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.