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.
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