Lara Wetlands - Barcaldine

On our last night in Birdsville fish & chips were on the menu at the Birdsville Bakery, so making the short walk across town we enjoyed our meal sitting around the camp fire outside the bakery. As we were returning past the pub we noticed a very faithful dog sitting on the window sill waiting for his owner who was inside quenching his thirst.

Our only mishap on the trip into Birdsville was getting a broken windscreen in the Paj, we had actually completed the gravel section and were back to the single lane black top when a vehicle travelling towards Birdsville sprayed us with rocks, smashing the windscreen. It was so frustrating as when we see approaching vehicles we pull right off the black top onto the gravel to give the approaching vehicle the whole lane, but no, the metal mentality of some of these cowboys they still need to travel at high speed with two wheels off in the gravel, too bad about spraying others with rocks. It's a good thing we have windscreen cover on our insurance as it seems we need a new one about every two years.

Monday we left Windorah after returning to our van the previous afternoon and took the road heading north to Longreach. We had lunch in Longreach and reacquainted ourselves with the town before heading  3 klms east of Ilfracombe to a free stop over for the night. Tuesday we were keen to move on to Lara Wetlands that is 28 klms south of Barcaldine. Barcaldine is the home of the Tree of Knowledge, a Ghost Gum Eucalyptus which earned its claim to fame as the founding site of the political movement we now know as the Aust. Labour Party.Striking shearers met under it boughs during the "Great Shearers Strike". In it's hay day the town of Barcaldine or Barcy as the locals call it had six pubs which kept the shearers well watered.

After a stop at the IGA and the loacl butcher to restock the van we headed south on the Lansborough Hwy for 28 klms turning off at the Lara Wetlands sign then it was a further 13 klms on a very dusty sandy road to the Bush Camping Grounds. What a beautiful spot, it is one of the best Bush Camps we have been to, lovely and clean with nice green grass around the wetlands, plenty of fire wood for your fire, lovely bush walks, birdlife and best of all the natural thermal pool. We paid for three nights on arrival and will be staying on for another couple of nights as it so peaceful and a great place for us to relax  Jo the station owner is an amazing person who has overcome huge difficulties that have been thrown at her, especially since the death of her husband 4 yrs ago when he was killed in a helicopter accident when mustering on a local property.

Fish  Chips Birdsville Bakery

Waiting patiently at the pub

Sunset near Ilfracombe

D & B at the Tree of Knowledge

Three of the six pubs at Barcaldine

Camp ground Lara Wetlands

Thermal Pool Lara Wetlands

Sunrise over the Wetlands

No way was I going to share the Throne with Baz!

Old Homestead at Lara Wetlands
under renovation

Museum at Lara 

Sunset over the Wetlands

Birdsville

We have have finally ticked Birdsville off our bucket list!

Yesterday we left Windorah and headed off to Birdsville not knowing what to expect in regards to the road conditions, we were just hoping they were as good as the reports we had received. We were pleasantly surprised how good the gravel sections of road were, we were able to travel along at 80 -90 klm per hour, when we encounted the sealed sections we could take it up to 100 klm per hour.  We had to keep a good lookout for cattle and kangaroos along the way, we have found that the older cattle only lift the head to see what is passing but the weaners are unpredictable and flightly. It would have been OK for us to take our van in but still think we made the right decision leaving our van at Windorah in regards to the dust and gravel rash to the van. We are staying at the Birdsville Lodge that is situated in the same block as the pub, it has only recently been completed, it is modular donga style, completely self contained with access to an amazing camp kitchen also laundry facilities.

The population of Birdsville is usually around 160 but swells to 7,000 or more in September when the Birdsville Races are held, in July it will also swell in numbers due to the Big Red Bash a music festival that is being held out towards Big Red and free camping has been allowed on a dry lakebed.
Birdsvilles's water supply comes from a bore sunk to a depth of over 1200 metres into The Great Artesian Basin, it is pumped into cooling ponds as when it hit the surface it is 98 degrees Celsius, once cooled then transferred into the water tank that supplies the town.

This morning we travelled the 35klm to the eastern edge of the Simpson Desert from Birdsville to see what Big Red was all about.  We arrived at Little Red and took the track to the right for 3 klms, to where the enthusiastic adventurers with their 4 wheel drives attempt to get over the largest sand dune.  I am sure we would have made it on the well compacted sand, but we elected to walk to the top and watch others.

This afternoon for lunch it was a visit to the bakery where Baz enjoyed a curried Camel Pie, I was not so game stuck to what I know a chunky steak. (I hope it was!)

Tomorrow we tackle to trip back to Windorah and our trusty van.

