Sunday...31 July 2011

Today we travelled from Daly Waters to Mataranka, not very far, only a couple of hundred kms. Was thinking on the way how novel it is that we are being overtaken by the huge three trailer road trains they have here in the Territory. Funny seeing them out the right hand window instead of the left! We are not travelling as slow as a Winebago but we have our nominated best speed for fuel economy and where road conditions allow we tend to stick with it. Now I am not saying we are slow enough to watch the grass growing beside the road but it is nice to see things clearly instead of one big blur.
Yesterday we topped a small hill and the view was incredible. The horizon was so far away you could nearly see tomorrow.
Instead of going into the caravan park in Mataranka township we turned off and came out to the Mataranka Homestead caravan park which is right beside the Mataranka Thermal springs. The main spring is called Rainbow Springs and it pumps water out at 30million litres/day at 34c which then runs down to the current thermal pools and then on into the Roper River. We took a walk down to the river and spotted a couple of freshwater crocodiles sunning themselves on a fallen tree trunk hanging into the river. As there are only freshwater crocs in this river you are allowed to swim. Hmmmmmm I think maybe NOT. On the way back from the river there was a rustle in the undergrowth and yep, snake. I saw a small brown beast, Himself says it was not brown but olive and that he had read a sign during our walk through the bush that said the snakes you see are harmless green tree snakes which inhabit the area because of the massive colonies (200,000) of red wing fruit bats that live here.
Enough of the walking through bush for me.......
Himself has been off walking the suggested 1.2km trail through the bush to another pretty spot then back again and is now sitting in the thermal pool relaxing after all his hard slog. I am watching other campers setting up their camps.
Tomorrow we head further north.

Saturday...30 July 2011

Another good day!
Left Threeways nice and early, well early for us at 9am ish. Stopped for lunch along the way at one of the wayside camps. Quite a pretty little place and well set out but we were determined to continue to Daly Waters. Daly Waters is one of the iconic little places in Australia that everyone should come to at least once in their lives. Middle of absolutley no where but such a fascinating place. \
We came here originally in 1992 on the way to somewhere else. We dropped in at 8am in the morning and the barman said help yourself I am going to bed! Apparently they had had quite a night the night before and the last jackaroo had left at 6am! The owner quit and went to bed sometime earlier and left them working an honour system at the bar and surprise surprise the till balanced!!!!!
Today we booked into the caravan park owned and operated by the Daly Waters pub (not here in days gone by) and strolled to the pub at happy hour. They toss a coin to halve the bill during happy hour. We called heads and won so only paid for Himselfs beer, my wine was free. This was accompanied by a bloke singing with recorded accommpanyment. Bloody good. You also had the chance to dine on Beef and Barra on the BBQ. We gave it a miss but it did smell good.
The bar at the Daly is reknown for its collection of memorbillia beginning with bras which began collecting during WW2. Hanging from every place are donated bras, quite a collection and actually a hanging history of the bra over the years. Also pinned everywhere are banknotes of every country. This pub is a museum of natural history of the inventivness of Australians to begin a collection. The bar has the bra collection, the money collection and the first know thong tree too. Scattered around the bar are all sorts of items of clothing donated or left behind along with art works and other bits and pieces as people who were determined to be remembered have left things claiming their place in history. Truely a fascinating place. 
Tomorrow we move on towards Katherine and eventually Kakadu.

Friday...29 July 2011

Humungous day! From Mt Isa to Threeways.......
Anyway we got here, and here being nowhere really, just where the road comes from Qld with a choice of going north to Darwin or south to Adelaide, hence the threeways.
Now as I was saying we got here at 5pm ish absolutely exhausted. My bottom was numb from so long in the car!
He says it was not his intention to go so far.....yep we have all heard that one more than once in our lifetimes haven't we????
Never mind we are here now and safely off the road, and hey can't be all bad, I have internet connection.
Tomorrow we head up the road in a northerly direction with a plan to go to Pine Creek and turn right and head for Kakadu. Seems we are going to take a look at one of Australias biggest parks. It is probably full of gorges!!!

