Chapter 4 - The Road to Birdsville

 

Chapter 4 - The Road to Birdsville

Day 15 - Tuesday 27 June 2017

We have been waiting a long time for this day - the day when we turned south and headed to Birdsville.  Lovers of geography may suggest that heading in to Birdsville from the south is a far shorter route for Melbourne people.  However we chose a road that had minimum dirt - albeit a lot longer route from home.

Along the route we have seen some great sights and met some great people, but we look forward to the next week.

Our departure from Winton was delayed by a walk down the main street to see the filming of the national TV show “Sunrise”. The regular TV stars were there and the show was staged in the main street.  They were featuring the local film festival.  We each scored a "Sunrise" cap and a free BBQ sausage before we departed Winton about 8:45.

We were soon heading into dry, rocky, hilly scenery with winding roads that was probably the scenic highlight of the trip so far.  The countryside was beautiful in a dry and dusty way. The road was (again) varying wide and narrow – but mostly very good.

Road South from Winton to Boulia

 

We were heading east all day and soon we stopped for a coffee break. About an hour later we stopped to stretch our legs at Middleton hotel – in the middle of nowhere.  It has a long history back to Cobb and Co days and is apparently an interesting place to camp for the night.

Middleton Hotel

We got talking to another couple who are also heading to the Birdsville Big Red Bash – but as volunteer workers.  We were to meet and chat with them a few more times along the way.  Kelvin took a photo of us at Cawnpore Lookout not far down the road.  I took a photo of the surrounding district.



View from Cawnpore lookout

Lunch break was at the site of the Hamilton Hotel, where we had planned to stay the night in a free camp.  However the dry and dusty nature of the day and the site encouraged us to move in to Boulia.  This was supported by travellers who had come from Boulia.

As we approached Boulia we were reminded on the Min Min lights by the following sign. 

The Min Min lights are mysterious lights that seem to follow or lead people at night.

It seems to be a tale somewhere between UFOs and the Loch Ness monster.

 

Town Tank with Mural

We arrived at Boulia Caravan park and were able to score a magnificent grassy site about 20 metres from the edge of the Burke river – because I had a power lead long enough to allow us to do so.

We drove in to town and took a photo of the water tank on a high stand. As is the custom in this part of Australia the town's entire water supply comes from bores. In this case there are four bores that are 76.2 metres deep. The water emerges at about 83 degrees.

We also took a photo of the only Waddi tree in the town, which in days gone by was a corroboree tree for the aborigines.  The Waddi tree is known to have (maybe) the hardest wood in the world, and can take 100 years to grow to 20 metres.  Normal drill bits cannot drill in to Waddi wood.  Wood used from a Waddi tree deteriorates so slowly that it will last (untreated) for over 200 years.

Waddi Tree

We relaxed and were soon rewarded by two brolga doing (maybe) a mating dance. My (not brilliant from 100 metres) photos tell the story.

 

Culminating in (maybe) some acceptance of the effort of the female.




Love is a wonderful thing.


Day 16 - Wednesday 28 June 2017 

I went for my first good pre-sunrise walk of the trip, and it was along the Burke River - that has very little water.  Apparently this week last year it was in flood, and the road back to Winton was about to be closed.

Royal Spoonbill (black) and Yellow-billed Spoonbill

The river was named by the ill-fated Robert O'Hara Burke who camped beside the river, with his mate Wills, about where our caravan sits.

A number of birds behaved on the walk and I was able to get a few photos.

 

Whistling Kite & Glossy Ibis

When I returned Shirley and I had bacon and eggs for breakfast, cooked and eaten outside. 

We cleaned up and went in to tourist mode.  First we visited the "Min Min Centre" to hear more about the local phenomenon.  It was very good.

Next we visited the "Stonehouse", the only relic of Boulia's history that remains standing.  It has been renovated and illustrates and shows a lot of local history.  The Stonehouse also had a fossil display in an atmosphere controlled room.  It is amazing what relics from millions of years ago have been, and are being, found.

