Home

Back at home after 17,000 kilometres and 20 weeks, having had a wonderful trip where we saw splendid scenery and learned to appreciate the different types of landscape and flora and fauna.

We've seen crocodiles big and small, freshwater and salties, seen thousands of birds including at least a hundred species we hadn't previously seen (we wish we'd started recording them at the beginning, but we didn't- we had no idea we would see so many new ones).  We've seen endangered species like bilbies and cassowary, we've seen many feral animals- cats, pigs, goats, foxes, cane toads, brumbies- the only camels we saw were tame but there are millions of feral camels too.  Noxious weeds that people have introduced as pot plants or to solve one problem thereby creating another.

It's amazing to think that only yesterday we were in Queensland, in Cunnamulla to be exact.  We'd planned to stay in Bourke but we arrived there at morning tea time, so decided to continue down the road, and reached a freebie near Warren in the afternoon.  Just before dark we discovered the caravan battery was flat, so no lights, no water (pump doesn't work without power), no gas )piezzo lighter ditto)- so we went into Warren and stayed at a caravan park.  This morning we checked the battery, it had charged with the power connected, but the frig drawing on it while we drove was dragging it down again.  It's supposed to be charged through the car as we drive but for some reason that wasn't working, and the frig draws a lot of power- even though we have a solar panel, it's not enough power to run the frig all day and still have power left over.  So we decided to just come home where these things are not a problem.  

Then when I arrived home, I found my car battery also dead flat.  Oh well, NRMA will come tomorrow and fix that.  It's good to be home.  As soon as we reached the Hunter Valley we started thinking how lovely everything looked, wattle in bloom, pastures green after rain- it's always good to be home again.  Over and out.

EMUS AND ROOS

Now at Cunnamulla, and enough said on that subject.  It's not a very interesting town.

We've travelled 200 kms today and seen many emus, but only 2 live roos (many dead ones).  The roadkill count's been amazing for the last week or so- it must have been a good season for the animals or there'd be none left at all.  We saw a few feral cats today (in different places)- we've probably sighted about a dozen of them all told.  they're a terrible danger to small native animals, unfortunately.

The first 50 kms from Charleville was fairly boring, with mulga growing thickly both sides of the road, and in this flat land there was nothing at all to see.  The mulga itself is fairly ordinary, bushy rather than trees, and so thick you can see only a few metres into the scrub.

It was a relief to get to a place where the mulga  had been cleared so you could actually see 100 metres or so.  A little later, there were huge paddocks with sheep or cattle- that's where we saw the emus.

Halfway to Cunnamulla, there's a little town named Wyandra.  It boasts a hotel which sells fuel (last fuel for 100 kms) and a post office which doubles as caravan park and grocery store.  One of the houses has a fence made up of hubcaps, which is reasonably common out here, but the next door neighbour's decoration is dozens of bras strung up along the fence.  Big ones, small ones, polka dotted ones- they ask for a donation to breast cancer research if you take a photo.  Different.

Cunnamulla has some sand dunes which they seem to find quite interesting.  For people who live in such a flat land, I suppose they are.  They're not much compared to the dunes at Williamtown, though.  

Tomorrow, Bourke.  I'm also going to put up some photos, having finally gotten around to downloading them from the cameras.

BULLS AND BILBIES

We walked a couple of kilometres to the Blackall Showground, very well rugged up (even gloves for me) because it gets quite cold once the sun sets out here.  We found seats in the grandstand and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Half an hour after the stated starting time, the announcer came on and announced that they were about to start.  He thanked all the sponsors at great length and said they were about to start.  He thanked the sponsors again and introduced all the riders, who were in 3 divisions, junior, novice and open.  He thanked all the sponsors several times before the first gate (chute) opened and let out a little boy on a big bull- for  a few seconds, anyway. He didn't make the five and a half seconds minimum.  Neither did the next one, or the next, or the next. Each time we waited ten minutes or more in between rides, with the announcer thanking the sponsors.  The boys were probably teenagers, hard to tell as they didn't stay visible for long, they surely ran fast to climb the fence once they fell off the bulls. One of the bulls refused to leave the ring, and it took some time and some antics by the clowns to get him through the exit gate.  Probably the most amusing and interesting part of the night.

So the novice comp started.  Same story.  None of the riders stayed on long enough, most of them falling as soon as they came through the gate.

Finally the open comp began, and somebody actually stayed aboard for the grown-up requisite 8 seconds.   Most of them fell off but then another one lasted the distance.  They stopped for a break (as far as we could see, they'd been having breaks all night).  We left at this stage, after two hours sitting in the freezing cold, feeling sorry for the poor bulls who were so scared.  Most of this time we were waiting for something to happen, as the long breaks in between riders continued. Oh, I forgot to mention that all the riders had fancy clothes, with spangles and shiny bits- hardly mattered, with the little time you see of them.  Are they supposed to make them rider better?
They're very brave (and stupid) but I kept thinking, "Would I let my son do this?  No way!"

