Day 59 - Home to Brisbane

It was the first time during our trip that we had rain whilst sleeping in the tent. We packed our soggy tent and headed for home. We really enjoyed camping but once we had reached the end we just wanted to get home. Once we were home neither of us could sleep in our own bed. We almost set the stretchers up on the patio so we could be outside.

We travelled 8,322km, used 877 litres of diesel and had a really great time living in the biggest rooms in the world - the Australian Outback.

Days 56 to 58 - Cania Gorge

The journey to Cania gorge was a bit too long to travel cross country for the entire length. We decided to take the faster roads through Rolleston to Moura and then take the back roads across to Cania Gorge. It was an exercise in map reading by inference. Our map did not have much topographical detail. The signs on the roads referred to places that were not on the map. Most of the places on the map did exist on the ground.

We had a really great drive on unsealed roads. The road dipped and twisted through gullies and creeks then rose back to the ridges. Most of the road had been repaired since the last rains had washed parts away. There was still plenty of water in the dams and the stock looked healthy. The roads were unfenced so we got close to quite a few animals whilst they made their minds up about the direction in which to bolt.  All the properties along the way looked very well maintained and welcoming and were in complete contrast to those we had passed further out west.  Life can be very hard for those struggling to work the land, being totally dependent on climate for survival.

The Cania Gorge Caravan Retreat was another clean park with grassy tent sites. It is run by a Dutch couple, Gerard and Margaret Klijn. The camp kitchen was so well appointed that we used it to cook all our meals. As usual we met a good selection of interesting people including two Dutch teachers who were trying to come to terms with ‘Strine’ idiom and humour.

Cania Gorge was very attractive with plenty of wild flowers and shrubs in bloom. It is a dry rain forest area and much smaller gorge than Carnarvon but equally well maintained.

Dell at the Overhang. It is larger than the photo shows and very cool.

Days 52 to 55 – Carnarvon Gorge

Next stop Carnarvon Gorge. We stopped to buy supplies at Emerald. On the way in we saw what looked like a huge steel tripod. When we got closer we found it was a giant easel, 25m high, with a picture of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’. It is the largest painting in the Southern Hemisphere and part of a series of projects by Canadian artist Cameron Cross (thebigeasel.com)

Carnarvon Gorge was vast and inspiring. It took about 230M years to make with sandstone, shale, more sandstone and finally a cap of volcanic basalt. The basalt cap then eroded away. Water eroded parts of the sandstone and the gorge was formed through undercutting and rock falls. Park Rangers Russel and Steve were wonderfully informative.

We decided to attack the gorge walks progressively. On our first day we walked up to Boolimba Bluff which sits above the gorge. The walk was about 6.4km return and involved a 300m climb up steps and ladders. The view was definitely worth the climb.

The second day we walked half way up the gorge to Ward’s Canyon, a 12km round trip. The Ward brothers used the canyon to store possum pelts because it was so cool.

On the way back we were sitting in the Amphitheatre when a member of Queensland opera treated us to an impromptu song – the Lord’s Prayer. His voice was so powerful and the tune made the hairs on our arms stand up on end. It was a wonderful experience. His wife was also a singer but could not be persuaded to perform as well. The acoustics were superb. There was some feedback but no reverberation. On the third day we made it to Big Bend which is the furthest point and a 22km round trip.

Carnarvon has a large selection of wild flowers and shrubs.  The wattles and boronias were flowering profusely, as were the hoveas. The mixture of bright yellow, orange and purple created a very pretty canvas.

Cycads were in abundance and we could not help but think of the cost of small cycads in the nurseries around Brisbane.

The Carnarvon Fan Palm is not found anywhere else.  It grows to a very tall and stately tree.

Days 47 to 51 - Sapphire

On the way to Sapphire we had a quick tour of the Australian Workers Heritage Museum at Barcaldine. It was well assembled but we did not have time to do the displays justice.  We continued our journey to Sapphire and booked in to the Sapphire Caravan Park. It was amazing. Such high quality facilities: really clean. The camp kitchens had crockery, coffee, tea and other consumables.

After all the museums we welcomed the opportunity to relax in a quiet bush setting.

There were some bothersome birds that had been fed by other campers and clearly expected the same from us.

In addition to the birds we had visits from a brush tailed possum. The first night we heard a noise between the chairs and looked down the see the possum between the chairs. The following night we heard a rustle which was the possum on its hind legs inspecting one of our food trays. We had quite a job to chase it away.

Most of the time we just enjoyed evenings round the camp fire.

