Justine had a fever last night, normally you’d not worry too much, but of course these are not normal times. There are no other real symptoms, other than feeling off. Not really sure what to do. Given we had Caitlin tested and she was negative, and we’ve been pretty careful to keep to ourselves. We figure we’ll wait and see. This morning, she is better and the fever has dropped, but not gone.
Yesterday, both the tyres on Liam’s bike went flat, punctures from these prickles, a local here called them Cat’s eyes, so one tube has 1 hole, the other as 3!. We got a crappy puncture repair kit at the IGA and I had a go at patching them late yesterday. I’ve left them overnight to dry, so put the wheels back on this morning. I can’t remember the last time I fixed a punctured tyre tube!
Leaving Justine to rest, the three of us drive out to the “Big Opal” Mine. We seem to arrive with about another 5 or more cars. I think about leaving, but we go ahead and pay our fee and climb down the 113 steps of this steep spiral staircase (another reason to leave Justine home!) to the bottom of the mine. While the owner gave a pep talk at the top, it is self-guided. At the bottom in three directions go the shafts, the longest would only be 20-30mts. While OK, it certainly scored high on the Craptastic meter. We’re probably there for 15min or so and climb the staircase out.
Outside the kids spend a bit of time climbing over the dirt mounds that surround this area, It would all be picked clean of anything worthwhile.
Find your fortune Kids! 
Craptastic!
On the way back through town, which if anything is busier than yesterday we stop at the bakery. Pies, yum. Only to see a sign “parts arrived today, will be baking tomorrow” Not something you see every day.
Back to the park and Justine is feeling a lot better. So that’s a relief.
We get a message that our Nephew and his wife have had a baby boy. All good and everyone is well.
A lazy afternoon. Justine reads, the kids play on the tablets and I have a snooze, so I’d call that a win all round.
A trip over to the Thermal Pools, they are just across the road from the caravan park. We’ve been looking all day and the carpark has been packed. There is a sign up , due to COVID, saying only 10 in the pool, while that’s never going to happen, there’s probably been 30 or more in. We arrive and there may be 20 or so, that about as good as it’s going to get, and from my point of view OK, everyone has space, so there is no overcrowding.
The kids, particularly Caitlin slowly get into the small pool as it damn hot. Eventually they take a dip in the large pool and slowly cook. It’s only about 10 or so minutes and they’re too hot and get out.
Given we’ve got time we take a drive out to a lookout for sunset. About a 15min out of town, it nice to see the remoteness, the mining claims all over the place. In the end we reach the lookout and it reminds us a bit of the Mindi-Mindi plains such a flat lookout in every direction. Nice enough, but probably too much dust from all the 4WD’s making it out to the lookout for sunset.
“Can” house, not to be confused with the “Glass Bottle” house 
It’s this Big! 
I know I’m part of the problem, but there are just so many people here it’s not as enjoyable as I hoped, maybe further west, and particularly after the Queensland border opens things will settle down.
Liam reckons “Nothing much else happened today. We just watched a movie, then went to bed”.
Wow that was quite an eventful day, hope everything is ok today.
Take care, no more punctures, hope Justine is well today. Loving the photos of the old buildings, so uniquely Australian.
Justine is fine now, If you like those building, you’ll love the church tomorrow