Blackall to Charleville was a long leg, just under 300 km.  We stopped in the pleasant little town of Tambo for morning tea and Augathella for lunch, meeting up with the same two vans in each place and chatting to the people, who were from Adelaide. They were heading for Roma, we were turning to Charleville.  The country changed quite a bit. Blackall was at 900+ metres above sea level but we kept rising so Charleville is higher.  It's the biggest town since Mt Isa, which surprised us.
Last night we rugged up again and went to see some bilbies.  First we listened to a delightful young man, Lawson, a volunteer, who also volunteers for Red Cross, is doing Year 12 at present and will join the Air Force at the end of the year. We watched a video on the Save the Bilbies appeal before going to meet some of the little critters in the noctarium.  No flash allowed so no photos but they are awfully cute with their big ears and their black and white tail which looks like it's been stuck on the wrong animal.  They are highly endangered so a big fence has been erected at a national park west of here, the area cleared of foxes and cats, and a colony left to breed there. 

Today we've done the washing and will take it easy before heading for Cunnamulla tomorrow.   Only about another hundred k's after that, we'll be back in NSW.  The weather's getting cooler all the time as we go south- 25 predicted today, but down to about 6 overnight.  Lovely during the day, of course.  

We've driven in excess of 14,000 kms so far and we still have a long way to go.  We expect to be home by the end of the month, which will be 5 months away.  

LONGREACH TO BLACKALL

More on Longreach: it's situated on the Thomson River which is one of the tributaries of Cooper Creek and eventually flows into Lake Eyre- seems odd to be in the Lake Eyre catchment when we were so far, I suppose well over a thousand kilometres, from Lake Eyre.

We had a great time at the Qantas museum, spending about 6 hours there.  We did a tour of a 747 and of a 707, behind the scenes as it were- we got to go upstairs in the Jumbo and to sit in business class seats.  If I do any more air travel, that's how I want to fly!  The seats are like my recliner chair, and this is a 20 year old plane.  The 707 was the first one delivered to Qantas but was later fitted out for an Arab sheikh and has ensuite bathrooms with gold taps and a queen sized bed- now THAT's the way to travel.

The museum has lots of little films you can watch as well as many full sized replicas of planes, and a new exhibit which Chris had a go at, the flight simulator.  I think he would have been happy with a Tiger Moth simulator but he got the latest (not yet in service) jet fighter and he had a bit of trouble with the very sensitive controls and crashed a few times.  He became quite good at taking off!  Apparently kids, who are all used to electronic games, find it easy but even people with pilots licences find it hard, Anyway, he enjoyed the experience, I think.  I'm just glad I didn't try to  fly it, I felt a bit sick just watching when he did loops and spins.

Today we've continued down the highway through Barcaldine (pron Bark- awl- din) which is a pretty town, the birthplace of the Labor Party. Nice parks, lots of trees and all the streets are named after trees. (In Longreach they're all named after birds).

We're now in Blackall which is a smaller but pleasant town and we're about to set off to see the bull-riding.  We''ve managed to avoid rodeos in about 6 towns so far, but we've decided tonight's the night and we're rugging up before leaving the van.  Weather continues to be wonderful but the temperatures have dropped a bit since we've started heading south.  Still mid twenties in the daytime but low temps overnight and it will be chilly outside.

Tomorrow, Charleville, 300 kms so a longer run than usual for us.

LONGREACH AT LONG LAST

We first started thinking of visiting Longreach some years ago.  At the time the idea was to catch the train from Brisbane, visit the Qantas museum and the Stockman's Hall of Fame, and return to Brisbane by train.  This proved to be impractical so the idea was shelved.

This morning Chris took the car to be serviced and we rode our bikes the kilometre or so to the Longreach School of Distance Education, formerly School of the Air.  What an interesting place it turned out to be!  We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and recommend it to anyone, doesn't cost much and you'll be surprised what you see.  We tuned into a Preppy class (Kindergarten)- five children scattered over the countryside, talking to their teacher via computer.  They were so funny with their spontaneity, as they tried to play a mix and match word game, under the teacher's control ("take your feet off the desk, Nathan").  Priceless.  

The school is set up beautifully, the kids do actually get to meet their teacher at least once a year. They are brought in for short periods to stay in the dorms (with several mothers coming too) and iinteracting with each other.  They are currently teaching 171 kids from 150 families, in an area bigger than Victoria.  Most of the children go to boarding school after finishing Primary, in any event the school teaches only to Grade 10.