We needed some vegies so we opted to walk to Sally’s and Arthur’s roadside stall which we were assured was only just up the road. We came upon it after 3.2 Km. The produce was good but as the walk was hot we dropped in to the local RSL for a cold midday beer. It did not open until 2 pm but the barman was quite relaxed. Richard joined as a social member because we had consumed so many of the bar snacks.

We had a brief tour of Sapphire, Ruby Vale and Anakie. They all seemed to be places of hope. People were busy working claims in the hope of finding the big stone that was worth $$$M. We suspected the only gold mines were those that catered for the tourists. We came upon plenty of encampments alongside the tracks that ran through the bush. Asking around it was possible that many of the people did not have a Tax File Number.

Day 46 - Ilfracoombe

We walked the Ilfracombe Machinery Mile Machinery Mile in the morning. There were some really good old machinery exhibits. One that caught our eye particularly was the Ruston kerosene tractor. It was one of only three remaining in the world and it sits in the outback town of Ilfracombe in Queensland.

There was also a comprehensive gun collection, unfortunately none was named so it was a bit of a lost opportunity.

There was an interesting example of an early pioneer house – the Langenbaker House.

We found an improvised wrigley tin (corrugated iron) boat in the shed. It did not look very stable although the thought of tangling with estuarine crocs probably improved its stability.

The Wellshot Museum had a couple of interesting pieces of information. The Jackie Howe singlets of today are somewhat different to the singlet designed and worn by Jackie Howe. The picture below has a lot of reflected image but hopefully the general shape shows up.

There was also an example of a stores and provisions order placed in 1889. The station managers had to plan well ahead in those days.

For the station hands who visited the town to collect the stores there was a wholesome menu provided by the local hotel.

The Wellshot property lease was initially purchased by the Buchanons of Wellshot, Glasgow. They simply named it after their Scottish estate. The lease provided for later resumption, splitting and redistribution by the state of Queensland. Unfortunately the sizes of the split properties were not viable so many hopeful struggled and ultimately failed to make a living.

Last stop was a most amazing collection of bottles, hand tools and household artefacts. The owner was clearly never content with one of an item and had to collect multiple variations on a theme.

Day 45 - Longreach to Ilfracombe

We left Longreach for Ilfracombe some 27km to the east. We took most of the day and drove 250km because we went via Lily Lagoon and Starlight’s Lookout. The lagoon was so peaceful with only the sound of the breeze and the birds. Too bad it is not commutable.

We were not always sure if we had strayed off the main road but the odd road sign was reassuring.

We had lunch at Starlights Lookout. The view round 360 degrees was phenomenal. It was easy to understand why Harry Redford (aka Starlight in Rolf Boldrewood's classic novel 'Robbery Under Arms' ) selected this vantage point. Photos could not do it justice. There is an interesting article about Starlight at http://www.westprint.com.au/Articles%20&%20Stories/Captian%20Starlight.htm

Days 41 to 44 - Longreach

We booked into the Longreach Caravan Park which was excellent. It was a very big site but with a most welcome large grassed area for tents. The facilities in this park were extremely good and made our stay very comfortable. We had some interesting neighbours in nearby tents. We spent the evenings together in the communal sitting/eating area swapping many tales over a glass of wine. One couple had come from Victoria and had been spending some time with friends on a property just outside Clermont.  It turned out that the two men had been to school together. The couple from Clermont were interested to know that Dell was brought up on Roma Downs as he (Geoff Hurrey) had helped with the harvesting on Roma Downs when Dell’s Aunt Joan and son Alan were running the station. His friends, the Smith brothers, had also helped with the harvesting and were pleased to be able to make contact again with Alan Nolan.

 The Stockman’s Hall of Fame kept us entertained for a full day. It has a huge amount of information. Unfortunately some of the lighting made reading the information difficult. Much of the audio commentary was obscured by background noise reflecting and concentrating from the hard surfaces. The most interesting audio commentary about traditional owners by elder John Gorringe was almost impossible to hear even kneeling down with our ears next to the speaker. We did note that different tribes used tools in different ways. Some tribes used the returning boomerang to guide flocks of birds into nets strung between trees. In this case the boomerang was not intended to hit anything but to return to the thrower. Other tribes used the boomerang to hit birds in flight and if the boomerang missed it returned to sender. However there were so many variations and opinions that it was hard to check the provenance of the answers.

Richard talking with a stockman.

The “Walking Together” bronze statue honours the memory of pioneer women. Two girls of indigenous and non-indigenous heritage are depicted walking together in friendship. The winds of change blow in their hair and skirts as they look towards the potential of the future with confidence. Following the patterns of circles once drawn in the Earth as an aid to conversation and storytelling, they walk barefoot in the footsteps of past generations of pioneer women.