Thursday...28 July 2011

So we left Normanton on Wednesday and drove all day to Mt Isa. Was nearly 5pm when we got here. Had a bit of a stop and chat at the Burke & Wills Roadhouse, which is half way between Normanton and Cloncurry, to decide if we were going to go west from the roadhouse to Gregory Downs. There is not much there but somewhere near there is a very pretty spot that everyone raves about called Lawn Hill. From what we can gather it is the middle of nowhere with a couple of spectacular gorges.....hmmm does that sound familiar to any of my readers??? After a great deal of discussion and map reading and chatting to other travellers and the roadhouse staff we decided to give it a miss. Seen one spectacular gorge seen em all.........
So it was onward towards Cloncurry and then west to Mt Isa. We did not intend to go all the way yesterday but all the free camps along the road were packed out. So here we are, Mt Isa, mining town.
Himself got up early enough this morning to go on a tour of an underground mine, called the Hard Luck Mine.
This afternoon we took a drive around town and topped up the fuel and food supply and tomorrow we head for Camoweal, maybe even Barkly Homestead. Map is in the car so no idea of the mileage.

Tuesday...26 July 2011

Up early to catch our train ride. Had to be at the station by 8.30am. Then it was all aboard for a rattly ride down the line 16 miles.  They say it is the only railway line in Australia that still measures the track in miles. Because it is not connected to the rest of Queensland Rail, it was not converted when Australia went metric!

So there we are rattling down the track looking at all manner of interesting stuff. The engine driver pointed out coolibah trees and some other trees that are an Australian native rubber tree. First time I have heard of it. We saw some lovely cows and wallabies, the local variety is called the Agile Wallaby but like the driver said some of them are not so agile when they cross the road!

And apparently there is a bird that is a crane but looks like a brolga,  the difference being that the crane has more red on its head and neck and its legs are pink. So there you go, check out the legs on the birds.........

Along the way we crossed the mighty Normanton river before turning around and coming back to the station. The entire trip there and back was 32 mile or 48 kilometres and took two hours. Good way to use a morning.

This is a picture of a marker beside the track showing the heights of the water during the floods at various times up here. Guess this means the railway line is out of commission occasionally.

Monday...25 July 2011

Ok so we left Cloncurry and headed back towards Normanton but just our luck there was a Winnebago convention AND the local train called the Gulflander was having itself a 150yo birthday,  so the bloody place was over run by train enthusiasts in their Winnebagos or as we like to call them, Win a bag of sh*t. End result, no room at any inn (caravan park) in the entire district. Now there are only two in Normanton and three up the road a bit in Karumba but those darn Winnebagos had the lot occupied! So we spent a night out in the never never back of Burke (literally) in a free camp on Saturday night and came into town on the Sunday, not a big deal, I mean who wants to voluntary share a town with wall to wall Winnebagos????. Our park of choice could fit us in and the site was in a prime position and lovely and big, but sadly we could not access the offered site, wrong turning angles etc. Darn shame really, we really liked that park and it is just over the road from the famous Purple Pub. Never mind the second park in town could fit us easily, just a shame the people running this one do not take lessons from the other ones. Lovely big sites, water and power and about as much soul as a lemon! Park owners have a motel at the front gate and take little or no interest in their park behind it. Sad really, it could be such a nice spot, they started well with a BIG BARRA at the front gate but thats it, no further money spent. We sit in a dirt site with a couple of stunted trees for company. The same trees have reticulation but sadly like most other things in this park it is not working. The trees rely on the kindness of the travelling public for an occasionally drink to keep them alive.
Today we went for a quick trip to Karumba to look around again and to see if maybe any of the three parks in that town had vacancies. Not likely, its right beside the ocean and is in a known fishing spot! We did catch up with people we shared the free camp with on Saturday night. Lovely folk. We walked around their caravan park but sadly there was only a couple of places we would have fitted in and they were all occupied.
Quick trip to the cheapest fuel in the gulf at the local fuel depot then onto Raptis which is this areas fresh fish supplier. Himself picked up a kilo of fresh prawns for $15 and a dozen oysters for $18, which I am told is good prices. Guess what he is having for dinner for the next few nights???? I will settle for a packet of Latina pasta!!!
Tomorrow we are taking the early ride on the famous Gulflander train to a place called Critters about an hour down the track, then they serve morning tea while the train turns around and we come back by lunchtime. Should be a pleasant little trip. Bit different for us. Longtime since Himself got on a train for any reason.......

