On the way home...

As we got to the intersection on the Capricorn Hwy where the sign to turn south to Melbourne is, we all felt a strong sense of disappointment. We have made the decision to go home for my brother’s wedding and to meet my new baby nephew, but we all felt like we weren’t ready to leave Queensland yet. We will definatly be back here soon as Queensland still has so much to offer us. We have all fallen in love with this state. And so with regret, we turned right and headed south along the Landsborough Hwy.

This was the landscape for most of the way through central QLD and NSW

We stopped off at a campground in Blackall for the night. Once we had set up, Dan and I sat down with a cold beer and watched the kids burn some built up energy. They were running around kicking a ball when a couple came riding up in a carriage. The carriage was being pulled by a gorgeous little pony.

Will's fascination with horses encouraged him to go over and say hello. The man was very freindly and asked WIll if he would like to have a ride. Will jumped at the chance and hopped right on. After a while, he remembered his brothers and asked if they could hop in too. The man gently kicked his wife out and Sam and Zaccy joined them in the carriage! Not something the kids get to do everyday!

Will having a ride

Soon, all the kids were on board

Cowboy Will with his home-made lassoo

We had planned to stay at Charleville for a few days, but when we arrived there I changed our plans. We arrived there just as the sun was setting and we had a bit of trouble finding the campground. As we pulled into the carpark there was already another car there. It was a typical country ute - complete with loads of huge arials, covered in stickers and three big pig-hunting dogs tied up in the tray. I got a bit freaked out, especially when I saw all the empty beer bottles and fire pits all over the place. In truth, I think the guys had just come down here for a bit of fishing and were nice enough to leave with their dogs when we arrived. However, I thought the worst and decided that it wasn't a nice place to stay.

So we left the caravan hitched up (so we could make a quick getaway!) and left early the next morning. However, as we drove away we saw another bigger camp ground further down the street. It was filled with travellers and looked like a beautiful place to stay. We had obvioulsy mistaken the local drinking hole for the campground we were supposed to be staying at!!

Our "campsite" was very pretty but a bit too isolated for my liking!

The next day we went to the Cosmos Centre in Charleville. When Sam grows up he wants to become an astrophysicist , so he was really excited to visit the Cosmos Centre.

The Cosmos Centre has the only cinema in Charleville and we got to watch a short film called "Journey to Infinity", teaching us all about how our Solar System was created. Our guide told why Pluto has been taken out of the Planet Club and we got to hold space rock and meteorites in our hands! They have a wonderful Information Zone where the kids spent a long time playing games and watching films.

After our short visit to Charleville, we continued south to Mitchell where we stayed at the Neil Turner Weir. Named after an Austrailan politician, the weir has a free campground with plenty of open space. We only stayed for one night before continuing our journey towards home.

Sunset over the Neil Turner Wier

Crossing over the border into New South Wales we were excited to stay at Lightning Ridge. Lightning Ridge area is a world epicentre of the mining of black opals and other opal gemstones. Lightning Ridge has the largest known deposits of black opals in the world.

Our poor old Patrol was really stuggling with all the hard driving we were doing, and she kept overheating. We had to stop every hundred kilometers or so, to fill up with coolant, and we were going through a lot of fuel. We were putting most of our money into the fuel tank so we had to free camp all the way home.

My Dad had told me of a good free camp about 5km out town, and we planned to stay there after filling our tanks with water in town.

We usually go to the local Visitor Information Centre and ask them where we can fill up with water. Most of the time they let us fill up from the Info Centre. Unfortunatly, the taps at the Info Centre in Ligtning Ridge all had signs on them saying that the water in the whole shire had been affected by E. Coli.

It was getting dark, and we had no water so we had no choice but to check into a caravan park. We thought we could stay for one night, fill our tanks and free-camp out of town for the rest of the week. I was having a much needed cool shower when I realised that the water was leaving a slimy residue on my skin. We suspected that the town had treated the water with something to overcome the E. Coli problem. We didn't like the idea of putting slimy water into our tanks, so our visit to Lightning Ridge was cut short!

Before we went to bed we did pay a visit to the local artisian hot bath. The caravan park was walking distance to the hot baths so we all walked down there in our bathers with our towels and our torches. The mineral-rich water is naturally hot, forced up from a kilometer underground from the Great Artesian Basin.

We really loved Lightning Ridge and have made the decision to come back here next year.



One of the many huge road trains we passed.



This is how Zaccy passed the many hours in the car.

This little fellow was on the side of the road

He got a bit defensive and 'puffed up' to make himself bigger when we approached.

Our next stop was at Terramungamine Reserve, north of Dubbo. Terramungamine Reserve area was part of the traditional country of the Tubbagah People of the Wiradjuri Nation and an important gathering area for tribes throughout the region. The reserve is now open to the public as a free campground.

While we were in Dubbo, there was a caravan and camping show on in town. We spent an afternoon at the show looking at a few things we are considering buying before we head off on our next trip. We are looking at getting a generator so we can still free camp and be able to re-charge our batteries when we dont get enough solar power. We want to get a drinks fridge for the back of the car. After the 'water issue' we had in Lightning Ridge, we want to get water filters for our caravan. We have also decided that our poor old Patrol can't tow our heavy caravan, so we spent a bit of time in Dubbo visiting car dealerships.

Zaccy 'helping' Will with a school project

Terramungamine Campground

So from Dubbo, we are now heading back home to Melbourne. I have a new nephew to meet, a wonderful sister-in-law to welcome into the family, and lots of friends to catch up with.

