Day 8 – Emerald to Winton

The road from Emerald to Alpha, a distance of 168km, would have to be the most uncomfortable stretch of road we have driven on.  It was so rough, you had to hang on to the steering wheel to stay in the seat.  And it was exhausting.  From Alpha to Barcaldine it improved enough to be a bit more comfortable.  Damn Queensland roads.  I’m told it’s the soil underneath which soaks up the moisture, then in the dry it cracks and causes the road surface to move.

We met up with friends Rod and Louise who were staying at Barcaldine.  It’s called “Barky” as we were told by locals.  The great Australian language – shorten every word so you don’t waste time pronouncing it.  Rod and Louise were staying at a lovely caravan park off the main road that only had 11 sites, but it had a café on site.  Lunch was just perfect.  Three of us had barramundi and chips with a fat desert of pie/cakes/icecream.  Yum yum.

We left Barky later than we had expected as we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us.  This was going to be a long day from Emerald to Winton, a distance of 600km.  There’s nothing out here but scrub and a few trees.

The railway line to Winton runs alongside the road and we saw this train coming towards us.  We thought it was one of those big long coal or freight trains, but alas, it was just a little train pulling empty coal trucks.  How disappointing.

We passed through Ilfracombe which has a collection of old tractors and trucks on the roadside.  Interesting place. And great for drawing the tourists to support the town.

We arrived in Longreach where we had stayed before, and refuelled.  This is the home of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the Qantas Founders Museum.  We’ve been here before so we didn’t do any tourist stuff.  But there had been a lot of extra work done on the Qantas museum since we were last here.

The road from Longreach to Winton, a distance of 179km with nothing in between, is very boring.  But the road is much better.  Wider and smoother.  Why couldn’t the road from Emerald be like this??

Anyway, we arrived in Winton about 4.30pm and drove through the other side of town to the Winton Wanderers Caravan Park.  This is brand new and opened on 4 April.  There is not much in the way of caravan parks in Winton that you would call reasonable, so this new one is going to be a pearler.  It’s a work in progress as some of it is unfinished.  But it’s in a nice quiet location if you want peace.  If you like the hustle and bustle, stay in one of the older parks in town.  Helen caught up on the washing and then we had a happy hour shooting the breeze with the managers of the park before dinner.  The sunset was just magnificent too.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s Musings

Not really highlights today just musings.

The road was definitely bumpy and the scenery flat and scrubby in parts. I find that really beautiful. Yes, it is flat and seems to go on forever, but the colours are really interesting. From the red to the slight dark pink of the soil and the variety of greens of the plant life all add to the beauty that is outback Australia. The eagles continually circle above and often there were quite a few to entertain me. The road ribboned (is that a word?)  into what seemed an infinite distance….quite mesmerising.

Day 9 – Winton

Having caravan envy today.  Had a chat with the guy camped next to us.  He has a Sunland Off-Road that he bought two weeks ago.  Had it built to his specs in Brisbane and picked it up on his way after leaving Tasmania where they live.  They are travelling Australia for 8 months.  From here they are heading up to the tip of Cape York – because he can with that rig.  He’s already been on some rough dirt roads and is ashamed he has got it so dirty after two weeks.  It’s a $150,000 caravan but it has everything.  He can go off grid and run his airconditioner!!!  Wow.  It has a power box in the back that is better than a household one.  It has satellite TV, 450amp hour of batteries and 600 watts of solar panels.  It’s fitted with Cruisemaster air bag suspension that he can press a button and the caravan levels itself before putting down the stabilising legs.  It even has a seat in the shower so you can sit and wash your feet!!!  I want one of those.  But, alas, I got told to “dream on – not going to happen”.

So, we finally got around to making the map of this trip as we have of previous trips.  We started in Yass, New South Wales, and are now in Winton, Queensland.  A distance of 3041 km and 600litres of fuel.  The black line is our travelled route.

This morning we went to the Waltzing Matilda Museum.  The original building burnt down after an electrical fire in 2015 and it has been rebuilt with a magnificent structure of rusty steel and concrete with displays inside.  Very well done.

Afterwards we went to the Tattersalls Hotel, an historic pub in the middle of town, for lunch.  A very big hamburger and chips.  Yummy.  Washed down with a nice cold beer (Helen had a Coke).  The main street is very well kept, especially for being in the middle of a dry country.

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs is an operational dig and museum about 20km outside town.  Stunning scenery from the top of the Jumpup (a hill for all you uniniatied).  We were going to do the tour but it’s very expensive for a 1 ½ hour tour.  It would have cost us $110.  No thanks.  If you want to full 4 hour tour it costs $75 each.  This is now a commercial operation searching for, digging, and restoring dinosaur fossils so they’re out to make a buck. We had already been to Lark Quarry which is the real deal you can walk around the edge on a boardwalk which was amazing so we did not feel we were missing out.

When we got to the entrance of the ‘Age of Dinasaurs’  there was a sign giving an indication of the “fly level”.  Funny.  Today it was only VERY HIGH, not FREE PROTEIN level.  Lucky for us.  But we had a fly nets on anyway.

The place was well laid out with lovely views over the range below.

Back to the park and finish this blog before we have the happy hour beers at 5.30.  Might have to start the beers today given it’s a bit on the warm side.  The further north we go, the hotter it will get too.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s Musings

Lots of interesting things to see today and one of the highlights was chatting to the lady who worked in the historic building selling crafts etc. There was a stool near the old counter which she remembers sitting on as a child waiting for her Mum to buy things at the mercantile as it was then. Lovely chat. I bought a recipe book called ‘Shearers Recipes’ that was put together by a shearer’s cook. Watch out Pilates guys, that’s what you will be getting when I get back!!!!!

The other highlight was taking all the Woolies cards and Ooshies from the last 4 years that I had collected and the donated ones from Mt Carmel Primary School in Yass and give a large bag to the students at St Patricks Primary School here in Winton. They were thrilled and as it is a small school all students will get a sizable collection each.