Thursday, 13th June ~ almost home, Charters Towers, Qld

This has been our biggest day on the road in 16 weeks !  550km !!

We had a foggy start to the day  in Springsure (you may have already seen my previous post with a foggy pic from this day).

Our smoko break was in Clermont. On past journey's, we've had a few 'interesting' overnighters in the van park here (one time: cattle sales = lots of mooing all through the night;  one time: rodeo = lots of loud speaker noise calling the events, followed by partying until the wee early hours! In short, we've never experienced a peaceful nights sleep in Clermont).

But Clermont does have this gorgeous haven .. Hoods Lagoon. Perfect as the escape you need to break the journey.

The 1916 Flood is Clermont’s most iconic event. Striking suddenly after a rain depression, the flood washed away Clermont’s central business district and claimed at least sixty-five lives. It is still known as Australia’s second worst flood in terms of loss of life. Visit the 1916 flood marker on the corner of Capricorn and Drummond Streets to view the height of the flood waters and read the names of the citizens who perished. The Piano in the tree in Capricorn Street (opposite Ivan Bettridge Park) is an eerie reminder of the height and ravaging force of the flood waters. Although it’s a replica today, there were originally three pianos found in trees after the 1916 Flood. A mass grave of the flood victims is also located in the Clermont Cemetery.

 




















We're starting to encounter a number of those wonderful road trains !! 
B-double, B-triple (actually called a Type 2), B-scared !! but maintain composure and all will be well. We did experience a 'holy shit!' moment .. of course I was driving. An oncoming B-triple starting swaying, thankfully, the swaying eased as our paths passed (no pic sorry, too busy holding on with very wide eyes!).

Here's a pic of a B-double passing us (he passed us a few times during the day - he obviously stops a lot)... don't you reckon he's big enough though! But there's bigger ...

Something other than the sign to note here ... the road (track / highway) that you have to share with these giant buggers !

Here's today's lesson in trucks for you ...  (thanks to Wikipedia)

thankfully, we haven't encountered anything like E, F, G, H, K .. yet!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train

We're back into...
~*~ thongs;
~*~ short sleeves;
~*~ skirt / shorts;
~*~ ice in my wine;
ahhhh, I'm home .... home sweet home

I will need time to acclimatise though, I'm starting to feel rather Hot !!

Bird No. 300 !! and still a few km to go until we're home, so the count may rise a little further. Who has the honour of being named bird 300 , I hear you ask? .. a Red-backed Kingfisher ! Very nice. We spotted him as we were driving along the highway, on the wire, just south of Charters Towers, no time to take a pic, here's one I took earlier.

We'll be leaving our little house on wheels and arrive at the big house, about late morning ....

thanks everyone for reading,
thanks for a happy, safe, epic journey.
xo xo

Wednesday, 12th June ~ Springsure, Qld

Here's a pic of some of the bad sections of highway north of Roma.
(pretty scarey at times)












But it's only a matter of time before it will look like this good section of road. All fixed up and looking good. Pretty nice to drive on too.














We've been trying to call into small towns that previously we've just driven through. Here's a bit about Springsure (pop approx. 900), 66 km south of Emerald.

An interesting cliff face in the hills surrounding Springsure is known to the area as Virgin Rock, named because it once looked like the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, although years of erosion have blurred the original resemblance. (I found a sketch done in 1885 on State Library of Qld pictures website.)

Here's my pic, taken in 2011. I wasn't able to take a pic today, too foggy !

You can just see the outline of the cliff,

top left hand side of pic.

But, you can clearly see

no less than 25 caravans free camping in the rest area!

As we found out, Springsure is the hub for several coal mines such as the Minerva Mine and the Rolleston Mine. These mines are letting Springsure prosper. Significant exploration is ongoing in the district. (so no need to overnight in Springsure again...)

It is also a staging point for expeditions to the Carnarvon National Park.

Got a bit excited because we thought we had our bird No. 300, but no, false alarm.

Tuesday, 11th June ~ Roma, Qld

 

 

The sky varied on the drive from St George to Roma - from a foggy start, to a bit cloudy, to quite cloudy, to a beautiful picture.

