Journey in a Journey

We spent today with Kinnon and Co Outback Pioneers.  We spent the morning on their Cobb and Co Stagecoach experience and what a great start to the day it was.  Morning Smoko of scones followed by a ride in the stagecoach pulled by 5 horses with a gallop home.  This was great fun.  We then watched the Harry Redford Old Time Tent Show.  This show was done by the Kinnon Brothers that drove the stagecoaches.  Very talented boys and very funny.  Late in the afternoon we were picked up by coach and taken to the Thompson River for the Starlight's cruise experience.  We boarded the boat for the trip up the river followed by stew for dinner and apple pie for dessert.  Sitting around the camp fire with entertainment supplied by a poet Scotty and father and son Kinnon's funny antics.  We then watched a sound and light show over the river ending with damper around the fire. All in all it was an awesome day with the Kinnon family.

Visited the Qantas Founders Museum.  We did the museum and the Boeing 747 and 707 tour.  The actual museum is really good.  Lots of interactive things to see and play with.  Old planes to climb in and not one of those museums that you just wander around reading things. The tour of the 747 is really informative and you get to see the all the inner workings of the plane as well as the cockpit and the upstairs first class lounging area that was converted into more seating as first class passenger numbers dwindled. You even get to stand inside the engine on the wing. The 707 is an old plane that started its life as a commercial passanger plane before being converted into a private jet and being sold to the Arabs and then coming back to Australia to be hired out to people like Michael Jacksons when he toured Australia.  It was interesting to see the interior of the plane set up with bedrooms lounging areas etc not just rows of seats.                             

Saturday 29th July Waltzing Matilda is stuck in our heads as we visited the Waltzing Matilda Centre today.  The centre is fairly new as the old one burnt down and the experience is an audio experience.  You are given headphones and audio equipment that is automatically activated at certain places throughout the centre.  You not only learn about the history of Banjo Patterson and the song/poem but also a bit about the history of Winton.  We continued south and are now in Longreach at an almost free camp $3 per car per night and we will stay here a few days as there is alot to do.  As it is Sunday there isn't much open but the town looks really nice.  We will venture in tomorrow and book some tours.

Saturday 28th July Today we left Lawn Hill and traveled back down the horrible dirt road.  We have to start traveling south if we are to get back to Victoria so today was a boring driving day.  We stopped for the night in a free camp outside Kyuna.  We watched a beautiful sunset and went to bed listening to the sound of light rain and our neighbours frantically packing up and moving to more solid ground.  

Friday 27th July 2018 Decided to stay another day here and do some of the bush walks.  Today its 33 again so we were out on the tracks at 9 am.  We walked to the Indarri Falls and had a swim took some photos from the lookouts on top of the gorge.  Its pretty spectacular.  Great to get a view of the gorge from above after canoeing down the river yesterday.  Tomorrow we must start heading home. I do love a waterfall and swimming under them is perfect.

Thursday 26th July 2018 Canoeing down Lawn Hill Gorge was great for me not as great for Michael.  We had a double canoe so Michael was placed in the back with the paddle and I was up the front with just a single oar.  Therefore Michael did all the work and I sat up the front and enjoyed the view and paddled intermittently.  We paddled down the middle gorge until we came to some little falls.  At this point we had to take the canoe out of the water and carry it past the waterfalls and into the upper gorge.  On our way back we stopped at the Indarri falls and had a swim before continuing back.  All up we paddled for about 2 hours so Michael is having a well earned beer and rest.   We saw lots of fish and lots of bubbles coming to  the surface but we didn't see and crocs although we are told their are freshies in the water.   Not sure if the bubbles were coming from crocs, turtles or just the fish.  Maybe better if we don't know.

Wednesday 25th July 2018 Today we made the dusty journey in to Adels Grove at Lawn Hill National Park.  The drive in was pretty ordinary but all our dust proofing efforts paid off as the van was nice and clean. (On the inside anyway)     Adels is a little oasis in the middle of nowhere.  I'm sitting on the outdoor deck writing this with a nice cold drink and nibblies under the shade of the trees with the river down to my right.  Its 33 degrees and the only way to cool off is to go for a swim in the river that is freezing.  They have a pontoon to dry off on in the middle of the river and further down the river is a nice beach area that you can paddle in.

Tuesday 24th July 2018 We have found this little gem of a place called Gregory and we are camped by the river with about 100 other vans.  The river is quite fast flowing and we went down on our round tubes.  It was great fun.  A little scary trying to stop with the water pushing you down.  People have made rope swings into the deeper parts of the river and everyone is floating down on whatever they have.  Noodles, inflatable rings, boogie boards you name it.  Great fun in 31 degree heat.  We have a video of us floating down we will upload it when we get home.

