We can pretty much tell the time by the sounds around us while camping at Bitter Springs. The birds start their morning chorus at 6.45am, just prior to sunrise at around 7.00am. The crunch of footsteps on gravel also starts just prior to sunrise, as fellow campers walk to and from the amenities block. The first campers begin departing the park from 7.30am, with the sound of the diesel engines in their 4X4s ticking over as they drive off. The first arrivals start to be marshalled into their campsites from 8.00am, with the distinctive sound of the park quad bike leading them to their allocated plot of land. This is soon followed by the sounds associated with the setting up of caravans, camper trailers and tents.
At around 8.30am the first of those needing to get washing done turn up at the amenities block, and the distinctive sound of washing machines going through their cycle becomes background ‘white’ noise until the clothes line is full. By 8.45am the first wave of swimmers have set off for a soak in the thermal springs – they are easy to spot, either with their pool noodles in hand or with the children using them as though they are light sabres from a Star Wars movie. Thump, thump, thwack – then cries of, “Cut that out!” coming from the parents.
The cleaners start their rounds from about 11.00am, driving their quad bikes around to collect the rubbish and to clean the amenities blocks. They have a preference for popular 1970s music to listen to while they work – this emanates from their quad bikes (and possibly warns people they are busy cleaning and to go to another amenities block). They also use a leaf blower to dry the concrete floors of the amenities after they have had a thorough hose out – and there is no such thing as a quiet blower. From 2.00pm the water truck will start doing laps of the park, in an attempt to keep the dust down as late arrivals continue to be shown to their site.
Campers will be settling down for afternoon drinks at around 4.00pm, with conversations covering where people have come from, where they are headed, and what they have been up to recently. Calls will be made to distant family and friends, as the park has mobile phone coverage. The final swimmers for the day will return from the thermal springs somewhere between 4.30pm and 5.00pm, and fellow travellers will start cooking meals in either the camp kitchen or on the nearby BBQs, with the sounds and smells of meat and sausages cooking on the hotplates filling the early evening air. This will be followed by the conversations while washing up is done. The sound of gravel crunching underfoot will extend into the evening, as people move to and from the amenities block once again before silence descends on the camp grounds for the day.
For us it was another cool start to the day, with the temperature around 10C when we woke. It was cool enough for both of us to put warm tops on until around 9.30am. Wendy attended to another load of washing and we took a call from our family in the USA before setting off for our morning swim. During our brief time in Bitter Springs we have learnt that the thermal springs are less crowded in the mornings, and that if you are happy to swim upstream a little, you can get away from the light sabre-wielding children and the adults intent on drinking beer and filming every moment above and below the surface of the water as they drift downstream. We called it quits after about 1.5 hours of swimming, bobbing around, talking at length to another couple from Shepparton, and briefly chatting to a young couple ’doing a lap’.
We walked the short distance back to our camp site for a late morning tea. Wendy checked the washing and it was all dry. There’s not a lot of humidity about here, although we expect that will change as we move closer to the coast over the next few days. Lunch followed morning tea, just as another swim followed lunch. The weather has been ideal and very conducive to soaking in the thermal springs here at Bitter Springs.
Another cool night is on the way, with the temperature dropping once the sun had set. Our overnight low is forecast to be 5C, which will be the coldest we have experienced since (probably) the Bunya Mountains National Park.