We won't talk about the lack of rest areas in this section, or the tantrum in Surat because the toilet/rest area signage wasn't forth coming. Just move on ...

Roma (pop approx. 7000) is a town in the western Darling Downs area of South West Queensland.

What's fascinating about Roma is the bottle trees.

The Heroes Avenue is a heritage-listed collection of bottle trees in the CBD of Roma, each named for a local man killed in World War 1. Only one of these plaques survives, now on a cairn which was dedicated by the Roma RSL sub-branch on Remembrance Day, 1983. The cairn is located outside the Post Office near the corner of McDowell and Wyndham Streets. It also provides information regarding the rows of bottle trees and lists the 93 names originally displayed on the trees. Some of the original trees have been replaced and some have been removed to allow for increases in traffic.

 

As we visited the Big Rig - Roma's information centre -

 

 

 

we also had the pleasure of a 'window of opportunity'; seeing this F111 on a truck. It's just amazing timing as well, here we are in awe of this plane, and wondering where it's going; then I realised that the jock on the radio was talking about the very plane we were gawking at !  This F111 is on its way to Darwin. Apparently, there are a number of F111's being distributed to various museums around the country. (Maybe you already have heard about this while we've been somewhat news challenged.)

 

 

Those of you following our bird count ... no, no sign of bird number 300 yet.... still looking...

Monday, 10th June - St George, Qld

Between Cunnamulla and Bollon (half way mark to St George), there had to be 50 squashed emu roadkill. It was very sad to see, but they  must be very dumb and obviously didn't attend the road safety school as the goats. Only one goat roadkill.

Rest areas are lacking in this stretch of highway (lucky we had smoko before we left Bowra. That was because we dawdled so long along the gravel road in search of bird No. 300 ie Bourke's Parrot, we thought coffee might bring them out of their hidee-hole)... sorry, I digress .. back to the few rest areas - so we had to have lunch by the side of the highway. Lucky there are a few spaces where previous old roadworks have levelled out an area. It's like a rest area, but with no facilities.

The highway was quite busy, with a large number of heavily laden 4WDs. We wondered if the Birdsville races were coming up... but no, that's not until September. So who knows, long weekenders, travellers making the break now that the weather is cooling off.

We're resting up in St George (pop 2400), and hiding from the long weekender traffic.

There's a lovely river walk along the Balonne River, perfect for us, after a long-ish driving day. We gave ourselves a treat last night and went to the RSL for dinner; Good move, it was buffet night and only $10 for pensioners ! 

Here's a bit of caravan entertainment we watched this morning. This guy has so much gear on his truck.. including the back, that when he did a little turn, the gear crunched into his caravan. Yes, he has a caravan too. (I took the pic through the insect screen)

Only a few more sleeps left in our caravan. It's a funny feeling, like when you're reading a good book .. you don't quite want it to end; but you've got your eye on the next book, and you're getting a bit excited to get into it.

Speaking of books, our latest audio book is by Kathy Lette 'The Boy Who Fell to Earth'; A novel about Lucy, a 30-plus middle class mother coping alone with an autistic child. After about 10 minutes of listening I thought, good grief, delete ! But it got better. Now I'm intrigued .. how does it end.

Thursday, 6th June ~ Bourke, NSW

Thursday, 6th June ~ Happy Queensland Day !

Bourke (pop. 2,145 - approx. 33% Indigenous) "Gateway to the Real Outback" !

It has 40 police in the town! And I just read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, that states Bourke tops the list "more dangerous than any country (town) in the world  ... mmm.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bourke-tops-list-more-dangerous-than-any-country-in-the-world-20130201-2dq3y.html


We're staying in Kidmans Camp (where we stayed during our 2012 trip). I'm happy to say that it's a very relaxed atmosphere.

 

with a couple of walks around the property as well as good bird watching (of course). The PV Jandra operates on the Darling River, just a short walk from Kidmans Camp.

 

 

 Something to do with those horseshoes you have hanging around the place.

 

 

The amenities need a little work though ...

Cook on duty (again)

One of the not-so-friendly encounters
(scorpion trying to wear my shoes !)

