Wow, was it cold this morning. We awoke to a chilly 1C at 8am and normally we would have stayed in bed but we needed to be somewhere.

 

At 915am each morning, the Bureau of Meteorology releases a weather balloon automatically at the Charleville Airport.

 

We have never seen one released so precisely at 915am, the balloon came out of its home and headed off, unwinding the instrument underneath as it went. After 5 minutes, you couldn’t see it so tick that one off the list.

 

Four years ago, there was a road train carrying ammonium nitrate that caught fire 30 kilometres south of Charleville, taking out the road bridge, the rail bridge as well as the fire trucks.

 

There were a number of injuries but no deaths and the explosion was heard in Charleville.

 

The road bridge has been replaced but not the rail bridge and there is a memorial to the event at the site with information boards and of course a geocache.

 

We headed down to check it out. The Emergency crews were very lucky to be alive looking at the photos of the devastation. 

 

Back in town a train came through so not sure what line they were using as there was no getting through where the explosion had occurred.

 

This afternoon and evening we spent at the Cosmos Centre & Observatory. There was some interesting presentations but the best bit was when it got dark.

 

The skies are very clear around Charleville and they have a good observatory with 4 telescopes and we got to see up close the moon, Jupiter and Saturn.

 

The presenter, Sandra, was very knowledgeable and pointed out many constellations. Even got to see a shooting star.

Being outside, we could feel it getting cold again. It was already down to 12C as we left to head back to the caravan.