Thursday...21 July 2011

Nice lazy get up late...ish!
Headed off to the ladies loo and ran into a lady we know from Condobolin. Very small world people.
When I got over the surprise we went out and saw the two big attractions that Cloncurry has to offer. First up was the Mary Kathleen memorial site.  Mary Kathleen was Australias first uranium mine, it was situated 65kms west of Cloncury on the Mt Isa road,  long since closed and merely a memory now, but they have some of the original town buildings here in Cloncurry in a memorial park. Very interesting.
From there we went to the John Flynn Museum. John Flynn wanted to put a 'mantle of safety' over the inland of Australia and from that small idea came the RFDS. The first ever RFDS flight was in a chartered Qantas plane out of Cloncurry. That was all a very long long time ago. The man was a visionary as well as a missionary for the A.I.M which stands for The Australian Inland Misson, a group formed by the Presbyterian Church. Today I saw a genuine pedal radio which is another one of Flynns ideas, creating a way that isolated familes could talk to each other and call for help when there was an emergency on their property.
The Rev. John Flynn was a very special person.

Wednesday...20 July 2011

Long haul today...350kms and believe me it is a seriously long drive when your back is having a less than happy day!
We have gone from Winton, the birthplace of Waltzing Matilda and home of the biggest dinosaurs yet found in Australia to Cloncurry, birthplace of the RFDS.
This country is steeped in history. These people were serious pioneers people. I am here and there is nothing for blooming miles. Why did they even come this far inland???? What motivated them? Life is one long series of questions when you travel this great land of ours.

Tuesday...19 July 2011

Another big day. We started by going to see the Musical Fence which was designed by a percussionist. It is a wire fence that can be played as a musical intrument. We then took a look at the Winton Truck museum. Himself did enjoy that.

After lunch we went down the main street and checked out the Corfield & Fitzmaurice Building, which is about the oldest one in town and has a display of opal and dinosaur artifacts. Then it was on to the  local open air picture theatre and of course its projection equipment, then to the Gregory Hotel which is where Waltzing Matilda was first performed for a quick drink and then we went to see Arno's Wall.  No idea who Arno is but he has built himself a wall that is over 70 metres long and is studded with old machinery from businesses in Winton and even includes a couple of complete motorbikes!

Moving day tomorrow.......

Monday...18 July 2011

Happy birthday Cindy.
Another big day for us. Up super early to drive 110km down the road to the site of a dinosaur stampede. It is the only place in the world that they have been able to record and preserve the evidence of such a stampede. So there we were, the guide did his thing and then, wow, they let you into the building and you can stand just above but right next to the clearly visible marks in the rock of a dinosaurs footprints. The story goes that two different species that were happy to co-exist were drinking at a waterhole when a meat eating larger dinosaur happened upon them and tried to catch himself a meal of one or more of the smaller dinosaurs. They flocked together then stampeded directly past the bigger one in their rush to get away. There in the rock is the clear tracks and evidence of the event. 95 million years old and we got to see it. Awesome. The other thing I am finding hard to come to grips with is the information that most of Australia was one big rain forest, all green and wet. We are in arid land now and it is hard to do the jump to accept this same area was once a lush green forest with constantly falling rain. And the people talk about global warming, its been happening now for 95 million years!!!!!

When we got back into town we went to the Matilda Centre.

Apparently both Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson came to this area at some stage in their lives. The entire area is mentioned again and again in their various works.

Back to Banjo. He wrote Waltzing Matilda on a property just out of Winton and the first recorded performance of it was at a hotel here in Winton. The hotel still operates, we thought we would drop in for a beer while we are here but so far we have not made it in there. Maybe tomorrow!

