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Joyce & Pat's Adventure Before Dementia

Outback Queensland Sep 23, 2009

Saturday 19/09/09

Well my theory on typing our trip journal as Pat drove along only lasted the one day!! I found the bumpy roads made it difficult to type on the laptop as well as trying to see what was happening on the road and also keep an eye out for places of interest. Never mind I tried. (To let u know how bumpy the roads have been – my pedometer showed I had walked 7.6km – I had basically sat in the car most of the day!!!)

So we left Alice Springs on the Sunday 13/09 & headed back the way we had come – destination was to be a free rest camp around Three Ways. As we had covered this section before we were able to travel along without having too many stops. This turned out to be out biggest travelling day so far. We left Alice Springs around 9am & got to “41 Mile Bore” (70km east of Three Ways) around 7pm.

The next morning as we were packing out a couple pulled in on their BMW bikes to have a coffee & breakfast. It turns out that they are from Holland & are spending 5 weeks travelling around. Originally they thought they would ride around Australia but have since realised the impossibility of that in the time they have. They arrived in Brisbane & have set off. They hired the 2 motorbikes at $150/bike/day!!! As they don’t have a tent or camping equipment they have to plan their trip to get to accommodation each day. Expensive travelling aye?

On the road again we continued on our way to cross the NT/Qld border. We drove through Barkley Homestead before & then as we went through another free rest area “Avon Downs” we encountered a Breathalyser Test!!! I think the cop must have been lonely that day so decided to chat to people by pulling them up for a breathalyser test & car licence check. The only think at Avon Downs is a police station!! As it was 2pm in the afternoon Pat was quite safe.

After crossing the border, we continued through Camooweal to another free rest spot called “Inca Creek” which is 119km NW of Mt Isa.

We arrived in Mt Isa the next morning & booked into the Sunset Caravan Park. This is a “Top Tourist Park” so as we are members we were entitled to a 10% discount. This caravan park seemed to have quite a number of Western Australians staying there – all going in different directions.

Mt Isa. This city has a population of approx 23,000 & is very multicultural stemming back from the early mining days. The mine site runs right next to the town on the other side of the railway line. The mine is mainly of copper, silver & zinc with lead being mined 20km out of town. Mt Isa is also known as the Rodeo Capital of Australia as it is home to the largest rodeo held in the Southern Hemisphere.

A place of great interest is the “Outback at Isa” Centre. This serves as an information centre but is also where you can visit the Fossil Centre, Isa Experience Gallery & the Hard Times Mines Underground tour. The underground mine tour is a replica built of the proper mine in town. Tours through the actual mine were halted after a tourist sued them for injury!! They do still do surface tours. We found the underground tour very interesting. Next day we visited the “Underground Hospital” that was built in 1942 when Darwin was bombed. It was never used as a hospital but nurses did go & rest there between shifts during the war.

Overall Mt Isa was a very interesting place to visit. We also had a car service done whilst here.

Today we left Mt Isa & continued our journey stopping to have a look at Cloncurry (not much there), onto McKinlay. This place’s claim to fame is that the “Walkabout Creek Hotel” has been featured in all three of the Crocodile Dundee movies!! From there it was onto Kynuna another pub the “Blue Heeler Hotel”. Its claim to fame is that it has a “champagne window” which was immortalised in Banjo Paterson’s poem Goldenwater. It was through this window that the MacPhersons of Dagworth Station passed champagne to the very shearers who had burnt Dagworth’s woolshed, wool & 143 jumbucks during the great shearers’ strike. We managed to have a beer in both places, but wonder how the hell either of these places survive!! Population in these 2 places were 30 & 20 respectively.

As time was getting on we continued onto our free camp site for the night. We are camped at “Wanora Downs” which is approx 100 kms NW of Winton.

Tomorrow we will be in Winton.

More of our trip later but must away & watch the Geelong v Collingwood game. Yes we have a satellite dish so we can watch tele in most places – no going without for these caravanners...

Monday 21/09/09

Boy have the past few days been hot. Apparently Queensland has had its hottest weather in August & September isn’t shaping up to be any better. Tomorrow it is forecast to be 41 degrees!!! Yuk.

So to continue.

We arrived in Winton around 10am. We had decided that if we saw the sights that we had picked out in the brochure by early afternoon we would continue out of town and stay at another free camp site.