Monday 23rd July 2018 Today we had a look around Mount Isa.  This town is definitely dominated by the huge enormous massive mine.  Coming down the main road from Cloncurry  (QLD towards NT) you are faced with the mine and its main stack straight in front of you standing tall over the town. Other than the mine there isn't much else in town.  We visited the Outback at Isa center and learnt more about the area and about the deserted town of Mary Kathleen that we had visited yesterday. You can't do a tour of the actual working mine but you can do a tour of a mock mine called the Hard Time Mine.  We decided not to do the tour so in the afternoon we visited Lake Moondarra which is a man made dam to supply water to the mine and town.  It is a very quiet relaxing area and was a great place to soak up the sun.  28 degrees today 30 tomorrow. 

Sunday 22nd July 201 Today we traveled north again and we are currently in Mount Isa.  On our way we went to the Walkabout Hotel which is the pub that they filmed Crocodile Dundee.  Out the front they have the cars from the film and the original bar from the film is out back. We then went to Mary Kathleen which is an old Uranium Mine and deserted town.  You can free camp in the remains of the town but we continued on to Mount Isa. The drive in to the mine starts out as a very badly maintained road and turns into a 4wd track.  I drove in Nick would be proud of me.  Not a hard 4wd track but still good fun for a beginner like me.  We will be looking around Mount Isa tomorrow before heading off on Tuesday.

Saturday 21st July 2018 Today with our legs feeling more like normal we continued north and stopped in at the Age of Dinosaurs in Winton.  We thought this would be a quick stop but we were wrong.  This place is brilliant.  The park is set up high on a jump-up and is the perfect setting for the dinosaur exhibits.  This is a fairly new attraction and they have a big vision for future expansion.  It is already very impressive and we can only imagine what it will be like in the future. The park is set into three zones with a new zone already in planning.  The first zone we went to was the Fossil Laboratory tour.  This is where they show you how they remove the fossils from the ground and wrap them for travel and then how they are cleaned.  You can watch the technicians actually working on cleaning the fossils and if you are really interested you can do a ten day course and become an honoary technician and you are then able to work in the lab cleaning and preparing the fossil

Friday 20th July 2018 Yesterday my ankles were sore, today my whole legs are sore so we didn't do much walking today.  We left Canarvan Gorge and drove to Barcaldine where we are free camping just on the outskirts of town.  We have phone reception again so its great to catch up with the family and watch the Tigers thrash St Kilda.  Pretty cruisy day looked at some nice shops in Springsure and had a pie at Anakie. We played road Trivia along the Capricorn Highway (Signs placed along the highway with trivia questions and hints to keep you alert along a boring stretch of road) and saw lots of termite mounds dressed up in t-shirts and beanies. In Barcaldine we visited the Tree of Knowledge.  It is an impressive structure on the site of the 1891 Great Shearers Strike site. The original tree that the shearers met under to strike for better work conditions has since died but the roots of the original tree can be seen under a glass floor and a wooden str

Thursday 19th July 2018 Woke up this morning and the ankles are pretty sore but we have a few more spots we want to check out so we lace up our boots and continue on.  Today we did the Mickey Creek walk.  I really liked this walk.  The walk goes along Mickey Creek and you can also do a side trek to Warrumbah Bluff.  This was my favourite spot.  Once the formed track finishes you can continue on a rough track climbing over rocks and walking along fallen tree stumps until you come to a narrow gorge that is like being in a tunnel except the sky is above you the cliffs are just really high on either side of you.  It is really fun being able to get off the main track and explore the area without being confined to staying on a track. I will post some pictures but like all the images I have take at Carnarvon Gorge they don't do justice to the scale of this awesome place.  They say a picture tells a thousand words but in this case a photo just doesn't do the area justice.

Today we did the main walking track.  You walk down the center of the gorge crossing the river 6 times.  It is a fairly easy walk and you then walk down side tracks to see various attractions.  We visited the main four.   The first side track was to the Art Gallery.  This is where you can view Aboriginal Art on the sandstone walls.  The second trail led to Wards Canyon.  A lovely trail that leads to a waterfall and then you climb steps up over the water fall and into a beautiful canyon.         The Third trail led us to The Amphitheatre.  This one was the hardest for me as I had to climb these steps up into the amphitheatre.  It is higher than it looks in the photo and it wasn't climbing the steps that was the problem it was the height.  Anyway I did it and it was well worth the mental anguish.  Once you are at the top of the stairs you enter through a small gap in the gorge walls and then a huge chamber emerges. The last trail we did was to the Moss G

Wednesday 18th July 2018 We have now arrived at Carnarvon Gorge.  The road in to the gorge is blacktop all the way making the drive in easy except for the cows that are all over the road. Driving into the gorge you pass a WWII memorial of a plane that crashed in the area.  Its a good spot to break your drive in. Today we hit the trails and walked 17.8 kms.  Walked not drove. It was very nice and we were doing really well until the last 5 kms when our legs started to really ache.  Nice and warm up here 23 degrees but still cold at night luckily we have power here so we are running the heater at night We have been lucky to see the platypus in the river nearby.