The Last Post

When we last did a post we were in Winton and planning on visiting Lark Quarry. There is a photo above of Lark Quarry and it is such an interesting place - along yet another corrugated road of about 80 k's, but again well worth the drive.

Lark Quarry was the scene of a dinosaur stampede millions of years ago. The footprints of the stampede were buried, fossilised and only discovered about 30 years ago by an opal prospector. There are foot prints of several different types of dinosaurs, big and small. The area is now well preserved under cover in an enormous shed. When Jurassic Park was being made the film makers actually came to Lark Quarry to determine how dinosaurs ran.

From Winton we headed south to Longreach and we had a terrific time there. We visited the Qantas Museum and spent hours and hours there. The whole history of Qantas is there in all sorts of memorabillia. The best part though was a tour that we did. Firstly they have their first ever 707 there. It was sold off years ago to an airline and has been traded a few times, ending up with some Saudi prince who decorated it out in lavish style. It is still in the arab style, not in the Qantas style of yesteryear. Then we did a tour of a 747. Wow, what an experience - the photo above is of some of the things we did. We sat in the cockpit, got down into the cargo hold, posed in the engine and did a wing walk. Great fun and well worth the $$$.

Later we visited the Aust. Stockmans Hall of Fame, which is a terrific museum of the early days of Australian pioneers, not just stockmen.

One evening we also did a sunset cruise down the Thomson River in a paddle steamer, then later enjoyed a stew and damper in a bush camp whilst an old codger recited various bush ballads and told a few yarns. Very touristy but fun. (We are tourists afterall).

After leaving Longreach we ended up in a little one horse town called Tambo for the night.

We are now in Charleville. We have had a great time here as well. Charleville is home to a large observatory and today we actually managed to look at the sun!! Now don't try that at home. Tonight we go back again and will see the moon, Saturn and a few other things too. Should be fun.

In 1942 Charleville was occupied by the US Air Force, they took over the airport and converted it over to a safe site for their bombers fighting in the Pacific. Some of the buildings they erected are still here today and we did a tour of them earlier. It was most interesting and I for one had no idea the yanks were here in outback Australia.

As we have now done the U turn we are heading south well and truly. The days are getting cooler and the nights are getting really cold - last night it was 2 C. The next two days will be long drives for us. We head to Burke tomorrow, then Trangie for the next night and finally home.

So thats it from us.

Karumba, Gregory Downs, Adels Grove, Cloncurry, Winton

So there we were this morning, driving into Winton, the petrol warning bleeper was bleeping away letting us know there was only 10 k's of fuel left and we had 13 k's to go. So when the car started to make funny noises and juddering it seemed we were going to run out of fuel. But not so - as per the kodak moment at the top of the page. Seems we got a puncture and the tyre was shredded and the wheel was stuffed to put it mildly. The mud flap on the trailer was ripped off and there are some other minor things done to the trailer. But being the hero Mike is - the wheel was replaced, we made it into Winton with 5 litres of fuel to spare. What a day.

But back to our adventure. When last I did an update we were going to go out the next day fishing for barra at Karumba. No, we didn't catch a barra, but we did catch 6 milk sharks, which were thrown back, and 2 good sized mackerel, which ended up on the barbie that night - we made little pigs of ourselves and ate every morsel. Yummy.

Our intended destination the next day was Adels Grove, but it is a long hike, mainly over gravel roads so we bush camped at Gregory Downs and next morning headed into Adels Grove the next morning. If any of you have been there you will agree that it is a little slice of heaven there and if you have not been there - well you should.

There are some fantastic bush walks through the beautiful canyons, up some cliff faces and along the riverside. The water of the river is a beautiful emerald green colour, contrasted against the red cliffs and blue, blue sky it is just magic. The photo above is from a look out looking down on the falls.

Adels Grove does not have power nor does it have any form of telecommunications so at night after dinner we sat and star gazed. Just bliss.

After leaving Adels Grove we headed into Cloncurry for a one night stop over and now we are in Winton. We will be here for two nights as tomorrow we are heading out to Larks Quarry to look at the dinosaur stampede footprint. It is about 110 k's down the road (almost the next suburb when you talk distances out here) so we will be gone for the better part of the day.

When we have 'done' this place we will go down the road to Longreach for a couple of nights, so we can see the Stockmans Hall of Fame and visit the Qantas setup.

The weather continues to be beautiful during the day - 30 plus most of the time, but the nights are getting cool as afterall we are now heading south and back towards home.

Chillagoe to Karumba

It has been a few days without an update as for a couple of days we were at Cobbold Gorge and there is no mobile or broadband coverage there.

So to update the story...

After leaving Chillagoe we hedaded to Georgetown and did a little touring from there. We did a big loop that took us out to Forsayth and Einsleigh, both little old mining towns way back when. Now they have nothing much else than a post office and a pub.

Einsleigh has one notable feature - the Coppefield Gorge. The gorge was once a lava tube many millions of years ago but the continued action of a river flowing through it collapsed the roof of the tube so it is now an open gorge (picture above).

After Georgetown we moved to Cobbold Gorge (picture above) which is found along a 60 klm corrugated road, but well worth the bumpy ride, it is quite a spectacular place. We did a couple of bush walks but the highlight was a boat trip into the gorge. It is very, very narrow in places (about 4 feet) and the boat has to gently squeeze its way along. The cliffs have been worn smooth by the water that blasts through the gorge in the wet season and the cliffs have formed some wonderful curves. There is a little life in the gorge, namely freshwater crocs, birds and various fish.

Cobbold Gorge is a small corner of a working cattle station that covers approx 500 square miles - the gorge itself was not found until the 1980's so that gives you some idea of the size of the station.

From Cobbold Gorge we moved on to Normanton, which is the main centre for the small towns up in the gulf. Yesterday we took a 3 hour ride on the Gulflander (picture above). The Gulflander is a rail motor - it is just like a bus, it has gears, but it runs on rails. It is called the train to nowhere as it is not, and has never been connected to any other rial system and has just celebrated its 120th birthday. It runs between Normanton and Croydon once a week a distance of about 70 klms and drops mail off at various cattle stations along the way. On other days it ferries tourists out on short trips of 20 klms to a place called Critter Camp, so named because the track workers were always attacked by insects at that spot. We stopped for about 45 minues beside a billabong and enjoyed lunch while watching the bird life.

This morning we packed up and move to Karumba only 70 klm down the road. Karumba is on the gulf and is one of the great fishing spots in Australia. Never in my life have I seen so many boat trailers in one place - there are hundreds of them.

The temperature here is a delightful 30 degrees, a gently breeze is blowing, we have just eaten a kilo of prawns, fresh off the trawlers, which cost the princely sum of $15.00 per kilo. Eat ya hearts out!!!

Tomorrow we are heading out to do a little barra fishing - stay tuned for that adventure and stores of the one that got away.