{"id":181,"date":"2012-12-18T09:39:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T01:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.joel.net.au\/?p=181"},"modified":"2026-06-20T16:56:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T08:56:04","slug":"stumbling-across-the-unexpected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/2012\/12\/18\/stumbling-across-the-unexpected\/","title":{"rendered":"Stumbling across the unexpected"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Outback
Outback Barcaldine Pub, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you travel around from town to town, they rarely seem to be what you expect when you get there. They are usually much bigger or smaller than you expected. Often, towns with little information available about them seem to be pretty cool places to hang out for a bit of wilderness recuperation. On the other hand, towns that seem to get the most hype in Lonely Planet often seem way overrated, a bit run-down, and past their prime (with boarded-up shops, etc.). <\/p>\n

One such town was Charleville, QLD. Charleville had numerous boarded-up shops and not much to see in the area. It was also extremely hot and very difficult to cool off in. There was nowhere to escape the heat – no real shade, boiling hot water coming out of pipes, and even a hot swimming pool. <\/p>\n

Charleville did have a good astronomy show on at their local observatory, which was pretty modern compared to the rest of the town. They treated us to a nighttime show featuring telescope views of the bands on Jupiter and some of its moons, distant gaseous galaxies forming, the moon up close, and other stellar stuff. Very cool show and the best I have seen in a while.<\/p>\n

One funny thing about Charleville is that it seemed as though no one had ever seen a bike being transported on the roof of a car before. My bike seemed to attract endless fascination from the locals there. Very odd considering every other town I’ve come through didn’t really seem to care.<\/p>\n

\"Between
Between stops in Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today’s Drive<\/strong> \r\n\t\t

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