Fossilized Remains of an Aquatic Animal

After lunch and a coffee we went for a walk and took a photo of the following mural.

Mural in Newcastle Park (Boulia)

Tonight we had (bought) pizza for dinner.  Quite a feat when you consider the nearest pizza shop is 300 km away in Mt Isa.  There is a guy and daughter in a truck travelling for over two months to all the shows, music festivals, camel races, etc. in this part of the world.  They are camped in the same caravan park as us.  They were pretty good pizzas.  We will see them in Birdsville, and maybe at the Bedourie camel races.

It was quite a breezy night but we were protected in a dip and were well tied down.


Day 17 - Thursday 29 June 2017

The park (nearly) emptied very early, possible as the "race" to Birdsville starts.  However we have another day of rest before we head further south tomorrow.

The day started overcast and windy.

We went for a drive and checked out the golf club.  Going by the size and quality of the clubhouse they have plenty of members and patronage.  There is not much grass on the fairways and definitely not the "greens".  However I am sure that the locals enjoy the course.  Apparently the main hazard is the crows who love to steal the balls - particularly new and shining balls.

Boulia Golf Club - 11th Green and 12th Tee

There are plenty of waterways in this "Channel Country", with generally healthy looking trees alongside, as shown by the following photo of "Sandy Creek".

Sandy Creek - 2km east of Boulia

It was a miserable windy and cool day so we rested.  However I did get the following photo from the back of the caravan.

It will be an unpleasant head wind tomorrow if the wind does not change.

Day 18 - Friday 30 June 2017

We drove out of Boulia around 8:20 and headed south, which was the same direction our driving conditions went – south.  We fought a strong head wind for 190 km.  However it was a scenic drive with many forms of vegetation coming and going.  It was also a cold wind and we added more clothes.

It was not long before we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (again) and moved out of the tropics.  This was also the sign that we had moved in to the Diamantina Shire - an area of 95,000 square km and 300 permanent residents. There are three towns in the Diamantina.  We were moving into serious “Bucket List” stuff.

We stopped to get a photo of a small clump of Waddi trees.  I will let the sign and the photos tell the story.

 

 

Note the size of the trunk and the type of leaf/needle

Later we had a 3 km side trip to climb a “jump up” and take some photos form the Vaughan Johnston lookout.  It appeared that we were looking at a dry inland sea.  An amazing view.

View from Vaughan Johnston Lookout

We arrived at Bedourie and scored a powered site in the caravan park – one of the few remaining powered sites.  We then went for a walk and took a few photos of local landmarks.

Symbolic representation of Bedourie -Meaning Dust Storm

First house built in Bedourie

As recommended by the lady at the information centre we wandered over to the Royal Hotel and ordered steak sandwiches for lunch – their specialty.  We had a drink and started talking to another like-minded couple who were travelling in the opposite direction to us.  We think that they needed some time to get away from friends who they were travelling with (one couple were travelling without a car spare tyre).  Another couple has two poodles who are allowed to chase kangaroos, which is not very wise.

Royal Hotel - Great Steak Sandwiches

We were eating our sandwich, drinking our drink, and talking when the publican wandered in, all covered in dirt.  The German part-timer was having a break, so the publican, Jim Smith, picked up his guitar and started to play. Jim has owned the pub since 1971. After we had bought another drink and jointly offered some encouragement, he played some more and sang a Slim Dusty song.  He was OK.

Our new friends wanted to buy some red wine, and I soon found out that I had more red wine in the caravan than was in the pub.  However Jim was up to the task, as he moved to the port barrel and poured two glasses of Barossa Valley port.  It was pretty good. So for lunch I had a steak sandwich, two cans of beer (no draught in Bedourie) and a glass of (free) port.

As we were walking out the door our new friends were handing over $20 for two bottles of port from Jim’s barrel, decanted into two pre-loved (and hopefully washed) wine bottles.

Bedourie is famous for the creation of the tin camp-oven, an option for the cast iron camp oven that can crack in the harsh weather of this region.

