My last entry saw us heading towards Chinchilla where we spent one night at the free camp at Chinchilla Dam, a great camping area where people were enjoying the day use area for picnics and the kids playing in the water while some campers had access to power and water. We were not so lucky but still more than happy with our little spot.

Next on to Morven, and a night beside the oval before heading to Blackhall where we expected to stay for one night beside the river. We have stayed here before years ago where we remembered the old fellow who came around on his horse and was showing us how to crack a whip. No whip cracker this time but we did manage to stay for four more nights, making good use of the town’s beautiful thermal pools with $2 entry, the weekend of the town’s country show and also the camp oven dinner put on for travellers and locals alike at the Sheep Scour museum. We were told about the dinner by the friendly pharmacist and decided to join in. At $30 a head for a plentiful roast pork dinner plus a jam damper with cream for desert it was good value and a great night listening to the singers, the bush poet and chatting to the locals.

The country show was what we had expected with the exhibition tents, pig racing, eateries and side shows. We spent a good while on the Friday watching the muster dogs being put through their paces before being auctioned off the next day when we again took our seats in the stand to watch some of the auction. We were surprised to see at least one dog go for $16,000, not bad money but a lot of training has gone into these dogs. Most dogs went for around the $3/5000 mark.

We spent a while watching solo riders cutting out a single cow before sending it around a bit of a course. This all needed to be done in a certain time to score points. We also watched “The Crack Up Sisters” A very simple but funny free show for all ages. I bought a cap from them as they were raising money for the farmers out there who have been affected by the recent floods.

After eventually leaving Blackhall we headed to Aramac where we had been told about the sculpture trail. Aramac is a small town of around 200 locals and the camping area is really great. $20 for power and water and if you pay for two night you can stay for five. Well, who can argue with that! And such care was put into looking after the facilities. We stayed four nights, caught up with some washing, checked out the town and did the interesting 200kms sculpture trail, enjoying a picnic lunch at Lake Dunn as we went around. We only missed two of the many sculptures, all made by Milynda Rogers, using recycled items. All clever and quirky but some were really quite hard to find.

We enjoyed chatting with the lady in the library/visitor centre before looking around the Harry Redford Gallery and watching an interesting video. We swapped books in the library and two of mine were part of a trilogy which our friendly kiwi librarian Sarah was going to pass on to another lady she keeps supplied with books. I have since found and read the missing book and am thinking I should post this one to her too.

Next stop was Muttaburra and the same camping setup of pay two and stay five. We only stayed one night here though as, if you can believe it, Muttaburra is even smaller than Aramac with about 75 residents. We got into town fairly early as it’s only about 70 kms from Aramac and managed to see the highlights of town that same day. A friendly local unlocked the old heritage cottage, shop and hospital for us which are now all museums. It was like time had stood still. Everything exactly as it had been just as they had walked out. We also checked out the Dinosaur Interpretive Centre where we learnt of the find of a complete dinosaur skeleton, the Muttaburrasauras Langdoni which was named after the area and Doug Langdon who found it on his property.

We saw another of Milynda’s sculptures in Muttaburra, this one was of a large dinosaur made from approximately 3kms of barbed wire. We drove out and around the town to find it only to realise that the 9m sculpture called Bar burra was just off the road opposite our campsite. She was a large impressive sculpture and I smiled as I saw inside her that there was a large metal heart and three babies in eggs. She was pregnant, arhhh! Very well done Milynda.

We had hoped to take the dirt road out of Muttaburra to pick up the main road between Longreach and Winton but after talking to our local guy, he advised us that was probably not the best idea. Little did we know that this was definitely going to work in our favour!

The next day we left and headed to Longreach and the free camp down by the river. We set up the van and then went into town to top up on fresh fruit and veg. We called into the visitor centre to swap some more books and after talking to the ladies inside we went outside to find out more about the Festival of Queensland Opera which was happening that weekend. Apparently this happens every year in Longreach with a popular gala dinner that gets sold out months if not a year in advance. Apart from the fancy gala and the main opera they also put on a couple of free events. Never one to miss a bargain and looking forward to a bit of culture we checked ourselves in for the Sunday morning and Monday evening events. The Sunday morning which also happened to be Chris’s birthday, we enjoyed a bush setting at the “drovers camp” next to the Stockmans Hall of Fame and then Monday was a very cold evening among the planes at the Qantas museum. Both were really good shows, very different and great entertainment. Thank you Queensland Opera! Another case of being in the right place at the right time. Happy birthday Chris 😘💕

I must mention that while in Longreach, a couple pulled in next to us and as the guy was setting up his van he saw us with our fly swats and asked did we buy them from two young red headed girls? I said no but that we probably helped them make them as they were our granddaughters. Alan and Alison had met Jo, Phil and the girls last year as they had been on their big trip. What a coincidence. We had a chat with them and sent a photo to Jo and Phil who remembered them well.

After Longreach our next stop was a free camp on the Barkly highway with at least seven other vans and a couple of cattle trucks. We managed to get well back and away from the trucks but I’m thinking some of the other travellers might not have been so lucky. Let’s hope the sound of cattle moving around all night and the truck warming up at 4.00am didn’t keep them awake.

We are now doing in reverse the trip we did last year when we traveled down from Darwin. Yes, we’re going back to Tumbling Waters again for the third year running! We had thought to go out into the Lawn Hill/Gregory Downs area when we got to Mt Isa first but apparently Lawn Hill is still closed. Oh well, hopefully next year we will get there, as well as Normanton, and more of those areas we haven’t been too yet. That’s the plan anyway and I’m going to hold you to that Chris!

We saw the highly decorated house of the Crack Up Sisters from the Blackhall show as we passed through Winton and headed for Mount Isa where we had the car booked in for a service, this time it was a big one for 200,000 kms. Luckily nothing extra was found to be done so nearly $1700 later and a big Woolworth shop of over $400, we are off again.

Now we are at Camooweal which is just before the Qld/NT border where we joined the many other campers along the billabong. It’s good to see there’s lots of water in the billabong and everywhere is so green. A good spot to just sit, relax, watch and listen to the many birds around the water, brolgas included. We noticed that the old Drover’s Camp up the road has had a face lift since last year, with murals on all the buildings and water tanks so we decided this place deserved another visit as it was eleven years ago when we went through it last time. Inside was pretty much the same but we did spend a while watching a video that was not here before. It was of the last official Queensland Cattle Drive from Newcastle Waters to Longreach in 1988 and very interesting. There was no old drover to tell us his stories as we went around the displays this time but still an enjoyable visit and we bought a stubby holder before we left.

Next stop, who knows where. Somewhere near the Threeways, where the Barkly meets the Stuart Highway, I expect.