I must thank Ray for his exemplary (and lengthy) blog post yesterday. When I said I wasn’t going to bother writing about the man and his attempts to park his caravan, Ray volunteered to do it to ensure the information was shared. Hmmm…
We decided to stay this extra day in Charters Towers so that we could walk the length of the town and explore the shops. There is an “old fashioned” department store here catering for the whole family which is owned by one of the oldest families in the area. I wanted to soak up the ambience of the RM Williams shirts, Wrangler jeans and Akubra hats that so many of the locals wear here. Besides, they had huge sale signs in their display windows. 

Ray left me to explore on my own (very dangerous as he was about to discover) because when we met up again I had 2 shopping bags. It’s amazing how much damage I can do in 20 minutes! Who would have thought that I could find one of my favourite brands in Outback Queensland.

The shops each held a variety of things so that you never knew quite what would be in each store. It was like rummaging through an op shop, (without the discounted price tags) uncovering treasures. 

Caleb has been watching two of Ray’s favourite movies that we picked up cheaply somewhere. It is a slapstick Cowboy and Indian theme. He has been on the lookout for some holsters like Trinity , the main character, has. 

Caleb was thrilled to find them in the toy shop and treated us to “quick draw” displays in front of the mirror. It makes a nice change from the incessant Star Wars monologue that he mutters. 

The local park has 2 monuments. One as a salute to the grazing industry and the other to music. Charters Towers hosts a yearly country music festival which draws visitors from all parts of Australia. We have heard amazing stories from people we have met about the music festival. Unfortunately we have missed it this year. 

We are really taken with Charters Towers and the character of the town. It really has the atmosphere of a Western Movie, with all but the Indians.