnamulla.

The rain appears to have had a strange effect on the wildlife around Wyandra, and for the first 30 or 40 kilometres out of the town we had to drive though a veritable slalom course dodging dead animals on the road.  Mostly kangaroos but other unidentifiable bits and pieces as well.

Slalom course on the Mitchell Highway

As if that wasn’t enough, we had an emu run right out in front of us, obviously planning on conducting “suicide by Bertha”.  It didn’t work though and he (or she) was able to join other emus on the roadside.  We also came across kangaroos and sheep on the road, also apparently intent on committing suicide, but failing.  I’m glad that Bertha has a solid bull-bar though.

Suicidal wildlife

We had pretty constant drizzle most of the way to Cunnamulla but the skies cleared to blue the closer we got to town.  Some of the cloud patterns were quite spectacular.  It looks as though we may have escaped any further precipitation today (fingers crossed).

We arrived unbloodied in Cunnamulla at 12.20pm, only to find the town closed.  Practically all the shops shut at 12.00pm, but we did find a small IGA with extended shopping hours to 12.30pm, so Ann was able to restock some supplies – no bread or milk though.  Fortunately Cellarbrations was also open so we were able to restock those supplies as well.

Some views of Cunnamulla

Welcome to Warrego Riverside Tourist Park

Upon nearing the Warrego Riverside Tourist Park we both realized that we had actually stayed here in 2014 – both of us had completely forgotten that we had stayed in Cunnamulla at all.  This is a very nice park – it was still quite bare 3 years ago but now all the shrubs and trees have grown and it is a very inviting place to stay.  There are plenty of green areas; the sites are all gravel; and the amenities and other facilities are great.

Views of Warrego Riverside Tourist Park

After setting up Bertha, Ann whipped up a delicious lunch and we settled down for a rest before we will go along to Happy Hour in the Camp Kitchen.