Well, we've had some very wet, soggy, windy, days here at Boulia! We've trudged through the mud and rain so many times to get to the toilets and showers and the main grandstand that we're all pretty good at mud-skiing. Everyone is still in very good spirits, even though we don't know whether the track will ever dry out for the camels to actually run. Lots of vans and cars are now so encircled by mudholes that there's no point trying to get out anyhow - and all the roads out of Boulia are cut because of rain, so we might as well just make the best of it.
The organisers are doing their very best to make sure that other events are still happening, and trying to provide entertainment in spite of all the problems. The Rock n Roll night still went ahead, and I'm happy to say that we Canberrans were the ONLY people to actually get dressed up in our 50's gear and do a bit of Rock n Roll dancing on the Friday night! We certainly made an entrance, and had a great time. There was another group from Newcastle, I think, that dressed up as Elvises and they were having a good time too. Our little group, together with some of the Camel Riders (all girls) had our photo taken to go in the North West Star newspaper in Mt Isa. We had a ball!
The Camel Races didn't actually run on the Saturday or Sunday, but they did some camel tagging, rodeo events, gumboot throwing and tugs-of-war throughout the weekend, with a really good fireworks display on Saturday night. The organisers finally managed to bring in a grader to clear and grade the track for some races to go ahead on the Monday, so we did actually get to see some of the camels run on Monday morning before we headed to Mt Isa. Trev and I had a bet on the second race, and came second - the odds that the only bookie left at the track was giving were so bad that we bet $10 and won only $6.50! Not a great effort, but we can at least say we had a bet at Boulia Camel Races!
Monday afternoon we split up - Lai and Garry are heading for Winton, Lorraine and Bill are going back to Brisbane, and we are headed for Mt Isa together with Carole and John. However, all the caravan parks were booked up (everybody escaping from Boulia once the road was clear), so we spent the night about 40kms south of Mt Isa on a clearing at the side of the road. We had a good meal, another roaring fire, then arrived in Mt Isa early on Tuesday morning.
We visited 'Outback in Mt Isa' and booked an underground mine tour, then arrived at our caravan park where we caught up on washing before going on the tour. It cost $44 pp (seniors concession) and took a couple of hours. It was very interesting, but probably a bit expensive for what we actually got.
Tomorrow we are heading to Lawn Hill for a couple of days - it's supposed to be beautiful, and the weather has cleared up, so we're looking forward to it.
Bright and early next morning we headed for Bedourie - about 190km of dirt and bitumen. The road was pretty good, with no major problems. We arrived by lunchtime, had lunch opposite the tourist info office, and found out that, to my dismay, the hot artesian springs were closed for cleaning, so no swimming on that day. We tried finding a camping spot at the nearby creek, but it was too difficult for most of us to get into, so we followed Trev's Ozi Explorer map which showed a waterhole a few kilometres out of town - we couldn't find the waterhole but found the racecourse instead. And it had a good-sized shed with electricity, two hot water showers, three sinks and two toilets. So we set up camp around the shed, had a roaring fire, a good meal and hot showers -brilliant!
From Bedourie to Boulia was another couple of hundred kms, on mostly sealed, but some dirt roads. We got all the info we needed at the tourism office, then headed out to the racecourse to set up camp for the next few days. So far there were six of us, but Lai and Garry would be joining us the next day, so we needed to get an area that would support all of us. Boulia had had a bit of rain over the previous few days, so there were some very slushy bits of ground. Anyway, we managed to get a good camp set up, and we're hoping that the rain will hold off, through the forecast is not good.
Garry and Lai arrived next day after 3 months of travelling around QLD and NT, and it's really good to catch up with them. We booked into the local pub for dinner that evening, and I'm happy to say it was a much better experience than at Birdsville. They actually took bookings, and the meals were good country pub meals. We bought some tickets in the meat trays, and Garry won one of the prizes - a good serve of frozen fish, so we'll be having that for dinner tomorrow. It started to rain that evening, and the ground is looking very soggy - so bad that the Camel Races may not even take place ... still waiting to find out.
We travelled on through Windorah after refuelling and stayed the next night around 180 km from Birdsville. We found a nice little spot just off the dirt road behind a few trees to set up camp. While setting up we were entertained by literally hundreds of little green budgies performing an aerial ballet - they would all swoop in one direction, then suddenly turn and head in another direction before breaking up into little groups, going separate directions, then reform into one huge mass. It was fantastic to watch, then they all settled into a couple of trees for a while before taking off again. Nature is wonderful! And we were also treated to a wonderful sunset while keeping warm around our campfire.
