Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Longreach

Did the touristy thing - had a river cat ride up and down the Thompson Waterhole which is actually part of the Thompson River. Found an amazing place that we weren't allowed to camp on ( but we asked the policeman and he said no one takes notice of the signs anyway) so much cooler in the shade of the Coolibah trees.
















Rode our bikes into town to see the Stockmans Hall of Fame. Decided not to visit the Qantas hangar as we saw heaps of that in Winton.Took the tinnie out for a little ride up and down the waterhole up to the weir.  Caught yabbies ( blue claw) and had them in green thai curry.




























Did some lazing in the water and talked to both our beautiful daughters whom we miss so much.

Jundah, Stonehedge, Winton

We decided not to travel on the dirt road to Winton as the rains had knocked it around and we had been told it was pretty rough and as usual not enough time. Everything was shut because of the easter long break so scooted through Longreach ( back to that later) and off to Winton. An amazing museum and info centre dedicated to Waltzing Matilda and the beginings of Quantas - definetly one of the best displays we have seen yet - soo much to see and all really well presented. It took all afternoon to see only part of what they had there,  very enjoyable.

Off to Lark Quarry the next morning to see the only found fossil remains of a Dinosaur stampede. Amazing and spooky as we were looking at footprints of animals from over  95 million years ago!!!


On the way back to Winton stayed at a Sation called Carisbrooke. This property is owned by the Phillott family and are related to me as my grandmother was a Phillott. Charles ( they are all Charles) and Penny were lovely to meet and I wished we could have spent more time with them. They have station stays including camping or 5 star cabins and houses with everything supplied. This is there main source of income as they had to get rid of most of their cattle and sheep due to the drought. The place is lush and green - so hard to imagine in drought.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Windorah- Cooper Creek

John played at Windorah Western Star Hotel on Sat night and it ended up being a great night. The next day they had raft races and a family fun day at the creek so we headed off there to stay for a few days. The races were great to watch and they had all sorts of novely events all day long too. Wheelchair races in the sand, woolsack races with four people in each sack, and heaps more.
 Great day except for all the dead fish due to the lack of oxygen in the river as it had started to silt up. So many yellowbelly fingerlings and even larger fish floating around the surface - horrible to watch but part of nature I suppose. Caught lots of yabbies and had them for dinner - yumm. 

Quilpie - Lake Hadraham

                                                                                                                                                                             Found a great spot just a few kms east of Quilpie and stayed there a few days on the side of the lake.



Very green and of course the lake is full after all the rain. Lots of eagles nests around the lake,  very entertaining to watch them soaring around us.


There were also lots of beautiful white lillies all around the lake too.





Beautiful sunny days and coolish nights - no fish in this lake either .