On the way back to the caravan park, we visited the Hall of Fame, and we enjoyed that so much we plan to return as soon as Chris comes back with the car.  Our entry fee gave us free entry all day, and if we wish we can get a pass-out to return tomorrow as well.  We paid $10 extra for the live show- worried it might be a Smokey Dawson sort of thing, but no, it's Luke the all-rounder who has horses, dogs, camels and bullocks well under his control while he tells jokes and recites a few bush poems.  Very funny.

The museum's not just about cows, but covers pioneer history with really interesting exhibits.  We've only "done" half of it so far and really enjoyed the experience.

          Our neighbours, the Brolgas.  

MEET THE NEIGHBOURS

Today we've travelled to Longreach, a town of 3,500 which boasts the Qantas museum, The Stockman's Hall of Fame, and School of the Air, all of which we plan to visit.  There are a few other museums as well, but we probably won't bother with them.

The car's booked in for a service tomorrow and we'll ride our bikes up the road a bit to see School of the Air, which should be interesting. If we have time we'll drop in at Stockman's Hall of Fame on the way back.  Qantas museum's across the road but we're booked in for Friday morning to tour a 747 and a 707, hopefully getting to see the cockpits of each.

This is a very big caravan park- our site number is 254.  It's spread out over a large area on the outskirts of town, and has amenities which are palatial compared with those of Winton, and the water doesn't smell of rotten eggs either.

As we drove in, Chris pointed out a statue of a brolga.  It took a few moments to realise it wasn't a statue.  We actually had to wait for one to get out of the road so we wouldn't run over it.  A pair of them are stationed at the back of our caravan, and every now and then the male starts a chortling sound.  With a bit of luck we may even see them dance!

I've been trying to upload a photo of the brolgas, but Google who host this site must be having problems.  I'll try again later.

DINOSAUR TRAIL

We know so much about dinosaurs now, having met several different species up close (but not quite personal).  At Richmond we met replicas of Kronosaurus and Minmi (I forget what type he was); in Hughenden it was Muttabutasaurus, and here in Winton there are three at the Age of Dinosaurs, Banjo, Matilda and Wade.  110 kms south of Winton, the Lark Quarry stampede involved yet three more species, these not positively identified yet.  We were told as children there were no dinosaurs in Australia, but this is proving increasingly incorrect.  Winton's three have all been found in the last 12 years and they are still finding more every day.  (If you're up this way you might find one for yourself).

The Age of Dinosaurs is an excellent exhibit, which starts with a presentation of the three dinosaurs.  Banjo is a carnivore, Matilda was much bigger, as you can see by Chris standing near her front leg, which is estimated to be only one third of her height.  

           Chris beside Matilda's front leg

Her femur was contrasted with that of a two tonne bull, making the bull's bone look tiny in comparison. Wade is a different type of beast, but they're still working on categorising his bones- he won't be "released" to science for a few years yet.

Banjo gives Chris a welcome hug.  Look at those talons!

A pleasant  walk across the cliffs (or you can drive the distance) brings you to the lab, where a hyper young man named George sounded as if he was auditioning for the Wiggles, as he postured and yelled his spiel at us- interesting if he'd just been himself.  I found myself switching off, bored with his antics.  It was interesting to see how the bones are processed, using equipment very like that which  dentists use- they are looking for volunteers, if anyone's interested.

Note: although none of the brochures mention this fact, the Age of Dinosaurs is not actually in Winton, but 24 kms away- 13 towards Longreach then 11 kms in. OK as long as you know about it, timing is everything for hourly tours.

Lark Quarry's also a bit out of town- 110 kms on a road that's about halfway tarred.  It's up on a mesa (locally known as a jumpup) and through some incredibly barren land which still had sheep grazing, though goodness knows what they were eating.  1 beast to the acre, I would think, they were very sparsely scattered.  

           Jumpup behind Lark Quarry
At Lark Quarry itself, the countryside was quite lovely, the red jumpups contrasting with the spinifex grass.  Again it's a guided tour at fixed times, so you need to plan ahead, particularly in terms of food and water as there is no kiosk. (There are toilets).  The dinosaur stampede, preserved forever in the rock, is now contained in a huge shed so it's out of the sun.

We've also visited the Waltzing Matilda centre- I should mention that Banjo Patterson wrote the song here, hence the names of the dinosaurs. This is a pretty good museum but I'll be happy if I don't hear that song again for a hundred years.  Did you know Winston Churchill sang it to Bob Menzies once?  Do you care?

There are other exhibits at the centre including some to do with Qantas, which is the destination of the first Qantas flight, after the first Qantas board meeting was held here.

Winton's a very dry place where tap water gives off a rotten egg gas smell.  If you've never smelt rotten eggs, remember how perms used to stink?  It's artesian water, which is pumped up at 80 degrees and cooled before being circulated.  They say it's fine to drink, and the smell does dissipate once you've had the water on for a minute, but still!  

Tomorrow, on to Longreach for a few days.