Next day we headed for Birdsville, where we finally met up with Lorraine and Bill, who had travelled across from Brisbane. We'd been trying to catch up with them since Quilpie, but couldn't get in contact. We booked into the caravan park for a couple of nights, as we planned to spend at least one night camping in the Simpson Desert, just past the large sand dune named Big Red.
That afternoon we rearranged our vehicles and packed tents, sleeping bags and enough food for a night out in the desert. We set off next morning, leaving our vans behind at the park. The road out to Big Red wasn't too bad, but recent rains had affected the road, and we had to take it easy as Bill and Lorraine had recently bought a Captiva, which was AWD but not 4WD, so they didn't have as much clearance as we did. We got up to what had previously been a river crossing but was now a large lake (Lake Nappanerica) and had a huge detour (a go-around) around the lake to get to Little Red, then on to Big Red. The detour was a bit rough, but the lake was absolutely beautiful, with lots of birdlife, trees in the middle and red algae and vegetation through the water. With the red dunes as a backdrop, it was quite spectacular.
On arrival at Little Red, we watched a few cars drive up, then drove up ourselves and checked out the view. From there we drove around the lake and onto Big Red. We spend a good couple of hours watching vehicles driving up and down both sides of the dune, and clapped and cheered along with everyone else when the vehicles made it to the top, and laughed when they didn't. It was great fun, and everyone was having a good time. While there, we bumped into the local member for the area, Bruce Scott - Trevor and I had both driven him several times in Canberra in our jobs as Comcar drivers, so we had a chat with him.
We found a spot to camp (believe it or not, in tents!) between the beautiful sparkling lake in the foreground and Big Red in the background. Couldn't have picked a better spot - and it was free. We climbed Big Red to watch the sunset with a glass of champagne, then cooked dinner and had a roaring fire that evening. What a great day.
Next morning we packed up, then Carole & John, Bill and Lorraine headed back towards Birdsville while Trev and I drove up and down Big Red a couple of times - and yes, I drove up and down it myself. Woohoo! The good old Rangie conquered Big Red. We followed the road on the other side of the dune to go back around Little Red and caught up with Carole & John to head back to Birdsville. Our car and new caravan are now looking very dusty and dirty - red sand and dust caked onto every surface.
When we got back to town Trev and I popped into the Birdsville Bakery for a curried camel pie and a kangaroo and claret pie for lunch. A young man and a film crew walked in, and I realised it was Tom Williams from 'Dancing with the Stars' and 'The Great Outdoors' - they were filming a segment on Birdsville for 'The Great Outdoors', and we ended up being in the background while Tom was ordering his curried camel pie - so now we're famous!
That evening we all went over to the Birdsville Hotel for dinner - well, that was a bit of a mistake. On our last trip out here we had had a really good meal, so thought we'd do it again. When we went to order a meal (you can't book, you just have to turn up and hope you get fed), we were told it would be around an hour and a half wait for our meal. Well, over 2 hours later we were finally served. I know they had a busy night, they must have had a couple of hundred people there, but this was ridiculous. And our food was not great! Lorraine's was cold, mine was overcooked and they'd run out of mashed potatoes and veges, so I got the last remnants of curly chips and about six peas - not impressed at all. Won't do that again! People at the next table to us had ordered at the same time, and two of them were fed around the same time as us, but the other two had still not received their meals as we were leaving. Very poor.
Next stop - Bedourie then on to Boulia for the Camel Races.
This trip will be our first in our new Paramount Duet Expander caravan. We purchased it a few weeks ago from Canterbury Caravans in Bayswater, Victoria, and we're really happy with it so far.
The plan is to travel up to Birdsville with Carole and John, where we'll meet up with Lorraine and Bill, then on to the Boulia Camel Races where Lai and Garry will join us. From there, we are heading to Karumba, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, then on to Townsville and back home.
We left on 1 July and spent our first night in Lake Cargelligo. We stayed at the caravan park for only $20 per night for a powered site. They had a good fire going at the camp kitchen area, and we certainly needed the heat. I'm sure that Lake Cargelligo would be a nice place to stay in good weather, but while we were walking around the town it started to rain, and it felt like needles of ice piercing my face.... bitterly cold.