The Matilda Centre is a fascinating place, part memorial to the song, part museum of the Winton area. The place is full of information on the song, from its first outing to all the various versions that have been released by all sorts of groups and bands world wide. Did you know that Winston Churchill sang the song to Charles de Gaulle in the presence of Robert Menzies????? How wierd is that? The English PM singing to the President of France in the company of the Prime Minister of Australia. In the museum part is all sorts of extemely old stuff recording the history of Winton, fascinating stuff.



Sunday...17 July 2011

Big day today. Up early to move from Longreach back to Winton.....175kms. Got here just on lunch time and by the time we set up camp it was well and truely lunchtime!!
After lunch we went 25kms out of town to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Fossil Preparation Facility.  Worth the visit if only for the views. To access the centre you have to go up a 'jump up' and the views are stunning. 360 degree big sky views, miles and miles of unlimited panaroma. Stunning. Then when you get to the top of the jump up there is the Dinosaur area.
Very interesting and the lass who is the tour guide really knows her stuff. She merrily sprouted all sorts of information about the finding of dinosaurs here in Australia and in particular here in the Winton area. They have found two distinct dinosaurs in this area, they have called them Banjo and Matilda. Banjo was the smaller of the two and was very nimble and quick and a meat eater, he looks a bit like a raptor. Matilda was a plant eater and much much bigger than Banjo. The guide made them sound most interesting.
The thing that made the hairs on our neck stand up was that we were allowed to put our hands on the actual fossils, the dinosaur bones that are 95 million years old, There they were, just sitting on a table, no ropes around them, no big no touch signs, in fact we were encouraged to feel them and get up close and personal with them....wow.

Now I am sitting in my caravan in the van park listening to a world class Elvis impersonator doing his thing to entertain the residents of this park, way out here in no where land,,,,, incredible.
PS, he is doing ok!

Friday...15 July 2011

Late night watching the Tour De France. Late get up today!
Went a whole 27kms down the road to a little place called Ilfracombe.
Not a very remarkable little town, only a few people,,,,,BUT it has a Mile of Machinery.
Lined up along the main drag is machinery and each piece is credited with helping build the local area, from farm machinery to road machinery to transport used to get the local produce, (mainly wool) to market, or to bring desperately needed supplies to the local properties. Himself found it fascinating. Apparently amongst the display is one of the very earliest earth moving tractors, and it is one of only three left in the entire world and here it lies in isolated splendour in our Australian Outback! The entire township is one big museum of old old stuff.

Then we came back to Longreach and went to the Longreach Powerhouse Museum. This was the original powerhouse for this area. Still with all the generators in place. We saw all sorts of stuff in here. They sometimes used gas to generate power and sometimes used coal from Blair Athol, which all those of you who know the name know it is a RioTinto mine site.....small wheels people, small wheels!
But guess what? Powerhouses like to keep a resident cat. They help keep the rodent population under control which is good as rodents like to chew through electical cords, causing power outages. The resident cat at the now mothballed Longreach Powerhouse is called Midnite.

Thursday...14 July 2011

Today we went to the Stockmans Hall of Fame. Wow. The building is stunning and the information contained in it is definately worth the time to visit and read.

Included in our tickets was a live show out the back. There is a small open air stadium and a ringer has a few animals well trained to help him entertain us. The most interesting thing he did was yoke up a bullock team and demonstate how they worked.

After that was lunch at the Cattlemans Bar and Grill and then we spent another couple of hours wandering around inside the complex. It includes an art gallery, gift shop and coffee shop.

When we left there we went back into town and saw a Cobb & Co Wagon ride just returning to the depot. The horses were beautiful.

On return to camp we were sitting outside our van having happy hour when we got visited by the resident brolgas. They are not shy and love being fed small treats by the caravan park residents.