Curious cattle and Weaners

Road to Birdsville

Deon;s Lookout showing the scale of the outback

Snake art

Birdsville Hotel

Royal Hotel ruins

Our friends Sharmon & Jack have their names on the ceiling of the pub

Water towers at sunset

Getting a beer at the bar

Water being pumped up into cooling ponds

Track up Big Red

Simpson Desert recovery vehicle ex German Army

Roadtrain making dust

Windorah

A brisk SE breeze was blowing this morning as we packed up to head off to Windorah 250 klm NW from Quilpie, the last stop before Birdsville. The road was good, alternating between one and two lanes, with wide gravel shoulders that gives you plenty of room to pull off to allow road trains to have the black top. We were also quiet happy to pull off and wait for other vehicles to pass hoping they would stay on the black top saving us from flying stones when they have two wheels off on the gravel shoulder.

The caravan park here in Windorah is very basic but does have power and water for $15 a night, if you stay three you get the fourth free. We will be taking advantage of the free night as we are leaving the van here for two days while we head into Birdsville. We are booked into the new Birdsville Lodge that has only recently been completed, accommodation is at a peak in Birdsville when the Big Bash and the Races are held there annually. We enjoyed a drink in the pub this afternoon where we spoke with a guy that had stayed at the Lodge last night, he said we had made a good choice. Tomorrow we will get on the road nice and early for the 5 hour drive into Birdsville  380 klm, we have been told the road is in good condition, lets hope so.

The road to Windorah

Fellow Jurgens owners that were camped at Coopers Creek

Windorah Store

No green grass here at Windorah

Quilpie

Wednesday morning we had lovely blue skies just a little on the fresh side, with a stop at the dump point as we were leaving the Bush Camp at Charleville couldn't help but have a photo shoot on the outdoor loo, Baz thought it wasn't a good idea for me to drop my shorts!

The road from Charleville to Quilpie was dual lane, straight and flat very easy driving. Roadkill had gone from kangaroos to cattle, wasn't good when a whiff of a decaying corpse penetrated the car. At the Channel Country Caravan Park at Quilpie there are three Artesian Hot Tubs it was great to soak in the lovely warm water and later after a shower and hair wash, I was feeling squeaky clean, this was a good excuse to go out for a meal to the Heritage Inn. A beautiful old pub that has been very tastefully restored, so fresh and clean after everywhere else being a tinge of red.

Artesian Spas Channel Country Caravan Park

Enjoying the hot tub

Heritage Inn Quilpie

Cunnamulla - Charleville

Sunday we left Bourke and headed to Cunnamulla on the Mitchell Hwy, it was frightful the number of kangaroo's dead on this section of Hwy. We have encountered roadkill along the way but not as prolific as this, we had to weave around the carcasses to avoid hitting them, lucky no oncoming traffic as we weaved to the other side of the road at times. It seems that the Dog Fence that has been erected to keep wild dogs off properties is probably a contributing factor, is spans approx 95klms along the hwy. Once we crossed the border into Queensland we saw dozens of emus many were along the roadside others in large numbers in the paddocks.

Somewhere on our travels we picked up a Grub Screw in our front tyre, lucky Baz noticed it and headed to the local tyre place to have it removed first thing Monday morning. Luckily it had not gone right through and could be removed with no ill effect, and we were able to head off to Charleville.

Once again we encounted lots of roadkill on the way to Charleville, we only ever see Kangaroos the Emus and wild goats must be more road wise. We had thought we would stay at the Evening Star Caravan Park which is north of Charleville, until we passed a bush camp along the way that took our fancy. We have spent the last two nights here it is only good if you are self contained, there is a dump point and water for $10 per night. The camp host provides a great happy hour starting at 4.30 and also cooks damper to share, we made use of his coals and cooked a lovely roast beef & vegies in our camp oven.

Today we did a tag a long tour to learn about American Secret Squirrel stuff in World War 11, it was quiet interesting hearing how many Airforce personnel were stationed here in Charleville and the large number of Bombers that were here at the airfield.

Cunnamulla Fella

Emu's

Charleville Bush Camp

Happy Hour Charleville Bush Camp

Camp Oven Cooking

Bourke

In my last post I said it was a pretty & peaceful free camp at the Newey Reserve, forget the peaceful as we had barking dogs constantly ALL night!! We had an early breakfast deciding to head off to Bourke and would shower once we arrived as we could not stand hearing those dogs any longer.

We have been at the Kidman Caravan Park for the last couple of days and have caught up with the washing and even managed to cook a Date Loaf,have also made some veg soup. Yesterday the temperature was a very nice 20 degrees and it was even better today reaching 23 degrees, no wind very pleasant sitting outside the van relaxing, our winter clothes are now stored under the bed.

 As we were travelling to Bourke yesterday we were listening to the local country radio station and they were talking about the Flicks in the Sticks, that was showing La La Land on Saturday night, it was a free film night and the CWA ladies would be selling Curried Sausages. Baz heard Curried Sausages and thought this sounded good, so tonight we headed into town to experience their country hospitality and watch the film on a big screen in the outdoors. The Curried Sausages were a pass but cannot say the same for the film, I don't think Baz & I like romantic musicals, this one was certainly a bit different. As there were only about 25 people there and the exit was up near the screen we stayed & saw it through to the end, thought it may look rude if we left early. Baz now says he only went to please me!

The Jandra on the Darling River

Darling River 

Outdoor Film Night