After the Hall of Fame we enjoyed a walk back through the 2.5km Longreach Botanic Walkway. The garden displays and interprets the native plants of the Mitchell Grass Downs bioregion and demonstrates the potential of local dry land species for use in homes and parklands. There is a strong focus on waterwise techniques. Information on the name plaques included water needs, flowering, soil type and uses.

The QANTAS Founders museum was equally interesting and really well put together. However we were starting to feel ‘over museumed’ so we headed for greener pastures.

Iningai Nature Park

Just south of Longreach there is the Iningai Nature Park. It was named after the Iningai Traditional Owners who lived along the Thomson River from Stonehenge to Muttaburra before European occupation. When the European settlers arrived they cut down most of the mature coolabah and gidgee trees for firewood. They also grazed goats, horses and cattle up until the 1950s. The area has started to recover from the damage caused by domestic animals and refuse dumped by people. It has some great walks. We sat under the shade of a coolabah tree to enjoy the wild life.

The local council have started to replant trees and shrubs indigenous to the area and erect information plaques about each type.

We also came across two large male kangaroos having a boxing match. They were pretty feisty with each other. Once the winner had chased his competitor away he turned his attentions to a small female. She seemed more interested in eating grass.

Whilst we were on our walk the local Cobb & Co coach came by keeping to the speed limit.

Longreach sits on the Tropic of Capricorn.

Days 39 & 40 Winton

Our stay in Winton started out wet. The weather threatened to remain wet. There were two caravan parks. One was a quagmire; the other was wet but bearable. We found some high ground in a corner and set up camp. Fortunately the rain stopped, the sun returned and the ground started to dry. We met a lovely couple from Canberra who parked up beside us.  We had some interesting conversations about the “fall and rise” of the members of the Labor Party!  After a great night around the BBQ and having enjoyed a delicious meal, our friends taught us to play Rummikub - somewhat similar to scrabble, but using numbers for tiles.

The museum at Winton was excellent. It was well researched and well laid out. We spent two days there reading about “Banjo” Paterson, the story behind Waltzing Matilda. He was staying at Dagworth Station with the Macphersons. Although engaged to Sarah Riley at the time, he was paying the Macpherson’s daughter, Christina, inappropriate attention. Her brothers did not approve and “Banjo” was asked to leave. Sarah was a close friend of Christina’s.

We also noticed that the swaggie pictured at the entrance to the museum display was wearing a gold seal cut signet ring. These are generally expensive and usually worn by people with a family crest. We wondered what circumstances brought the ring and the swagman together.

Apart from the story of Waltzing Matilda there was a huge amount of fascinating history about Winton and the surrounding properties.

The area was host to a dinosaur stampede and one of the commemorative features was dinosaur bins.

We visited the truck Museum just north of Winton. It had several trucks that had been beautifully renovated. It would have been interesting to have had some of the history of the trucks in addition to their names. We liked the Aussie indicator below.

There was also a mini that could drive forwards and backwards with equal ease.

 We had a look for the old QUANTAS landing strip but it was no longer in evidence. Only a plaque remained to note where it had been. Winton was the official birthplace of QUANTAS which moved later to Longreach.

There was a Musical Fence and improvised percussion instruments alongside the truck museum and the QUANTAS landing ground. Dell showed her prowess on several of the instruments and on the fence.

Back in town there is an unusual wall known as Arno’s Wall.

Arno’s House

Arno’s Wall

Day 38 - McKinley to Winton

The weather was still grey and wet as we drove down through McKinley to Winton. We stopped at the Walkabout Creek Hotel for an obligatory photo shot. Whilst we were there Richard jibbed a passing girl about the poor quality of the weather and after talking for a while it turned out that she was a good friend of a relation of ours, Charlotte Bronson. The girl, called Bianca, was a governess on a property 100km south of McKinley. She had to hole up until the roads had dried sufficiently for her to travel back to the property where she worked. Charlotte would get a lift 50km from the property where she was working so they could paint McKinley red at the week-ends.

Outside McKinley we passed a novel roadside display. No markings or plaque. Just a collection of stockman’s artifacts.

Further along our drive the road passed through acres of termite mounds.

Day 37 - Cloncurry

When we struck camp and headed off towards Cloncurry the weather was fine and warm. We stopped at the Burke & Wills road house and had the biggest helping of chips we had ever had for lunch. We had never seen so many chips in one serving. As we neared Cloncurry the weather worsened becoming wet and cold. We did not fancy setting up the tent in a cold wet muddy camp site so we took the last room in the Cloncurry Motel and had a comfortable night.

