14/07/11 12.8oC at 7am. 5 Brolgas in the main street of Kynuna. Drove all the way through to Mt Isa, checked out the lookout, our old house (which is up for sale), Townview State School (where I went for most of my primary), and went out to
Lake Moondarra to have a bbq dinner. Lots of birds, including a firekite in her nest feeding her young.
Light rain all night.
15/07/11 Woke up late as it was dark because of the cloud cover. Went into ID in Mt Isa to do the training presentation. On the road to Camooweal was a memorial to the men who constructed the original highway during WWII.
Camooweal Caves National Park – sinkholes in the dolomite. Nowranie Caves – beautiful orange colours in the stone, can be up to 75m deep, with unstable edges. Apparently at least 80 of them, but we saw only 2.
Waterhole – lots of birds, we counted at least 19 species, including an owl, flocks of darting budgerigars, corellas, willy wagtails, firekites, quail, galahs, pee-wees, a falcon, apostlebirds, ducks, a couple of varieties of waders and bustards. Strangely, none of the finches featured on the National Parks sign.
Mud mounds around the edge, maybe yabbies, or there are remains of small crabs. Only one other couple, Vanessa and Tim, from Newcastle. You know you are in the outback when everything is covered in fine red dust, and you have to start doing the Aussie Salute!
16/07/11 Such a nice spot, decided to stay another day. A very relaxing day sitting by the waterhole, watching all the birds, going for a short walk and reading. With all the corellas nesting in the trees, and 'talking' all night long, this should be called Corella Waterhole. Darryl baked delicious gluten-free bread. The neighbourhood went downhill fast when several other campers arrived towards evening.
17/07/11 Back through Camooweal – the most expensive fuel so far - $1.859/l for diesel. A long, (448km), straight, boring road through to The Three Ways, right turn north, and then another 50-odd kms until a designated camping rest area. 130Km/h speed limit in NT. Lots of lovely wildflowers and plenty of other campers. A good nights rest despite the B-double trucks roaring past during the night.
18/07/11 Another long day of driving. Saw some wedge-tail eagles, red-tailed black cockatoos, and purple-flowering Turkey Bush. Fuel $1.96/l at Daly Waters. Had a look at historic Elsey Cemetery, where many of the characters from 'We of the Never Never' are buried. Arrived Elsey National Park – near Mataranka – very nice oasis. A lovely waterfall to have a spa under, and then free hot showers (solar powered). The only bad thing is the Aedes egyptii mosquitos.
19/07/11 4Km walk to Mataranka Falls on the Roper River – fed by springs. Very interesting trek with lots of unusual plants and strange decomposing limestone rock – precipitated calcium carbonate (tufa), so looks like it was once caves which have broken up. A bower-bird nest with lots of shells. Walking through flocks of black and white butterflies. Darryl had a few casts to see if he could catch a barramundi, but no luck. Got back to camp around 1.45, then had lunch and a quiet time until 4 when we went for another waterfall spa. All night long the peace and quiet was broken by a donkey almost screaming out (we now believe she had lost her foal).
10/7/11 Packed up and drove out to Mickey's Creek Gorge, which was a small side gorge, quite narrow with lots of rock-hopping, plenty of ferns and running water, an even more spectacular gorge went off beside it which was extremely narrow, and had mosses draped down its vertical walls.
We had to have our feet and hands either side of the gorge at one stage to avoid the water, but stopped before we had to take off our shoes, as the water was freezing cold. A bit further along the road was Baloon Cave, another rock-art site, which was a bit disappointing.
We camped the night at Springsure, meeting a very interesting couple, who had a really well set up 4x4 and had travelled extensively in Australia as well as overseas. Very spectacular sunset with the light on the escarpment.
11/07/11 4.1oC at 6.30am Went to the lookout at Minerva National Park, overlooking Springsure, for a really spectacular view from the lookout, also an interesting gorge (Fred's Gorge). Then we drove back through Springsure, to get photos of the rock faces.
We went looking for the Wills Graves and instead of going the signed way, went along the Emerald road to come back on them. This gave us more bitumen as this road went past some mines, but we missed the turn, Mt Helmet Road, and ended up at a property. Eventually we found the turnoff to the graves, and were surprised to find our camping companions, having just been pulled out of a black soil creek bog by a local farmer with his Prado. We all walked to the graves, where 19 Europeans were killed by aboriginals in 1861.
Many aboriginals were killed in retribution, and although stories vary, it could have been up to 200. Found a gravel pit along the road to Longreach, where other travellers had pulled up, for the night.
12/07/11 2.5oC at 6.45am Wedgetail Eagle on roadkill. Very cold in Jerico. Emus. Longreach for lunch, and a laundromat. Paddock full of camels. Winton then Bladensburg National Park. Lots and lots of wallabies, and a couple of emus. Nice camping spot despite the dry and desolate landscape. A nice sunset picked out the reds in the leaves around us, and in the east the sky was a deep blue with a pink band. After dinner went for a moonlight walk along the dried up creek bed, of Surprise Creek. Spotlighting only found lots of wolfspider eyes gleaming back from the moist edges of the remaining pools.
13/07/11 11oC at 6.30am. 100Km of red bulldust to Lark Quarry to see the dinosaur stampede fossilised footprints. Brilliant! Went on the 90min walk around the conservation park. Red rock jumpups, brightly coloured tiny dragons, black glassy ironstone, red, white and yellow rocks. Tiny white, and purple flowers, green spiny spinifex. Caves in the red rocks where wallabies sleep.
On the way back to Winton, 4 brolgas on the side of the road.
Butchers with Chilli and Capsicum sausages, and old-fashioned cured salami and ham. Lots more emus in paddocks, some cattle, sheep and goats. Lots of roadtrains heading south, many grey nomads in all directions. Combo Waterhole Conservation Park on the Diamantina – nearly 30 fire-kites around the trees, going to sleep to the sound of galahs which had roosted for the night.
This is the waterhole which is the origin of Waltzing Matilda. A bit of an exciting night with gusting winds eventually lifting off our tent-cover. Got up to put it on, in time to see a magnificent glowing orange moon-set.
