It was spitting with rain when we woke so we packed up quick smart to get off the muddy riverbank before it became impossible to leave. We had enjoyed Quilpie but really wanted to get off the route being taken by the thousands of caravans and campers travelling from the Birdsville Bash. After consulting the atlas, we were confidant our selection of Yowah as our next destination would be ideal as it was in the middle of nowhere and definitely not on a route the hoards would be taking.
We drove for two hours along single strip tarmac and, apart from Toompine which consisted of a pub and a toilet, we did not see any buildings or signs of life at all until we rolled into the tiny opal fossicking town of Yowah. We discovered a caravan park and donation camping area which both looked pretty much the same so we went for the cheaper donation camp. The amenities were new with excellent hot showers and actually looked better than those in the caravan park, both areas were on red dirt. There was no phone signal or wifi on our regular phones so we were glad we had invested in the Boost mobile sim to manage in the remote towns.
Yowah sits on the artesian basin and there were hot springs all over including a warm stream which ran from our camp to the centre of town (a small grocery store at the entrance to the caravan park). The whole area was home to some beautiful birds and they were especially prolific along the walk by the stream. There were lots of signs boasting that Blue Bonnets lived there, they were obviously hiding from us but we did see a Mallee Ringneck, which is a gorgeous bird.
For such a small town there were a surprising number of eating options, the Miners Club were doing a roast dinner on Wednesday and Saturday, The Nut Cafe offered up pizzas on a Monday (must be ordered by 2pm) and a limited menu on Tuesday and Friday and there were Rubber Duck Races at the caravan park on a Thursday. What a social whirl! Things were about to get far more exciting the following week because the Yowah Opal Festival was set to take place, we saw a poster for the festival and the star attraction was a singer from our home town, how bizzarre.
We were starting to really enjoy Yowah and discovered a very presentable pool complex fed by the hot springs. Two pools, one hot, one very hot and changing rooms built into empty water tanks all for the princely sum of $5 for a day pass! There were also hot baths in little beach huts for public use. We got chatting to some locals in the pool and realised Yowah was not like other opal towns where residents seem to be trying to escape from something, these were people who had moved to the town for a quieter life and most had done pretty well out of the opal deposits.
We had not been in Yowah too long when it started to rain and pretty soon our caravan was a little island standing in a sea of very slippery mud. We were caravan bound for a couple of days and the walk to the showers was pretty perilous, we would often arrive back dirtier than we left having slipped over in the treacherous mud. After two days of endless Rummikub games we had serious cabin fever and were relieved to see the rain easing off. The ground around the van reappeared, although the mud still tried to suck our shoes off when we walked on it, so we set about enjoying the little place again. We visited the huge fossicking area and found some tiny opals, popped into the spa again and had dinner at The Nut Cafe. Even with the weather, Yowah was one of our favourite stops on the whole trip.
The town was already filling up for Opalfest so we reluctantly decided to move on and set off on a misty morning to head for Bollon. Eulo was our first coffee stop, a tiny place with extremely unfriendly dogs, then Cunnamulla for fuel which was just a big, functional place. We followed the long, straight, single strip road all the way to Bollon and pulled into Wallam Creek, a beautiful riverside donation camp with toilets and showers. However, it was packed. It turned out we were now on the route to the Thargominda Music Festival which had been postponed for a week due to the rain so everyone was holed up in Bollon killing time until it began. We really must check for festival dates before we plan our next trip.
After our initial disappointment we expolred the town and found it to be very nice indeed. The pub and cafe were staffed by the same people, there was a very interesting visitor centre and museum, a decent general store, hardware store and a rather good art gallery in the old Post Office. It was nice and peaceful during the day so we decided to stay and were rewarded with a sighting of a Diamond Dove and one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen.
Woke up to discover we had no power, probably as a result of so many days without solar in the rain, so this made our minds up that our next stop must have power laid on to charge our battery. We had planned to head for Texas but it was a bit far and our research told us there was power at Talwood. After a quick stop in St.George for groceries we arrived at Talwood Recreation Ground to find that the power was just a couple of sockets on the back of the toilet block that caravans couldn't get very close to. We finally found another on the back of an old railway building in the ground and plugged in there. The amenities were old and tatty but clean, although it was a bit alarming to have to get dressed in a completely open area after showering, even more so when a neighbouring couple of ladies just wandered in for a chat with me as I was trying to get my clothes back on as quickly as possible.
The donation was paid at the shop and we had a look at the town. Talwood is a nice little place on a popular caravan route but I could not help thinking they could have made far more money from the passing trade. Far less attractive little towns, like Thallon or Nindigully, have really tapped in to the grey dollar by setting up huge camping areas and souvenir trade in the pub. However, it suited our purposes. The cafe was interesting, we had to ask in the Post Office for it to be opened then the woman locked the Post Office, made us a coffee then went back and opened the Post Office again. There were some very lovely houses in Talwood with beautiful gardens unlike the scrubby yards where they can only grow bougainvillea that we have been used to lately and the town had a pub, so all good.
The next morning we went to get a coffee again but the Post Office was shut so we enquired at the general store and the owner picked up a key and went and opened the cafe, made us a cup and returned to his store. Dark clouds were forming again so we set off through Goondiwindi to Texas. The free camp by the river was a great place to stop and we had an expansive view over the farmland behind us. They have a novel idea here, campers write their postcode on all their receipts for food, drink and anything bought in the town and place them in a tub, these are then presented to the council to convince them that keeping the camping free is benefitting the town.
Texas is a great, medium sized town but absolutely everything is closed on a Sunday, including the pub. We were hoping to visit the Texas Rabbit Works but it would not be open until the Tuesday and we were running out of time. It looked fascinating, in the 1930s the rabbit works employed 30 men and exported 3 tons of rabbit meat a week to England. The other museum in Texas was The Museum of Tobacco which only opened on Saturday mornings so, if you want to take in the presumably thrilling Texas attractions, you need to plan ahead.
The walk into town from our camp was very pleasant, just over 1km through farmland. As we were strolling along a cow popped out a new calf just as we were walking past her! What a treat! We stood and watched until the calf got on its feet and started feeding and walked on feeling very privileged. It was a good bird walk too with Pale Headed Rosellas, Little Friarbirds and Black Shouldered Kites among others. We left Harvey in the van and repeated the walk the next evening to have dinner in the pub. It was very good, not just by country town standards but would have held up anywhere.
Woke to sunshine and mist. Ian went to check on our calf and found another one had been born overnight, that made 3 in the paddock altogether. The cafe selection was not brilliant for such a well presented town, the bakery cafe was truly awful. The area around Texas was known for growing Lucerne Hay but now cotton is taking over so I guess that would explain why the place appeared so prosperous.
We saw signs for Goat Rock, just outside the town, and drove up to have a look. The camping there looked amazing among huge rocks and rolling hills. Composting toilets only and bucket showers (I'm not sure I like the sound of a bucket shower but we have our own in the van) there was also a very good cafe there, one for next time.
Texas was our last proper stop on a wonderful trip that took just over 7 weeks of our winter. It has taken me so long to write it up that we are already well into planning the next one. We just stopped the once on the way back in a place called Kootingal, just north of Tamworth. Very pleasant campsite $40 for power but the weather was becoming cold by then so well worth it to use our heater.