Next morning, we were off to Louth, where Trev has previously spent many hours with his fishing buddies not catching fish. We had been there before with Bill and Lorraine, and stayed at a free camp on the banks of the Darling River. We set up camp in the same spot, then went up to Shindy's Inn, the local pub, for a drink and a bit of local knowledge in regards to the road conditions etc. Apparently all the roads we are planning to travel on are in pretty good condition at the moment, so things are looking good. It was still very cold in Louth, and my little hot water bottle came in very handy. Trev threw in his yabby net, and managed to catch a grand total of 3 yabbies - we felt sorry for them, so released them to live another day.
From Louth we travelled up to Hungerford, which is just over the border into Queensland. On the way, John had a bit of an altercation with a large emu - didn't do any damage to the car, but the emu definitely came off second best. He had badly broken one of his legs and was unable to get up on his feet - poor John had to put him out of his misery, which wasn't pleasant.
We refuelled in Hungerford, then onto the Currawinya National Park on the Paroo River. It was a beautiful spot, we found a camp right on the river and decided to stay for 2 nights. There was plentiful birdlife around the waterhole, and it was very pleasant sitting on the riverbank with a drink, a good meal, and watching the sunset and moonrise. There are some shearers' quarters and a huge shearing shed (with some machinery) in very good condition, as well as ruins of a couple of homesteads in the park, so there's plenty to look at.
On the second day we travelled up to the two large lakes in the park, Lake Numalla (freshwater) and Lake Wyara (saltwater). Both lakes were quite different - Numalla was almost yellow, and Wyara was blue, with a huge pelican colony on banks in the middle of the lake. Wyara is the breeding ground for the pelicans and other waterbirds, and there must have been thousands of adults and chicks on these banks. It was a wonderful sight. In the late afternoon we drove from the lakes to a rocky outcrop called 'The Granites' - gorgeous red rocks which we climbed up for a great view over the national park. It really is a lovely park, and hasn't been 'over-sanitised' which is what seems to happen to a lot of national parks in New South Wales - they have too many rules and regulations which are really designed to keep travellers out, rather than welcome them in.
From Currawinya we travelled north and stopped at a tiny town called Toompine (population 3) - it's tagline is 'The Pub with no Town'. It literally is just the pub, but offers free camping to travellers, obviously on the premise that if you are staying there you will probably have a meal or a drink at the pub. This is something that a lot of little outback pubs are doing to stay alive and works very well. While having lunch there we were chatting with the publican and another couple mentioned that they were going on to Quilpie - she said that if we wanted to stay at the caravan park we should book ahead as it was filling up fast. I said we were planning on staying there too, so she phoned the park and booked four sites for us all - pretty good service, but nothing out of the ordinary for country people. They all work with each other out here, which is a great thing to see.
We arrived at Quilpie caravan park, set up, then booked in for a cooked meal around the camp kitchen - $15 for silverside, veggies, white sauce and damper, together with a singalong around the campfire. Great fun, and a good way to meet other travellers and have a chat and a drink.
So far on our travels we've learned the following things:
- make sure you close and test all cupboard doors and fridge door before setting off (had a couple of drawers pop open and spill contents onto the floor, but nothing too drastic)
- red dust will find it's way inside, no matter how airtight you think your van is
- watch out for emus - we've decided that the collective noun for emus is: 'a stupidity of emus' - because they have a body the size of motorbike and a brain the size of a gnat, and if they see a car they will actually aim for it instead of running the opposite direction
- double-check all your instruments - especially the one that tells you whether your watertank is full or empty (we ran out of water even though Trev was positive he'd totally filled the tank). But the meter showed we were out of water and it was correct!
Tomorrow we're heading for just past Windorah then onto Birdsville to meet Lorraine and Bill.
Well, we've had some very wet, soggy, windy, days here at Boulia! We've trudged through the mud and rain so many times to get to the toilets and showers and the main grandstand that we're all pretty good at mud-skiing. Everyone is still in very good spirits, even though we don't know whether the track will ever dry out for the camels to actually run. Lots of vans and cars are now so encircled by mudholes that there's no point trying to get out anyhow - and all the roads out of Boulia are cut because of rain, so we might as well just make the best of it.
The organisers are doing their very best to make sure that other events are still happening, and trying to provide entertainment in spite of all the problems. The Rock n Roll night still went ahead, and I'm happy to say that we Canberrans were the ONLY people to actually get dressed up in our 50's gear and do a bit of Rock n Roll dancing on the Friday night! We certainly made an entrance, and had a great time. There was another group from Newcastle, I think, that dressed up as Elvises and they were having a good time too. Our little group, together with some of the Camel Riders (all girls) had our photo taken to go in the North West Star newspaper in Mt Isa. We had a ball!