Wednesday...13 July 2011

Up early....sounds of screaming children always have the effect of alarm clocks! The precious little ones in the tent next to our van were up and on the go nice and early today, probably because they were cold, it was only 6 degrees at 7.30am! They screamed and yelled and had the time of their lives chasing each other all over the van park, while mum and dad packed up the camper trailer/tent. End result we got up early too and were ready to break camp by 9.00am, a new record for us.
Found out too late that Winton is the home of an actual dinosaur dig. A few kms out of town we passed a turn off to a dinosaur discovery centre. Seems our friend Muttasaurus used to hang around the Winton area. Never mind we will check it out on our way back through Winton after we leave Longreach. Our journery here was relatively easy, only the one stop for 15 mins at road works about half way between Winton and Longreach.
When we arrived we checked into the largest park in town and once we had set up camp we headed out to see the Qantas Founders Museum. It is located at the Longreach airport in a purpose built building right next to the original hangar that Qantas started from. We toured the museum and the original hangar.

Now that is history. We all jump on planes and think nothing of it, but here we are in the middle of nowhere, well actually in the middle of Queensland, and this is where the national airline began all those years ago. It is amazing to think that something that began in the outback became a national icon.

A very interesting afternoon. Tomorrow we are booked to do the tour,show and lunch at the Stockmans Hall of Fame.

Tuesday...12 July 2011

Cannot believe how cold it was last night. Guess its being inland that does it.......
Another long days travel today. We left Pentland when the sun finally got up at 9.30am and got to Winton at 3.00pm. Long day in the car being bounced all over the road. As inland roads go this one was actually quite a good road but full of potholes and dips that make the van jerk on its hitch which in turn thumps hell out of me.
In the meantime we are in Winton which claims to be the home of Waltzing Matilda. When I went to school it was more famous for having some of the biggest sheep flocks and also the biggest shearing sheds in Australia. Times change.
Along the way we had to go through Hughenden which claims to be part of the dinosaur discovery area here in Australia. Out in the street they have a life size replica of the type of dinosaur being found around there. The locals have called him 'Mutt'.

Monday...11 July 2011

Left Townsville this morning, heading inland towards Longreach. We have pulled up for the night in a nowhere town called Pentland about half way between Charters Towers and Hughenden. Just us and four other vans for the night. Bit close to the road so hoping the traffic slows a bit overnight.
We did plan to stay the night in Charters Towers but we went into and out the other side of the town without ever once seeing any caravan park signage, and according to our book there are three parks in that town. A bit of signage would increase their customer numbers!!
Am getting fed up with caravan parks that do not have level sites. This place is uphill and down dale every which way.... no way can we get our van level. Thank goodness it is only for one night, I would be violently ill if I had to stay on this type of lean for very long, it is playing merry hell with my balance!
Have been noticing lots of houses empty on farms as we travel around. What a shame when we have so many people on waiting lists for public housing.

Friday...8 July 2011

Got to Townsville on Wednesday afternoon, long drive. Only 400kms but in traffic with lots of roadworks and minor hold ups. Was fairly tired when we finally got here.
Small problem with the caravan. One of the slides does not want to work. Himself has crawled underneath and says a bracket that holds the sliding mechanism has bent somehow. He took it off and we took it into town and he used a vice at my nephews place to straighten it out so here is hoping that when he puts it all back together today we have a working slide. If not then I guess we will end up staying here longer than expected while we get it fixed.
Saw my sister yesterday and for an  83yo who has had major surgery recently she is looking remarkably well. Very fit and active too, and sharp as a tack. Lovely to see her and chat over a pot of tea.  She always tells me I look like our dear departed father, which I like hearing.
We are staying out of town a bit at a rodeo ground. Very country. Nice and quiet and lots of space and very few rules. Has all the amenities but none of the politics of caravan parks. Most relaxing.

Tuesday...5 July 2011

Have had a lovely time here visiting with my neice. Been good to catch up. Our thanks to her and her husband for all the help and hospitality. Will miss that giggle..........
Moving day tomorrow, we are off to Townsville. After that we turn left and head back towards the inland areas and maybe even make to Longreach this time.

Sunday...3 July 2011

Went to a BBQ on Saturday. Most enjoyable. Did the washing today and of course the weather turned lousy!!!. Every time I wash the sun takes a holiday. Am way over the idea of winter and grey miserable days. Have given up on 'sunny' Queensland. It is a myth......