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Monday 17/5/21 - Tuesday 25/5/21
Driving towards Roma and beyond we came across plenty of 'Beef Buses' aka Cattle Trucks; so much stock is being moved around the countryside. Roma has the largest stockyards in Australia, so it made a lot of sense to see so many Beef Buses. Bottle trees started to appear with Roma streets being lined with them. From Roma we are heading north to Emerald. After driving only 91km north of Roma we pulled into the Injune Rodeo and Cutting Grounds and stopped for the night, only one other caravan came in for the night. Water was readily available at the holding yards, so we filled up a tank before heading off in the morning.
We have left the mice and cold days behind, with now sunny, cloudless blue skies and warm days.
Travelling along part of the 'Great Inland Way' from Roma, Rollston and then onto Emerald we experienced hilly roads with stunning escapements, then drove down onto open flat platues.
Before Rollston we passed Carnavon Gorge but as Alan's knees weren't up to the hike, we bypassed it.
Heading towards Springsure, we stopped at the Staircase Range Picnic Area which has an historical site where Chinese labour was used back in 1905 to hand carve the rock formation to create a road. You can see the etching of these old hand tools in the rock face.
We stopped the night at Springsure, where we have camped previously. Here the rock formation on the eastern side of Mount Zamia, has a naturally formed likeness of the Virgin Mary and Child. The rock formation is floodlit at night and is an amazing sight.
Wednesday morning as we headed towards Emerald we both commented on how it's a different aspect driving roads previously travelled in the opposite direction. Once at Emerald and we had stocked up with supplies, we headed out of town in a westerly direction towards Barcaldine. Out of Emerald we commented that we felt like we were now in outback Queensland, next few kilometres up the road, there was the sign 'Welcome to Outback Queensland".
Our camp for the night was at Belyando Creek, were we had the place to ourselves. Here we enjoyed a camp oven roast lamb with a nice bottle of red.
Arriving at Bacaldine we enjoyed a walk around town, checking out The Tree of Knowledge, before heading north to Amarac. Here to blue skies became cloudy skies, passing open plains with golden paddocks of spinefix. The road north starts of narrow before opening up to heaps of road widening and roadworks.
We camped the night behind the Amarac pub, date night tonight and dinner out.
When we checked in to the free campground behind the pub we were greeted by Paul, the caretaker, who suggested ordering dinner early as they had a mob of 30 people coming in for dinner from the caravan park. So went in about 3pm and ordered our dinner, we were second off the rank, booking dinner for 6.15pm. As per hospitality everywhere they were short staffed, a local mum and a school student were the only ones in the kitchen, needless to say our dinner came out at 7pm which was fine with us, but we felt sorry for the two in the kitchen as they still have the other 30 plus extras to feed.
The following morning we set of to explore The Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail, this trip was to be on our 2020 trip but COVID lockdown stopped that. We had decided to tackle the unsealed road section first, so took off in an anti clockwise direction. The sculptures are the work of a local sculpture, Milynda Rogers who lives on one of the properties along the trail. There are currently 38 sculptures along the way, all made out of junk, scrap metal such as barb wire, old steel pickets etc. These are stunning and interesting pieces of art. After driving 142km of the dirt section, we stopped the night at Lake Dunn. After enjoying the stunning sunset, birdlife and scenery we decided to stay another day.
The last third of the sculpture trail was easy heading back to Aramac, as it was bitumen. We loved stopping and checking out these magnificent sculptures.
As we hadn't ventured into this area before, we had Muttaburra on our bucket list also, so this was our next destination. The road west was a good bitumen road and the scenery was of vast barren open vista's as far as the eye could see.
Muttaburra is the geographic centre of Queensland and is famous for the discovery of a fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur, the Muttaburrasaurus Langdoni, which roamed the earth 100 million years ago. The discovery of the skeleton was the first of its kind in Australia and is celebrated with an impressive stature located in the new Muttaburrasaurus Interpretation Centre. Once we set up camp at the towns freedom camp, we walked to the centre of Queensland monument then into town to check out the Interpretation Centre, a quick stop at the pub before walking back to camp.
From Muttaburra we headed south down to Longreach. The road was a mix of good bitumen then roadworks and this continued throughout the entire drive south. Once at Longreach we only stopped for the necessities before heading west and camping the night by the Darr river, great spot to camp except for the flies, out came the fly veils for the first time. A leisurely drive in the morning and onto Winton before lunch. At Winton we got out to stretch the legs before driving onto a gravel pit at the intersection to Julia Creek at Kynana. We pulled up and were invaded by millions of flies, so spent some time inside DABUS before heading out to light the fire. We enjoyed a camp oven cookup, under a full moon.
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Judy Bereau Still love hearing about your adventures. Glad you’ve left those mice behind. Since our last post, which was Marburg, we’ve moved through the most spectacular countryside. Heading up up up and away through quaint little towns like Kilroy, where we had to stop and fill the freezer with incredible grass fed local meat, it was all so hard to decide on what to purchase. Oh boy the freezer was full. We finally reached Maleny, and here we stayed at the Maleny Showgrounds, we could only stay two nights as they were preparing for their agricultural show. It was enough time for us to walk into town, were we walked up and down the lovely little town that had really beautiful shops full of local wares and produce. Day two off for to Montville, this town is like going to the Danenongs, say for example Sassafras, reaching the very top of the hills and then overlooking the ocean, pretty breathtaking. Next morning off we go down, down, down, 3 kms of the steepest decent of road we’ve ever encountered, with the most incredible scenery you could ask for. The next stop is Pacific Haven, where we stop at Pleasant Riverside Camping Ground, part of Hipcamps, where we spent two nights we had an absolutel ball, open fires, walking and fishing, we threw back so many little Bream and Whiting. 🙁 Next stop Bundaberg CMRV Camping ground, just the one night, as we are. Now we are at the Bargara Beach Caravan Park. It’s in a great position directly opposite the beach. We are here for a week, so much to explore. Today we visited friends who moved up here from Melbourne 3 years ago. Tonight listened to the locals drumming in the full moon, we hope to catch the eclipse tonight as it’s a beautiful clear sky. Tomorrow off on our bikes along the Bargara turtle trail. Thoroughly enjoying these adventures Keep traveling safe Judy & Bob 😘😘
Cuppa Great country out there.Thought you were probably heading to Boulia, but guess with Kynuna in the mix it'll be up to the 'Curry' & on to the Isa & Camooweal? Please do what you can to keep those pesky flies with you over there. They can be real horrors eh? Don't want'em over here! Julie & I are preparing for our drive up the Cape, leaving in around 10 days. First time back in the Tvan since August last year! Have got to know a young NZ couple who we plan to travel with for a bit, all of us headed to the Laura Dance Festival at beginning of July. Could drive to Laura from here in a day, but will take the roads/tracks less travelled & take 2 or 3 weeks. :) Will be interested to hear what the process for getting into the NT was in your next blog - given the latest outbreak of the plague in Vic. Makes us feel very 'noticeable' with our Vic plates on the car.
Sheryl Very jealous, wish we were on the road to, have fun and don’t come back to Victoria until this s*** is over. 🍾😷
Cuppa & Julie Alan on a pushy! Not a sight I ever expected to see. Julie laughed ‘cos it was a girls bike. One day we’ll get to that Camooweal free camp. Somehow we have bypassed it every time we’ve been through that way. Did you apply for the border pass once you got to Camooweal, or earlier? We will be back on the road on Saturday, travelling with another couple for a bit. Cya