We have also decided to start our own business, buy a new car and make some changes to our caravan. My sister-in-law and her family are moving out of our house so we need to find new tennants too. I think the next few months with be very busy for us and I am already tired just thinking about it!

Our travelling days are definatly not over and we will be back on the road again soon. Until then - happy travelling and hope you have all enjoyed this blog so far!!

Crows, Cats and Kangaroos

The kids have been really excited to see the wild animals of Outback Australia; we just didn’t expect to see so many of them as road kill on the side of the road. Travelling along country roads, you expect to see a few animals that didn’t quite get out of the way quick enough, but we couldn’t believe how much there is in the outback.  Bronwyn told us that they counted over 700 dead animals between Sapphire and Longreach! It is mostly kangaroos, but we were surprised to see foxes, emus, dingos, feral cats and even wild pigs! And at every carcass, there are at least three crows eating dinner. That makes a lot of very fat, well fed crows in Outback Australia!

I don’t particularly like cats. I am –as they say – more of a dog person. However I like rats even less, so I was very grateful that the Apex Park was home to many Feral Cats after I had heard that there was a rat-plague in Longreach (even if the cats did scare me half to death every time they jumped out of the bin when I walked past!)

While driving along the Capricorn Hwy, Dan nearly had a heart-attack when a rock was flicked up by a passing truck and hit the windscreen. It hit right at eye level, causing Dan’s instincts to make him duck for cover! Funny to watch after we got over the fright!

It did quite a bit of damage to the windscreen so we needed to get it replaced. We loaded up the bikes on the back of the car and dropped the car off at the local windscreen repairers. We then spent the day riding around Longreach.

When we started this trip we decided to get the best insurance we could for the car and caravan. We paid a little more to get no excess on windscreen repair and replacement. It has now paid for itself!

We rode up to the Longreach School of Distance Education. Sam and Will were very excited to go there and see how the kids of Queensland do their schooling through Distance Ed.

Sam’s thoughts; “The LSODE is very different to how we do it in Vic, because it is all done talking with your teacher through microphones and over the internet. We get two booklets, one for English and one for Maths, and we do our studies in our booklets then send them in to DECV. Our teacher is our mum (called the supervisor) and she helps us whenever we need it.

We got to walk through the school and see some of the models and projects that the kids have made and sent in. Twice a year the students get to come to the school with their parents and stay for a week. While they are there they get to meet the other kids in their class and meet their teacher. They get to play heaps of games but still have to do some schoolwork.”

Longreach is famous for the QANTAS museum and the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame. We spent an afternoon at both places.

QANTAS, the world’s second oldest airline, was registered on 16 November 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service Ltd. While Winton was the official birthplace, the company and operational headquarters were moved to Longreach in February 1921.

Will’s thoughts about the QANTAS museum; “The QANTAS museum was really cool. We went to the cafe and had chips and a drink and then got to spend our pocket money in the shop. Sam brought a set of three foam aeroplanes. We went outside to the park and had races with the planes while we waited for the tour to start. My plane was a trickster, so I won!

When the tour started we got to stand under a huge plane and a man told us all about the plane. We got our photo taken inside one of the jets. It was about 45 degrees and we were standing on the metal for a long time. It was really hot! We went inside the aeroplane and sat in first class while we watched a movie about how the plane was built. Then we got to go in the cockpit and pretended to fly the plane. I was the pilot and Sam and Zaccy were the co-pilot and navigator. It was a really good day!”

Will standing in the undercarriage

The well-known black box - which is actually bright orange!

The pilot, co-pilot and navigator.

 

The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame is a museum dedicated to Australian stockmen and Aborigines who have shown bravery and courage.

Dan stayed at the caravan to work, while I took Sam and Will to the Hall of Fame. We spent the morning wandering around the museum, looking at the old artefacts and discovering facts about early Australia. We got to see a fantastic show by a very funny man and his horse, dogs, camel and team of bullocks.

Dan and Zac joined us for lunch and we meet up with Bronwyn, Gavin and their boys. We all spent the afternoon wandering around the museum.

Watching the Bullock team in action

One of the locals saying hello to us

Lunch in the Wool Bale Cafe.

Impressive Architecture

The day we were leaving, there was a Horse Muster in town. We packed up the van and towed it to the R M Williams muster. It was a cattle mustering competition between NSW and QLD. It was the perfect setting for our first experience at a Muster – very dry, hot and dusty.

The beautifully painted R M Williams Truck

My 3 cowboys

The juniors went first and they had to beat the clock on an obstacle course. Saddle their horse,  burst balloons with their whip, pitch a swag and climb in, get back on their horse, knock in a star-picket, ride between two logs backwards, jump on a quad bike and lead their horse across a course to the finish line. Next came the open-aged amateurs . They had to lasso and lead calf for branding. It was very impressive to watch.

The kids loved sitting on the fence and watching the action. They spent the day pretending they were cowboys and made lassos with a piece of rope.

Will and his new buddy - Jeremy

Will decided that the cowboy life was for him. He spent hours trying to talk us into getting a farm and living in the outback. He wore jeans, a wrangler shirt, and his cowboy hat, with his lasso tied to his belt. He stayed like this for the next few weeks. It was over 35 degrees most days, but he kept on his “uniform” not matter what the temperature.

The Mighty Patrol!

A beautiful sunset ofver the Thompson River

Off 4wd'ing one day and a local horse came to say hello

He was VERY friendly!