First stop was “Arno’s Wall” – an eccentric and well-photographed landmark reaching 2m in height. It is made up of rock from Opalton and studded with a whole mixture of objects, including the kitchen sink!! (For those of you who live or have been to Tammin – Chong could do this with the junk he has around his place.) Next stop was the “Musical Fence”. We both thoroughly enjoyed this. This fence was devised in 2003. You grab a stick and make music by hitting the fence wires or other items around. Great fun.

From here we went over to the Waltzing Matilda Centre. This centre celebrates our national song through high tech interactive displays & exhibitions. Both Pat & I decided that at $16.50 each we would give this a miss. Probably would have been worth a visit, but somewhere you have to draw the line in all these places you visit.

So after having a lovely ice coffee in the Cafe at the Centre we headed back to the van & to rescue Kosta from the heat.

Off again to find somewhere to stay the night. We arrived at Longreach Waterhole around 4pm. This site is about 4km from Longreach & right near the Thomson River. You are able to free camp here for 4 nights. We have been here 2 nights already & might stay another night or else shift to a caravan park where we can use power & the swimming pool. The river isn’t the cleanest around so we are reluctant to go swimming in it. It is very popular for boating & fishing. Pat has put the traps in last night & tonight. Nothing caught last night hope we have more success tonight.

Today has been spent at the Qantas Founders Museum. With our seniors discount it cost us $80 each – this covered the museum, walk the wing & the secrets of the 747. We spent from 9am – 2pm there. The 747 tour took you through all parts of the plane. The walk out on the plane wing was also quite exciting. Of course, the museum was just full of info on the founding of Qantas, etc. A very worthwhile visit.

After coming back out to camp to check on Kosta & let him go for a swim in the river, we went back into Longreach to have a wander around, buy some fruit & to have a drink in the Longreach Club. We both only had a lemon squash – thank goodness as on the way back out of town – yep! Another breathalyser. Again no revenue for the police department..

Tomorrow we plan to go the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame. This is another $20 plus $5 for the RM Williams Outback Stockman’s show. I would have probably liked to have gone to the “Gallop thru the Scrub with Cobb & Co”. This is a ride out to the scrub in a wagon pulled by horses. This would cost another $50 each!

We try to pick out a few good things we want to do & forego the rest.

More news after we have seen the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.

Tuesday 22/09/09

Boy we awake this morning to a very hot wind & forecast of another scorcher. Not for us another day in this free camp site, we packed up and moved to a caravan park in town with a swimming pool & 3 spas. Made good use of that this afternoon.

After setting up at the caravan park, we left the air conditioner on for Kosta & took off to go to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. This was another interesting exhibition & well worth the visit. At 11am they had an RM Williams exhibition – this was a live display with “Rusty” the stockman explaining about life on the land. Humorous & informative. The museum itself was well done & we spent a couple of hours wandering around reading (there is lots & lots to read if you want to) all about the stockman, mining, drovers – people of the land. The one thing I have found through the top end (Darwin) to so far here, Longreach, a lot of the history is repeated in each town/museum. Having said that I am glad we have visited Longreach & its attractions.

We haven’t made up our mind yet whether we will move on tomorrow or stay another day. If it is going to be like today we will be staying.

Wednesday 23/09/09

We’re staying. Sydney might be red from the dust storm sweeping across them, but, according to a local here, the dust storms here are normal for this time of year. The temperature is lower today but the dust is horrendous.

Today is being spent doing a bit of housekeeping – me to clean the van (why when it is blowing dust???) & Pat is changing the inverter on the solar system as when I use the computer it blows a fuse – need to go from 150 to a 600!! He is also trying to check why the water heater doesn’t always stay on (either with the gas or electric).

Actually it’s good to have a day just doing the odd thing & in general just kicking back doing very little.

Just before “Happy Hour” Pat took Kosta for his usual walk around the park. He stopped to talk to the people at the back of our van – low & behold Bevyn & Helen turned out to have met Gary & Louise when they were in WA last year. Apparently their son, Brett, had bought from them the Header they had for sale & taken it back to Qld!! Such a small world isn’t it? We have said that we will call into Dalby (Qld) on our way back up to the north of Qld next year & visit their farm. We spent a very pleasant “Happy Hour” talking with Bevyn & Helen & their travelling companions, Colin & Bev.

So until we get to the next place, we will say cheerio for now.