Day 7. May 11 2024. Cunnamulla: Still getting wet.

Another key to travelling is the two night stop. If you need to get somewhere, you may have a number of skips from place to place…packing up in the morning, get in the car, drive, drive, drive, get to the destination, set up, have lunch at 3pm , a quick walk around town, dinner set up, dinner eat, dinner clean up, sleep, repeat. Too many times in a row, and this is not so much fun, so the decision to drive through the waves of water to have two nights at Cunamulla is a good one as we have time to dry everything out in the morning, get ourselves sorted during the day and then for the arvo we were ready for our treat at the baths.

Cunnamulla is a long way from everywhere, and the campiste was still 5k out of town, but in the middle of this generally closed little town they have opened up spring baths right along the river. Now, I am not usually into this wellbeing stuff (see previous description of massages) and I have previously been to the Mornington Peninsula Hot springs which I found to be unpleasantly cold as you walk from one hot bath of bubbling human filth to the next. Petri dishes of disease dressed up as a health spa. Linda was keen to go to these the day before Mothers day and I whole heartedly agreed.

To begin, it was 22 degrees outside – this is acceptable to be in bathers to start. Secondly, being in the middle of nowhere, the numbers of people in the baths would have at least given the filtration system a chance to take out the nastiest nasties. Thirdly, as we sit in the pools, we look over the river and the gums and the wildlife sweeping by ambivilant to us slowly shrivelling up.

The pools had numbers on the outside: 36-40, 37-39, 34-38…and I did think this was a little ambitious in saying that you would feel this young on getting out, but it was a temperature gauge. We sat in a hot one by ourselves for a bit and then moved to a cooler one that was tested at 34 degrees, to which somebody suggested there must be more wee in the other pools making them hotter. In the end, two hours of not actually doing anything and floating in warm water with questionable benefits with a great view was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Facilities: 8/10. Controversial as they were a long way away, and had a shower curtain. However, the cubicles had space to dry yourself off with, the water was hot and toilet paper was REAL toilet paper.

With that, we have wrapped up our first week of travel. Approx. 1,500ks, 3 states, only one sausage roll and the big surprise has been the education in some of these small towns we have been to.