Day 1 Bathurst Bourke Longreach

Clear morning in Bathurst with frost on the ground. Made an early start and with Jenny flying the first leg to Bourke we were in the air by 8am. Tracked south of Dubbo and overhead Narromine. Not much traffic and landed on runway 05 at Bourke about 10.30am, taxiing straight to the fuel bowser to fill up. Very quiet at Bourke compared to previous visits, no other aircraft on the apron. Had some sandwiches sitting in front of the terminal garden and then back into the air with David flying a very long leg to Longreach. Conserving fuel did a cruise climb to 4500 feet with mixture leaned and settled down at 70% power and 5hr endurance. Later climbed in two steps to 8500ft as the air became bumpy. Made good time eventually settling down to 120knots and plenty of range so no need to think about diverting to Charleville for fuel. Whoops, forgot to book our accommodation before leaving Bathurst and again at Bourke. Shouldn’t be a problem, wasn’t in previous years. Three and a half hours studying remote stations and airstrips and the mostly dry beds of the Paroo and Warego Rivers and then into Longreach, refueled and parked opposite the Qantas museum. Guess what, a huge weekend in Longreach-Stockmans Hall of Fame 20th anniversary dinner with VIPs uncluding the governor attending,Big football dinner at Ilfracombe, everything booked solid and not even a space to put up our tent in the caravan park. Eventually found a $57 room at the Welcome Home Hotel in Eagle Street, very basic but better than sleeping under the wing!! Visited our favorite Chinesy for Dinner and walked the main street, past the landmark lighted water tower and the beautiful old railway station. Doesn’t look as prosperous as previous years with some businesses for sale.