Days 34 - 36 Leichardt Lagoon

After the constant activity of the coast to coast bike ride we headed for peace and quiet of the Leichardt Lagoon. The signs on the trees were a bit ominous and were reinforced by our having to sign a waiver for the park management in case we were nipped, bitten or eaten by a croc or poisoned by a snake.

The lagoon itself looked beautiful and had so many birds. In fact there was a pretty raucous evening and dawn chorus.

During the wet, the water was 3m above the ground level for 7 weeks. It was amazing to think that the trees in this picture had survived being under water for that long. We set up a more permanent camp and wrote up our blog.

Days 25 - 33 Coast to Coast charity ride

Our only appointment on our two month journey was a week supporting the Cairns to Karumba (Coast to Coast) bicycle ride. We had 150 riders and 100 supporters on the 780 Km trip. Overall the ride raised more than $60,000 to support charities such as RFDS , burns unit for children in Cairns and charities for kids in the bush throughout the Cape and Gulf country.

The Coast to Coast cycle ride started on Sunday morning and we were joined by Dell’s brother Jim and nephew and niece, Robert and Kate plus assorted friends. We were rear escort vehicle for Pack 3 which meant we had to protect the back of the pack and communicate by radio with the lead vehicle letting them know when vehicles wanted to pass.

The most challenging part of the route was from Cairns to Mt Garnet. We had an excellent volunteer police escort who led convoys of waiting vehicles past the riders. He also led the road trains through. A paramedic in his ambulance was excellent at sitting between the packs and warning vehicles approaching from the rear.

Once we had passed Mt Garnet the drivers were great. Most of the big trucks tended to say “No rush, I’ll hang back until you are ready.” It was disappointing that we received some unpleasant abuse behind the  anonymity of the radios on day 1 and the morning of day 2. It appeared to come from suburban “blokey” blokes who had bought their 4WD plus $$$ of extras and objected to “selfish b******s on the road.” They clearly did not recognise the irony of their statements.

We had a lot of wonderful support from local people along the way.

Day 1 Mareeba Lions and Lionesses provided lunch.

Day 3 local families provided a sumptuous morning tea

Day 5 the “Grandmothers” from distance education families, with helpers, supplied a pasta lunch at Gilbert River.

They also sang a song the children had composed for the riders.

Gilbert River had a most amazing bridge that took a road train with no room to spare. If you were daft enough to be riding or walking over the bridge when a road train decided to come through then you would be blown over the side.

There were also two teams who provided drinks, fresh fruit and nuts along the way.

We stayed in different types of accommodation along the way. In Mt Garnet, we stayed in the rodeo ground and were able to use shelters that families had erected to use during the rodeos. 

In other rodeo grounds we were mighty glad we had a rake – and so were one or two others. The Irish used to say that horse manure was “good clean dirt.” Opinions vary. One of the more challenging stops was Atherton Show Grounds with communal cold showers - one for each sex. As one of the ladies said, “I just took my glasses off and no one could see me.”

Most nights we had some form of entertainment such as “No Talent Contest” and singing round the fire.

The food throughout the whole trip was provided by the Road Kill Catering Company and was excellent. We had four choices each evening, cooked breakfasts and the makings of our packed lunches. They all wore ‘T’ shirts bearing the slogan “You kill it. We grill it.” When Richard commented on the slogan the cook replied that if a bike was able to kill something then it was probably small enough for them to grill.

We passed some beautiful countryside; lagoons with water lilies and birds, a wattle corridor that extended for several kilometres, wide open savannah and generally spectacular views. It was hard on the cyclists particularly with two days covering about 150 kms each. Spirits lifted when we set of from Normanton with the end in sight. There is a traditional photo shot with the riders perched on the largest recorded saltwater croc in the world, Krys – the Savannah King.

From Normanton main street it was 78 km ride to lunch at the Karumba Golf Club. We had been told that there were no prawns for lunch this year as we could not get a sponsor. However when we arrived there were plenty prawns. Geoff Mitchell, whose son Craig was riding in the lead pack, decided lunch on the final day had to have prawns to keep up the tradition. He agreed with his directors to sponsor the prawns and set off at dawn to buy them. After lunch it was an orderly ride to Karumba Point for the whole group. They were escorted by the police car with sirens and lights to announce their arrival.

Last group photo on the beach.

Our niece, Kate Boyd, had one last duty. Her brother Robert had promised to give her the bicycle she rode if she held it over her head in the sea. This was not without its challenges as there were quite a few crocs sighted regularly in the area. She turned even more white when Richard mentioned how cheap croc bait was in the bait shop (only joking). Being a good brother Robert supported her by standing in the sea with her.

We rounded the day off enjoying fish and chips whilst watching the sun set.