7th to 12th June
Wednesday -
We found our way to the Ward River camping spots, about 20 ks out of Charleville on the Quilpie road, and set up, then I drove back about 7 ks to get sufficient Telstra signal to ring Col and Liz so they could find us . They were on their way from Eulo and were camping with us for two nights on their way home to Charters Towers from SA.

Thursday-
After a freezing night we went into Charleville to look around and do a little shopping. My list consisted of:
* visit chemist to discuss drug options for sciatic pain
* hot water bottle
* thermal underwear for the lower half of the body
Outcome of talk to chemist was nothing else I could do drug wise without doctors script, but I found a hot water bottle and some long johns- men's ones, as Charleville didn't have any for women.

Back at camp I enjoyed a peaceful paddle on the milk coffee expanse of river, before Liz and I cooked up our legendary camp stew.

I went to bed with my long johns under my pj pants, and my hot water bottle and enjoyed a wonderful sleep.

Friday-
Col and Liz left this morning, heading to Blackall and it's hot Artesian Baths for the night. We muddled around by the river, with Rick fishing and checking the yabbie pot occasionally. Not much success with either of those :-( I had a lovely long paddle.

Saturday-
Today was spent in Charleville, mostly at the Information Centre using the wifi to see if I could sort out the final transfer of my blog from TravelPod to TravelArk, as TravelPod is closing down on 19 June . I may have mentioned this before, but it is causing me a lot of headaches. If I had brought the laptop it would have been a little easier, maybe. My plan now is to do the final work at Quilpie Information Centre. I'm crossing my fingers and toes.

At 2pm we went to the Hotel Corones for a tour which finished with scones and a drink of choice. Rick had beer and I had white wine, which we had never accompanied with scones before - not too bad. The Hotel was built by Haralambos - Harry for short - Corones, who arrived in Australia in 1907 from Greece, at the age of 24, with no English and a pocketful of coins. He also had in tow his 12 year old nephew. Two years later he borrowed £120 from a cousin in Brisbane, headed to Charleville and never looked back.

Back at camp we found we had neighbours, very close neighbours! Oh well, only one more day here before we move on. The neighbours are quite nice people, but there is a whole river to camp along!

Sunday-
Another lovely day of messing about by the river. I feel a bit like Ratty from Wind in the Willows at times.

I used the thermal cooker to cook pea and ham soup, did the washing and lots of blogging. We both enjoyed a long paddle in Mabel before packing her away, along with the fishing gear ( Rick hasn't been very enthusiastic about it yet ). Then it was soup by the fire followed by bed. Much warmer as there is cloud cover. 1 ml of rain is forecast overnight, so it shouldn't be a bother on the black dirt, I hope.