Bowra Station was a great spot.  Lots and lots of birds.  Chestnut crowned babblers everywhere and saw lots of Major Mitchells.  Definitely a place to return to.  I had several  sessions watching pairs of Bourke's Parrots going about there business.  The last night there we had a tremendous electrical storm.that went on for most of the night.  In the morning there was lots of surface water but we were given the all clear to leave.  We crept out to the road but still managed to get a good coating of red clay that has set like concrete under the wheel arches.  On our way to Sydney we called in at the Warrumbungles National Park.  Sadly, the park has been devastated by the very hot fires 6 months ago.  We could find little evidence of regrowth and most trees don't look as if they will regenerate.  It will be many years before the Warrumbungles recover to anything like their former beauty.  Only the main road, the bush camping area by the creek and a couple of short walks are open.  Camp Blackman, the Visitor Centre and all side roads are closed or gone.  Heart breaking.  The weather got very cold and when in Blackheath the temperature was minus 6 with the wind chill factor.  Thank goodness for the diesel heater.  But we rugged up well and didn't let that stop us exploring look outs, waterfalls etc.  the Blue Mountains are certainly a spectacularly scenic area. So here we are in Sydney staying with our son, Paul, Daughter in law, Alison, and 4 month old Matthew.  Matt is a dream baby.  Full of smiles and curiosity about the world.  Also sleeps amazingly well.  We are so lucky.  Moving over to daughter Angela's home on Friday to spend time with Angela, Tim, Adam and Laura.  Expect to be home on the 5th August. 

I last left you in Alpha.  From there we went to Rubyvale which is actually famous for it's sapphires not it's non existent rubies.  We didn't fancy srabbling around in the dirt searching for what might be a sapphire but we did visit a lot of outlets and learnt a lot about that gem stone. We also saw some amazing sapphires that we could have bought for a mere $95,000 or a cheap one at $45,000.  Did you know that sapphires come in all the colours of the rainbow.  Our favourites were the greens shot with other colours. We meandered on through Emerald and down the Carnarvon Hwy to Roma.  Sadly, because we were buying ice every day we weren't able to revisit Carnarvon Gorge. We stayed outsside Roma on Meadowbank Museum Farm for a couple of days so that we could properly explore Roma and surrounds.  Roma was one of the first places to exploit reserves of gas and coal seam gas.  The farm was a peaceful place to camp with only a couple of others there. Lots of old farm machinery etc to look at.  Eventually we arrived in Robina and  spent a week with our friends Sylvia and Ron.  We were also able to catch up with my niece and her two children and I spent a day with a dear ffriend who has recently moved to the Gold Coast.  On arrival we were informed that although the boat had arrived in Melbourne it didn't have any spares for our fridge on board.  Oh Dear.  However, after some discussion Dometic went away to think about it.  The following Monday , lo and behold, they had found a cooling unit tucked away in Sydney so it was brought up to the Gold Coast quickly and we now have a working fridge.  Halleluyah.  Whilst on the coast wwe also had a new wind screen fitted as a passing road train had heaved a rock at us not far out of Mt. Isa. 
So now we are on our way to Bowra Station outside Cunnamulla for a few days and hope to do some good birding there. Today, when stopped at a roadside rest area another vehicle was there and unbelievably it contained two women (ex members of Melbourne(82) Ionian Club) I hadn't seen for about 15 years.  Much surprise and chatter and we have booked into the same caravan park in St George so that we could continue the conversations.  Huguette and Joy now live in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and are on a trip in Joy's motorhome to far north Oz. 
From Bowra we will take about a week to get down tto Sydney where we will spend about 10 days before coming home.