Day 6 to Musgrave station

The roads today were the worst corrugations yet.  We shook and rattled over many sections and saw a few vehicles which failed to make the distance.  Archer River roadhouse was a welcome break, where we crossed the road to photograph a giant termite nest.  We've seen hundreds of these, sometimes looking like a cemetery's headstones, but this group was really tall.  As we approached, a man and his little boy were in front of us.  The boy reached out his hand and touched the face of the mound, and Chris said :Isn't it amazing that ants did all that with their POO?" The kid, who'd been nodding his head in agreement, at the end suddenly snatched his hand back as if he'd been stung.


We had a little tour of Coen quarantine station and were duly surprised at some of the many infestations of plant, insect and animal life.  We had only recently heard of electric ants (that name really makes you think, doesn't it?) Turns out they are miniscule, so tiny you can barely see them.  A bit further down the road, we came to Coen township and visited their excellent free museum. Although the displays are static, they are not just objects, but stories about people, for example a woman named Toots who, despite a family of eight children, drove a truck in the area and could be relied on to deliver the post come rain or fire or flood for many years.  Another story was about the last official black tracker, who was retiring after being replaced by tracker dogs.  He'd saved a number of people's lives in the old days as well as catching numerous escapees.


Musgrave station is another former telegraph station where the accommodaton is in dongas.  We'd never heard this word until we were in Queensland but it's becoming increasingly common.  Dongas are multiple  prefab. units, very basic, usually used by mining employees and sometimes even shared by two people in a "hot bed" situation where the people concerned work different shifts and never actually meet.  Ours was OK, similar to a very cheap motel without the ensuite.  Bathrooms were a short distance away.