25 Sep 10 - Longreach

By Craig: The Stockman’s Hall of Fame is a magnificent place full of history and information of a by-gone era. We were a tough breed back in the old days, work and life was hard and not an opportunity to do another man a favour was missed, a hard but good life in deed.








Go the Pies. What a match, a nail biter right to the end and with both teams on my favourite list how could I choose a winner! Well as it turned out I didn’t need to as the game was a draw. YeeeHaaa!




The game may have been over but our fun was about to start. Queensland is known for its storms and the one that hit us this night was no exception. Dark sky in the distance quickly became strong gusting winds and heavy rain right on top of us. You get that eerie sense as the sky darkens, the air becomes still and then as the sound of gushing wind approaches the word that comes to mind is ‘Shit’ as you run to save the camper tent from blowing back over itself. Well on this occasion a neighbour having seen our tent lift as the wind hit, stood and held our awning down until we got there. Bugger I was having such a good time at the after game drinks, playing pool and dissecting each quarter with the other experts and then found myself mopping water out of a tent.

24 Sep 10 - Winton

By Lou: There were a couple of things I wanted to see in Winton – the Waltzing Matilda museum and a collection of dinosaur fossils discovered relatively recently.
















Time was against us so we skipped the museum (Sam had covered that bit of Oz literature in school. Tick.) and headed out to the Age of Dinosaurs facility out of town.


















It was interesting to learn that locals had discovered new species of dinosaurs and to see the painstaking work taken to separate bones from dirt.




By Craig: Other than the road into Winton being long and dry, I didn’t know what to expect going from an add suggesting that new dinosaur fossils had made the town of Winton famous.
My one and only experience in the town of Winton was not a pleasant one as my father in law at the time, Jimmy, had passed away and help was required to return a car and caravan back home.

However this time I was pleasantly surprised and very interested in my visit to see some of the most unique fossil ever found in Australia.

23 Sep 10 - Mt Isa

By Lou: There wasn’t anything in particular that I wanted to do or see in Mt Isa, I just wanted to see it. Fortunately a lookout was provided to do just that.










I made Sam promise he’d hold off eating the soil , we took our photos, and then motored on out of there.







By Craig: We had one overnight stop on the way to Mt Isa. Fountain Springs, not much to say about that except as it was much like any other road side rest stop.











We had crossed the boarder into Queensland and were making tracks back to Ipswich.









Back on the road and heading to Isa it became obvious that the nights road kill was being cleaned up by Eagles. Frequently we would approach and have to slow down due to the stubbornness of the bird leading to a very slow take off. One particular Eagle left its run too late attempting to get its fill before take off it needed two hops to get airborne but unfortunately we collected it as it made a mid flight turn 3foot off the ground and straight into the front of our vehicle.





Large birds such as Eagles hit hard and as we pulled up looking back at the bird spread eagle on the bitumen (Pardon the pun) a trail of broken glass and plastic lay scattered across the road. Cruiser 1 with damage Eagle 0

21 Sep 10 - Mataranka

By Lou: Given we had limited time in Mataranka (just an overnighter) we got the heads up from Deb and Luke as to which of the artesian springs to visit, and headed to Bitter Springs.




You jump in the water at one point and float about 100m along to an exit point. It was quite warm and slimy bottomed and stank of moss but was fun.




















By Craig: The road into Mataranka was dry and smokey with controlled burning happening along the roadside.











Not much to do here, I say, except for a quick walk around the Barra Dam. Nice Barra!












The resident Peacock was in fine form trying to attract a hen playing hard to get.







Well you could take Sam and go cane toad collecting, says Louise. Cane toads, I say. What the…!



Ok, so we had a ball collecting toads. Sam donned the gloves and I grabbed the torch and bag.











I spotted the toad, held the torch light on it and Sam jumped into action: 50 toads and Sam got the certificate to prove it.






A great night out, hey Sam!?

20 Sep 10 – Litchfield National Park

By Lou: We boldly camped right next to Sam’s buddies at Wangi Falls campground in Litchfield National Park. Luke and Deb, and their gorgeous boys Jake, Harley, Indie and Taya hail from a brussel sprout farm in SA and were great company.












The numerous waterfalls accessible by bitumen were nice but overcrowded with tourists.









We headed off together on a 4WD track to Surprise Creek Falls and were rewarded with minimal traffic and lots of water crossings for the boys to be boys…and girls to record boys being boys.


















Our departure from Litchfield marked a temporary pause in our travel around Australia as we commenced a 3700km bee-line to Ipswich to prepare for our jaunt to Disneyland USA.

As mentioned in an earlier post, 4 years ago we committed to a 3-family expedition to Disneyland USA when young Luka regained good health. That time has arrived and I’m getting quite excited - not about Disneyland or spending quality time with best friends but about the luxury of living in an RV for a week!



By Craig: Certainly Litchfield was a better spot than Kakadu for family camping, great water holes, falls and 4wd-ing.



We were able to catch up with Luke and Deb who we had previously met in Darwin.



We decided to see some of the sights together and tracked out to Surprise Creek Falls. The boys loved crossing a few creeks (even the older ones) and we spent a great deal of time jumping off rock ledges and in general had a great time.














As we tracked about we visited an old homestead located near a disused mine. The displays and stories told of an era when children as young as 9 years old looked after sibblings and went to work in the mine. Ours boys were amazed that children had to work and had little time for play, a sign of the times I thought but I did remember Sam had chores to do, much to his disgust.








We often passed by large ant mounds and the more spectacular in type were the magnetic ant mounds. Almost flat with a razor tooth top they stood 2+ meters tall.








We all had a great time and as we parted ways we suggested our paths may cross again on the east coast, possibly Fraser Island (could be fun).