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Friday 29/8/2014 Left Kynuna early as had another big drive ahead of us. The road kill on this next stretch of road was major, about every 20mtrs there was something dead lying on the side of the road. With the road kill you get all the birds feasting on the carcasses as well.
Travelled down the highway passed through Winton and then on to Longreach. Whilst in Longreach we visited the Qantas Founders Museum, this tells the story of the founding of Qantas. The have a collection of aircraft on display, a Catalina Flying Boat, Douglas DC3, Boeing 707 & 747. They also have replicas of other planes. It was very good with some great displays. We were able to go inside the Flying Boat and also the DC3 but the 707 & 747 you had to do the guided tour to see though these and we didn't really have the time. They had a tiger moth type plane that you could fly (simulation), looked like fun. Murray had a go and did a couple of loops but the landing not so successful.
The land very dry out in this area, actually in a drought. Would be very disheartening to be a farmer in this area, well pretty much everywhere we have been.
Pushed the Landcruiser up to 100kph to see what would happen with the oil - no good. Oil light on just before Emerald and murmuring that wondered if we would make it home! Fuelled up in Emerald, diesel $1.549/ltr.
Camped at Fairbairn Dam which is on Lake Maraboon, about 15km out of Emerald, got there just on dark. A very nice caravan park and you could see the lake through the gum trees. 775km travelled for the day.
We had a German couple camped beside us in a Landcruiser 6 cylinder (new shape) Troop Carrier, they had bought it from Saudi got it converted into a camper in the Netherlands, then shipped it to NZ. They had done three months around NZ, then shipped the vehicle to Australia, they have done six months here and another six months to go, then they are shipping vehicle to America, going up into Canada, Alaska then are driving through the country ending up at the bottom of South America, that's over a period of two years. They are not sure what will happen after that maybe South Africa or Asia. They have just retired and decided they would do the trip now before they got too old!
This was our last night, we had a shared dinner and a few beers and wine to cap off an amazing trip.
Saturday 30/8/2014 We were up early said our goodbyes and were on the road home by 7.00am. Pete & Dawi, Barry and Peter still had another big day ahead of them 900km, we had an easy day 392km yahoo.
Plenty of agriculture work being done around Emerald, because of the dam they have irrigation, it's amazing what the addition of water does for land. Lots of crops, plus tractors and equipment working the land.
Travelled down the Gregory Highway to Springsure then right onto the Dawson Highway. The Gold Coast bound travellers turned south at Rolleston while we carried onto Moura, Biloela then Calliope.
The 150th meridian east, is located just outside of Moura, rocks with drill holes have been lined up to represent the exact angle and location of longitude line. There was an information board to tell you about longitude, each degree being sub divided into 60 mins, each of which divided into 60 seconds. These are measured from the prime meridan that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London. Found this very interesting. Moura is known for coal mining, cattle & cotton. There have been a number of mining disasters with significant loss off life, in 1994 they ceased all underground mining and it is all open cut mining now.
We arrived in Calliope at 12.45pm just in time to help Flynn celebrate his 5th birthday.
So to summarise we travelled 12,131km in 31 days. We had an amazing adventure and when we look at the map of Australia and see the area we covered, it's quite astounding. It was great to share this trip with an old friend and his brother, also our Aussie 4WD Cape York travelling companions and their friends. A huge thank you to Pete for the untold hours spent organising the trip, we just turned up and followed the itinerary, with a few amendments here and there. Thanks to Dawi for the girl company and the rice cooking lesson. Also thanks to Barry for assistance with my blog and Facebook posting.
The highlight for Murray was the Kimberley's, for myself Kings Canyon and also the amazing colours of the country, so many reds.
- comments
Mary & dennis Wow what an amazing trip. We have enjoyed doing the trip with you thank you for the diary. Look forward to seeing you when Dennis and I in invercargill next month.
Nicola Great work Mum. We haven't driven 12,131 kms in the last three years let alone the last month. I suspect dad is contemplating following in the German couples footsteps. Assume Pete is on the planning already!