Bedourie Tin Camp Oven

After a coffee in the caravan we got the keys to the artesian spa and went for a soak.  It was crystal clear and around 40 degrees.  We were spotless and wrinkled by the time we wandered back to the caravan.  The average age of bathers was maybe 73.

After a coffee we drove out to the local racetrack where the event this weekend is "camp drafting, rodeo and bronco branding". The rodeo is tomorrow (after we depart) but today was camp drafting.  The main event had young women using their horse to separate a nominated bull from a herd of five, get the bull through a gate, then try to get the bull to navigate around markers in a paddock maybe one acre or larger.

Camp Drafting at Bedourie

The skills of the riders and their horses was very impressive. 

We then wandered back to the caravan and had a light dinner.

Day 19 - Saturday 1 July 2017  

As seems to be the trend this trip we hit the road about 8:15 am.  Some higher authority must have wanted me to be in Birdsville early as we had a semi-gale for a tail wind.  Much better than yesterday.

The vegetation and landscape varied constantly as we headed south. Wildlife was non-existent and farm animals were restricted to a few cattle and a couple of horses.  About half way to Birdsville we encountered our first dirt road for the trip.  It was fairly stony but OK if you stuck to the right two wheel ruts.  Around 80 kph seemed about right, except when another vehicle was coming the other way.

Dirt road between Bedourie & Birdsville

By the time I got used to the dirt road we were back on a sealed road.  This change occurred every 10 km or so all the way to Birdsville, resulting in about 60 km of dirt road – some of it pretty good.

We duly arrived at Birdsville and removed a major item from my Bucket List.  Our camp site was predominately rock, but the amenities were excellent. We established camp and went for a walk around town.  The information centre is always first, and this time the Bakery was definitely going to be second.  The walk between both places discovered some of the magnificent Sturt Desert Pea.

 

 The Birdsville Bakery is one of the few bakeries in Australia that is licenced. The Curry Camel pie was delicious, and very popular.

 We then kept walking and checked out most of the town, admiring some local art as we went.

 

After lunch we went for a drive and reached the South Australian border – so that I could say that I have driven on the Birdsville Track – another Bucket List item.

Birdsville Track Looking South into South Australia

On the way back we detoured to see Pelican Point, a pretty spot on the large billabong behind the caravan park.

Pelican Point

We visited the Burke and Wills tree, another spot where the ill-fated expedition camped.

Burke & Wills Tree

Around 40% of Birdsville’s electricity needs comes from a generator that is powered by steam from an artesian bore.



Birdsville Hotel

Inside the Birdsville Hotel

Cash - An Australian Shepherd

After a coffee, a rest and a chat to a few neighbours we wandered over to the famous Birdsville Hotel for a pre-dinner beer. The Bucket List had another item removed.

On returning to the camp we joined two other couples round a campfire that one of them was using to cook dinner.  I cooked our pork chops and we moved inside away from the cold night air.

Day 20 - Sunday 2 July 2017  

I was up at 6:30 to get an early shower and get a sunrise photo. The shower was great, but the sun refused to appear at the right time. So we had a leisurely start to the day. 

Big Red Bash Festival Guide

Around 9am we wandered over to where the Big Red Bash (BRB) administration was a "happening thing", and queued to get our wrist bands, our car pass and their festival guide for the Bash.  That duly happened, so we queued again for the merchandise. 

Sometime later, and lighter in the pocket, we wandered the 200 metres back to our caravan and had a coffee.

Shirley did some washing while I located and repaired two fuses, one loose and one blown (my fault).  With the range hood light and the beer fridge under control we relaxed and listened to the music that was coming from the BRB Admin area.

After lunch we visited a local aboriginal attraction that explained the "Dreamtime" story of "Two Boys".  The story explained how early aborigines learned how to survive while crossing the deserts.

We then visited the (locally) famous Jardine's Waterhole - very popular for fishing.

Jardine's Waterhole

I was also impressed with the cloud formation and needed to take another photo.

We had spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and were in bed by 9:30.


This posting is complete.

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