Our morning started out very chilly! It was 0% here last night.

First stop was the bakery recommended by Sue, the mental health nurse we met in Thargomindah. She was right. It was great. the Sun was out and we sat and enjoyed both it and the coffee.

Across the road – nothing is far here , we went to the Historic House Museum.

Dating back to 1887 the building was purpose built as Charleville’s first national bank, before it went onto become a private boarding house until the 1970’s when it was purchased by the Charleville and District Historical Society. It then became the museum it is today. Filled to the brim with treasures of yesteryear, some dating back as far as the 1800’s.

I particularly like some of the old magazines. I once wrote a blog post on how to pack for a holiday. This magazine gave timeless suggestions on packing including some hints about gloves. Something I had overlooked!!

Visiting country towns I like to support the arts and crafts done by locals.

When I had young children I did various arts & craft and used to sell at markets. I did screen printed t shirts, mosaics, painted pots, folk art painted timber boxes , watercolour paintings – just to name a few. so I like to buy local.

In the store I bought a wooden truck for my little boys, a painted lady beetle for the garden and a metal chook to guard the cubby house.

Next stop was out of town. We had booked on the secret WW2 tour. How many people knew there is such a site here in Charleville.

We discovered why over 3500 United States Army Airforce personnel were stationed in Charleville during WWII. Julie our guide led, in convoy, a tour to discover; aviation history, romance stories, living quarters and the extreme measures taken to keep one of the most sought after secrets of WWII, safe.

That secret, still not written about in the brochure was the Norden Bombsite. It is a piece of top secret machinery used during the war to pinpoint bomb sites during the day.

And when I show and tell you this you have to keep it secret! Shhhh

From there we stopped at other areas.

During the tour we got in and out of our 4wheel drives – again we were so pleased we had left our white BMW at home!

The other tourists were mostly caravaners. A man crazy about things military, from Ballarat. A singlet wearing man and his wife with their two dogs , a younger man in the area filming the Channel 7 show Opal Hunters. such a diverse group.

Next stop was the Royal Flying Doctors. Such an interesting museum. They do so much to support the people who live in these remote areas. Please donate if you get the chance.

Heading back to town we stopped at a park which had the most unusual sculptures. They were actually an invention. What do you think they are?

Did you guess? Read the text on the next picture.

Back to the motel to read the papers before heading to the Historic Hotel Corones

Dinner called so we inquired. Bob the owner suggested Malaysian. Not what we expected. They had the usual pub fare. Burgers. Pizzas etc. but he said they were trialing Malaysian curries. We decided to live dangerously.

Not bad at all.

However the lovely people we met on the way in didn’t feel so adventurous and opted for pizza.

We met these two couples from properties in Moree. What lovely fun people.

We’ve exchanged contact details and I’m sure we’ll catch up. They have kids in Brisbane so often come up. Hope so. They were great fun.

We couldn’t spend too long chatting as we were booked at the Cosmos Centre. Back out of town near the Secret WW2site.

After these indoor photos we went out doors and for an hour and used powerful telescopes and learned about and viewed several stars, a nebula, and finally the best view of the moon I’ve ever seen. Quite amazing.

Our guides for this were 17 year astronomy nuts. They were so professional. In the dark it was impossible to see what they looked like but they sounded so knowledgeable. we’ll done to them

By now pretty close to freezing we wanted to get back to the hotel. Tomorrow Roma.