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Sat 24 Jul to Tues 27Jul
We broke the record that morning we were up and gone by 7.50 am. I took a couple of pickies of the sunrise just to prove it. We were fortunate enough to see a daddy emu with his 2 chicks (they have the right idea hey, she lays the eggs and he sits on the nest and rears the chicks once they have hatched). It was a pretty interesting trip in a way, the road was not the best though, it reminded me of how the road from Camooweal to Mt Isa used to be before they fixed it up. It was like a big wave, up & down, up & down, and to boot the wind was against us again which brought the economy of the car down. Never mind one cannot expect everything to go our way all the time. Just before Middleton which is about 170ks west of Winton is Cawnpoke Lookout situated in the unusual beauty of the Lilleyvale Hills. The mesa-type landscape formation occurs in only two places in the world...Australia & South Africa. We decided to go up and take some pictures because the landscape was absolutely spectacular. All the hills surrounding the lookout had a flat top, it was as if someone had come along with a chain saw and sliced the top off each hill at the same height. It was a very steep climb up to the lookout and at one stage I though the weight of the van would pull us back down again. It really was worth it though, for as I said it was spectacular scenery as you will appreciate by my photos. On down the road again to a one horse town with one pub stuck in the middle of nowhere, a place called Middleton, which was once one of nine changing stations on a Cobb & Co route, and now the only coach left is the the prize possession of the hotel owners, which by the way was pulled by a team of Camels on the Winton to Boulia run. Across the road from the hotel is what remains of the Min Min Hotel which was destroyed by fire in 1912 and it was in this area that the Min Min lights were first seen. We reached Winton by about 12.30 and went straight around to the racetrack to see the famous Camel races. The kids were entertaining the crowd in the break by rolling hay bales and having the old traditional spoon & egg race (does that bring back memories?) The first camel race was suppose to start at 1.30 but you know what its like in the country, nobody is in a hurry, so when the camels & jockeys finally appeared (which was about 2 o'clock by this time) they had to be walked half way around the track before the race could start. It was like pulling teeth, as you can imagine they weren't in any hurry either. Well all of a sudden, they come bolting around the turn (it was only a 600 metre race) and as I was trying to get my camera focused I missed half the action. But I got the one who came last and then out of nowhere came a camel with no rider on at all, apparently the camel decided to go the other way when the race started and he threw his rider. It was quite hilarious. We had a very tasty hamburger for lunch, stayed for one more race and decided to leave as we still had not found a place to park for the night and according to what we were hearing the van parks were full. We found a great camp for the night out at Bladensburg National Park right on the dry river bed at Bough Shed Hole Campground. It was such a peaceful setting, I went for a walk and found another 8 families camped beside the waterhole up a bit from us, and on the way back came across 3 kangaroos at another part of the creek, and to cap it all off we witnessed a perfect sunset that night. If you have never been to Winton then you are really missing out on lots of very interesting things to see and do. We did all the touristy things about 8 years ago so we had no need to stay any longer. One thing I can highly recommend though is Lark Quarry, which is approx 100ks for Winton. This area is where they found the foot prints of a herd of stampeding dinosaurs which is dated back to 95 million years ago. The other must do's while you are in Winton is the Waltzing Matilda Centre, also visit the Royal (open-air) Theatre while you are there it will bring back a few memories, we loved it. They have a very unique display of Dinosaur fossils in Winton as well, all these fossil were found around the central Qld districts of Winton, Richmond & Hughenden.
Next morning although we contemplated staying another day because it was such a beautiful spot, we decided to make tracks and head to Longreach. We had a head wind all the way again, so slow and easy was the pace. One of our favourite off road camping spots is on the Thomson River about 4 ks west of Longreach. We have been there 3 times before and one can stay 4 days max. Its a bit dusty and boggy when it rains, but we like to put our nets in the river to catch red-claw which are usually very plentiful. There is usually around one to two dozen vans camped there at any one time but when we got there at about 1.30 that day we could not believe our eyes, there were so many vans, motor-homes & camper-trailers parked there, it was like Pit St. The chap next to us counted them and he said he counted 78 vans the previous night, now if you work out how much the van parks must be missing out on if they charge anything between $25-35 a night. A lot of people prefer to spend time in off road sites now because of the cost of fuel and caravan parks. We had a nice relaxing 3 days on the river, we met some lovely people who we are going to catch up with in Rubyvale, and I have almost caught up with my blog at long last (hooray!!!!). We did go into town a couple of times just to get a few odd and ends, and as we had been there and seen all the attractions 8 years ago we had no need to revisit any of them again. Nothing had changed except for the old boarding house that my farther and his family used to live in when he was a boy, it has been demolished, that was a bit sad. Of course everyone should see The Qantas Founders Museum, and The Stockmans Hall of Fame should not be missed, one can spend a whole day at each of these exhibits. Go for a Paddle-wheeler Dinner Cruise on the Thomson River, with entertainment on the wharf to finish off a perfect evening. That was a highlight of our last trip to Longreach. There is just so much to see and do in both Winton and Longreach and the history from the old pioneering days is just mind boggling. I must mention that we only caught a dozen red-claw on the first day we were at the river and 2 on the last day. My brother & his wife Karen were with us the last time we were there and we were catching around 60 a day. They reckon the water is too cold for them at the moment. Maybe its it wind it was blowing a gale the last couple of days we were there. Well I hope you have enjoyed this part of our trip. because we certainly have. We will be heading for Barcaldine next or Barky as the locals affectionately call it, so keep on logging in & I'll try to keep you entertained. Lots of love to all our friends an family as always, keep well and happy......Carol xxxxxxxxxxx
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