Here's a couple of snoozy types

so relaxed here at Kidmans Camp, you can snooze the day away.

Tawny Frogmouth













While out bird watching we came across a flock (300 plus) of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos .. whoop whoop de whoop !

 

 

 

A little bit of history:  In 1892 young writer Henry Lawson was sent to Bourke by Bulletin editor to get a taste of outback life and to try to curb his heavy drinking. In Lawson's own words "I got £5 and a railway ticket from the Bulletin and went to Bourke. Painted, picked up in a shearing shed and swagged it for six months". The experience was to have a profound effect on the 25 year old and his encounter with the harsh realities of bush life inspired much of his subsequent work. Lawson would later write "if you know Bourke you know Australia".

Fred Hollows, the famous eye surgeon, was buried in Bourke after his death in 1993. He had worked in Bourke in the early 1970s and had asked to be buried there.

Wednesday, 5th June ~ Cobar, NSW

With such a beautiful sunrise at Warrawong on the Darling, it was a bit sad to leave. But what can you do?  Move in ?

See what I mean ...
no photo enhancements here,
and all pics
taken using my trustee HTC phone !
Beautiful ...

Each evening, Warrawong on the Darling, has a fireside happy hour and a few people had commented about the numbers of goats grazing near the roadside. Up until Warrawong, we had seen some goats, but not in the numbers that we saw driving from Wilcannia to Cobar ! There were thousands.

Interestingly though, no road kill. I thought goats were supposed to be dumb, but they've worked it out, stay off the road. They must be smarter than emus - we've seen a few squashed ones, that makes me sad, but oh well. When they dart out across the road, it's no wonder.

 

 

This section of our journey offered plenty of rest stops to choose from for our smoko stop.

All of them had vans (varying numbers) parked up, and no doubt would have been there for an overnighter - and why not? The rest stops are very roomy.



The 'ornamental' trees along the highways have been interesting too. We'd seen a cup tree near Elliston (SA), and on this trip we saw other ornamental trees; a bottle tree, a cap tree, a shoe tree, a toy tree and a 'left over tree' (you name it, it was hanging in the tree).

Gives you a laugh along the way and
makes you think you should bring
something along for the next tree ...









We arrived in Cobar at lunch time, set up, had a quickie 'healthy' lunch (more on that later), did a bit of shopping for some necessaries = grape juice and cow juice. Did a quickie tour of Cobar to ensure that nothing had changed since we were last here and back to the van to update the blog. Ha ! The internet speed was sooo sloowwa, that I couldn't operate and gave it all away. Up early to try again - it was faster, but who needs that stress. Abandon update altogether. Still, I shouldn't complain, we live in a big country; this is the outback afterall. (Backdated update now being done in Bourke!)

On our 2012 trip, we visited Cobar (pop 4,500). The town looks cleaner than we remembered this time. The bakery is still the same .. yummy (yeah, remember I said about the healthy lunch ...?). While the pies are yummy, we now have a new benchmark, set by Peterborough. And I have to say, Peterborough is still on top ! But when it comes to a matchstick .. well, Cobar is the winner. That delicate crisp pastry, with lashings of luscious whipped cream and a stream of sweet strawberry sauce, topped with a generous swipe of strawberry icing. Awh stop !  I want another one now.

 this is my half, it's double the size.

Cobar is "The Jewel of the Outback". It's a bustling and prosperous town with a mixture of old and modern buildings which chronical its history through its last 140 years. The town is steeped in pastoral and mining history. Cobar mines copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc. You can learn all this and more in the Cobar Heritage Centre (information centre). What a fantastic building.

Did you know? During my research about Cobar, I read that, should you decide to move to Cobar, you may be eligible for a $7000 grant? WOW.

When you see all the travellers on the road, I do wonder about a town's ability to cope with the influx of people and provide assorted basic services. Is it a drain on its resources eg water? This is the sign in the shower in Cobar. I'd like to think that the traveller $$ is doing some good for the town/community, in other words, "I hope the books balance". And everyone's a winner !!  that's ok, now break into song ...