Quilpie - 29 July 2014

It was good to be able to catch up on the washing this morning. There is always someone to chat to and a trip to the laundry or the loo, can often take a lot longer than expected.

We walked up to town to see what there was. There are 2 supermarkets, a bakery, butcher, 2 pubs, 2 opal shops, chemist, post office, couple of coffee shops and a couple of mixed businesses. One of the mixed businesses had some patchwork fabrics and I had picked up a couple of fat quarters to add to my collection. I went to get my wallet from Bruce's backpack, only to find he had moved on down the street! Was it on purpose?! Tomorrow.

We saw a very unusual house in our wander round the town. It had a slippery slide next to the back steps. It was/is an old convent, but I can't imagine the nuns sliding down there.

The town has a lovely feel to it and seems a friendly place. The streets are really wide here, even the back streets. And everyone has their sprinkler on!

There is a lovely pub in the main street called Hotel Quilpie. The current people have owned it for 3-4 years and it has been done up beautifully.

We walked inside to see if we could have a look. The lady working there is a caravan traveller and is called back to Quilpie when needed. Last year they stayed at the Caravan Park, but this year they are staying in the Hotel. Her husband does the mail delivery for the Quilpie Mail Run, which we are doing on Thursday.

The hotel is just lovely inside. It has the pressed metal ceilings and is painted a soft green. It was built in the 1920's, so not as old as some of the pubs we have been to.

We were told to go upstairs and have a look, which we did. The rooms that we saw are fairly small and we wandered out on to the front verandah, which goes right across the building. There was a lady laying on one of the sun lounges, a guest in the hotel. I noticed she was reading the same book as I am at the moment - Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon. She loves the series as much as I do. But anyway we got chatting. Her and her husband caught the train out from Brisbane last week and go home on Friday, again by train. They love the place. I don't know how they get around as they don't have a car.

We had a look inside St Finbarr's Catholic Church. In 1976, Des Burton, the father of the boulder opal industry, built an opal wall for the church. That is now on the front of the altar, lectern and the baptismal font.

Tonight, anyone interested gathered to watch the International Space Station travel overhead. We also saw 3 satellites pass overhead as well. It was amazing to watch and clear as anything out here. The Space Station was launched on 20 November 1998 and has been added to over the years. The stats on it are mind blowing. It orbits 370 km above Earth; it travels at 7.71 km/second or 27,600 km/hour. It could travel to the moon and back in 1 day. It takes 92 minutes to orbit Earth. It is 109 metres long, weighing 419.5 kg.

 

After watching that, the guy showing us all this, who is the Manager, showed us a fantastic program on his laptop. It is a free download from www.stellarium.org and shows you the stars above you. It can also outline their shapes as well as giving you information about them. You don't need the internet to view it, only to download it on to you computer. It will be fantastic to check the position of the stars as we travel around the country.