Blackall 10 - 11 July 2014

Woke up to another beautiful, but crisp morning. Although there were a few construction holdups on the highway we made good time for morning tea at Tombo, a tiny village with a fantastic (but vacant) children’s playground. Then onto Blackall, a small town with a brilliant tagline (There’s more than stuff all at Blackall). We stopped at a reserve on the edge of town, right next to a lovely warm creek. Blackall is situated over the Great Artesian Basin and has hot water bubbling through the ground, even the pool is 30o! After a yarn around a fire, Heather made a mouth-watering paella for dinner. The next day we had a look around Blackall and had a swim in the artesian bore – beautiful! We also had a tour of the last steam driven wool cleaning store (with a 20 stand shearing shed) left in Australia – this was from an era when wool was king. While this town only has 1,500 people, it has established a number of interesting attractions for travellers and is a popular stopping spot for people exploring the outback.